Elsdon 1856-1931 Best

Elsdon Best (1856–1931) was a pioneering New Zealand ethnographer and self-educated scholar who made foundational contributions to the study of Māori culture through his extensive monographs and bulletins. After working as a farm laborer, soldier, sawmiller, and health inspector, he became the government ethnographer at the Dominion Museum in Wellington, where he compiled over 50 volumes on traditional Māori society until his death. He is widely regarded as a 'white tohunga' (expert) on Māori matters and was a founding member of the Polynesian Society.