This issue is devoted to the publication of a doctoral thesis by Dr. David McKenzie, one of New Zealand's leading educational historians. The research in this essay was completed over 30 years ago. Inevitably, the standpoint from which it was written has altered with the passage of time. No one then, for example, could have predicted the strength of the monetarist philosophy which was to sweep western education systems in the late 20th century. The research in this essay, which covers the founding years of the Otago Education Board, demonstrates how educational policy achievements, disappointments, and outright failures were experienced in what at that time was the most populous province in New Zealand and the heartland of its mercantile life. This issue is a detailed account of the way in which the Otago Education Board went about its business in the period 1877-1900. The research shows what the Board learned as a statutory provider of public schooling in Otago, how and why its attitudes and policies changed over that period, and how the board contributed to national policy development as well as being a servant of regional needs. It is not a simplistic story of rise to greatness. Often, it is a story of muddle, temper tantrums, and disappointment; a story which indeed can be read as a cautionary tale to those persons who are tempted to identify radical discontinuity "per se" as educational progress. Following an editorial by Clive Whitehead, the following chapters are included: (1) Introduction; (2) Education in the Otago Province prior to 1877; (3) The 1877 Act and the Otago Education Board 1877-1879; (4) Consolidation in the Face of Retrenchment 1880-1884; (5) The Board on the Defence 1885-1889; (6) The Dawn of Socialism and the Beginning of Educational Reform 1890-1894; (7) The Board Accepts the Trend Towards Centralisation 1895-1900; and (8) The Board in Retrospect 1877-1899. Contains a bibliography and a list of appendices not included in this work.