Reviews: New Zealand Atlas

The review describes I. Wards’s 1976 New Zealand Atlas as the second edition of the Descriptive Atlas of New Zealand, with completely revised text and newly prepared maps except for two retained maps. It highlights multidisciplinary research, mapping by the Department of Crown Lands and Survey’s Cartographic Branch, expert thematic texts, photographs of landforms, flora and fauna, and binding “guards” that allow double-page maps to lie flat. The reviewer praises the general cartographic standard and the balance of maps, text and photographs, while criticizing discontinuous topographic tints, inconsistent hydrographic colours and dark climatic-map colours that hinder interpretation or obscure detail. The atlas is recommended for courses on New Zealand geography and for libraries.