Jasper Buse papers related to Cook Islands Maori dictionary.

Buse, Jasper. Cook Islands Maori dictionary by Jasper Buse with Raututi Taringa; edited by Bruce Biggs and Rangi Moeka’a. [Rarotonga] : Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands, 1995.

Published by the Ministry of Education, Government of the Cook Islands; the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; the Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific; the Centre for Pacific Studies, University of Auckland; Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.

Work on the dictionary began in 1957. Raututi Taringa, a teacher in the Cook Islands was employed by London University to assist Dr Jasper Buse of the School of Oriental and African Studies in the compilation. Taringa remained in London for two years. In 1960 Dr Buse visited Rarotonga to check the work with local people, and subsequently published four papers on the structure of the Rarotongan language.

Jasper Buse died in 1985 when the dictionary was almost completed up to the letter K, the remainder consisting of a typescript draft. Professor Bruce Biggs of the Maori Studies Department, University of Auckland was asked by the School of Oriental and African Studies to recommend an editor to finish the work. He decided to undertake the task himself.