Roderick Finlayson (1904–1992) was born in Auckland but spent much of his young life among Māori in the Bay of Plenty before buying a house in Weymouth on the Manukau Harbour where he would spend the rest of his life. His early stories were of Māori losing their land and culture to the rapacious settler culture. His first collection of stories, Brown Man’s Burden, was published in 1938, followed in 1942 by Sweet Beulah Land. Many of his stories appeared in the Sydney journal The Bulletin and the episodic novel Tidal Creek was published in Australia by Angus & Robertson in 1948. Another novel, The Schooner Came to Atia was published in 1952. 1965 saw the publication of The Springing Fern, an episodic historical novel for children based on a series of Primary School Bulletins. Finlayson's monograph on D'Arcy Cresswell came out in 1972, followed in 1973 by an expanded version of Brown Man's Burden. Finlayson published two further collections of stories: Other Lovers in 1976 and In Georgina's Shady Garden in 1988.