Kelly Leslie

Leslie Kelly - 1959

Kelly was a Maori amateur ethnologist with a strong interest in linking tradition and historical events to sites, and recording those sites. He authored a long series of articles in the Journal of the Polynesian Society mostly about particular pa.

His book Marion Dufresne at the Bay of Islands (1951 A H and A W Reed, Wellington) strongly links archaeological sites to the historical narrative of that early European visit.

His other book: Tainui: The Story of Hoturoa and his Descendants (1949, Polynesian Society Memoir No. 25, Wellington) is much more controversial. Michael King (1977:237-8) accuses him of plagarising the work of Pei Te Hurinui Jones and obtaining Te Puea's endorsement in a preface to the book by deception. Pei's work eventualy appeared in Jones and Biggs (1995)

Obituary: Anon. 1959, Leslie G Kelly - Te Putu. Journal of the Polynesian Society, 68(2):59-60.

Jones, P T H and B Biggs, 1995 Nga Iwi O Tainui. The Traditional History of the Tainui People. Auckland University Press, Auckland.

King, M 1977 Te Puea, A Biography. Hodder and Stroughton, Auckland.