The Good Citizen

The illegitimate baby of an Anglo-Irish aristocrat, Tom Ryan and his family were banished from Ireland to the far ends of the earth: New Zealand. He went on to score the first points for the first All Blacks rugby team and have a huge influence on the development of tourism services in Taupo. He became a distinguished artist, creating rare sketches of the controversial Maori warrior Te Kooti, and he married the daughter of a Maori chief. He won one of the first inter-colonial yachting contests and became director of a mining company. The Good Citizen paints a vivid and intimate portrait of early colonial New Zealand and the people who made up its society.