Kerry Howe

I didn't read this title word for word (in fact, I basically skipped the sunken continents theory chapter) but it's definitely interesting in that you get the current accepted answers to Pacific Island settlement and a look at the 200 year history of researching (ok, that's generous for some of the wackadoo ideas but you get what I mean) the settlement pattern of the last habitable lands on earth.

At the turn of the century Edward Tregear was one of NZ's most prominent citizens and widely published intellectuals. He was an acclaimed authority in Maori and Polynesian studies. This biography traces his career from his youth as an anguished exiled Briton in the 1860s to his position as an eminent figure singing the praises of what he called the progressive 'national culture' that he helped to create in New Zealand.