Fire on the Clay: Pakeha Comes to West Auckland by Dick Scott

West Auckland, the region extending over the Waitakere Ranges to the surging Tasman Sea, is rich in history and blessed with rare natural beauty. It has contributed many colourful strands to the tapestry of New Zealand life. It was a land of kauri - and of smoke and flame as that land was "cleared"; it was the scene of one of the most flagrant early land swindles; it saw the early struggles of the settlers and those who worked with clay, and the beginnings of what became one of New Zealand's biggest industrial enterprises.