Complied by Mr Church as general editor, the 467-page book, which is accompanied by 32 pages containing 96 illustrations, provides "Historical Records of Otago's Eastern Coast 1770-1839".
This work contains what its organisers term "a remarkable collection of contemporary records of early European explorations, sealing and whaling, interaction with resident Kai Tahu Maori population along Otago's eastern coast, and as far north as Banks Peninsula and to Stewart Island in the south".
Included are Maori sources, archaeological records, logs, journals, reminiscences of explorers, sealers, flax-gatherers and whalers, court cases, old land claims, newspaper and shipping reports.
Many of the early records had come from the Hocken Library's collections, but they had been "hugely expanded by documentation from Hobart, Sydney and elsewhere to provide the most comprehensive coverage of Otago history before the establishment of the first European settlement at Waikouaiti in 1840", organisers said.
The book's cover features a photograph of HM Bark Endeavour, taken by Otago Daily Times illustrations editor Stephen Jaquiery, off the Otago coast in 1996.
This craft is a replica of the vessel in which the then Lieutenant James Cook made the first known European contact with New Zealand's southeastern coast, in early 1770.
The book was published by the Friends of the Hocken Collections Inc.
Mr Church said the early history of Otago's eastern coast had previously lacked "any general survey" to match works dealing with Foveaux Strait and Fiordland, including by Southland historian and politician Robert McNab (1864-1917).
This compilation of documents concerns mainly European activity in the period of contact with Kai Tahu and Kati Mamoe along the eastern coast of Otago.
"I think it shows that we had a lot more history than we had ever suspected," Mr Church said.
The history of European links with the eastern coast went back not only far beyond the founding of the Otago province by European settlers in 1848 but also well before the establishment of a European trading station in Otago by the Wellers, a Sydney-based family of merchant adventurers, in 1831, he said.
Some early histories had focused on whaling activity in Foveaux Strait and Fiordland, and had not acknowledged that an Otago whaling station was "by far the biggest and most successful" in the country in the 1830s.
Some of the history of early European links with the Otago coast had previously been "seen through a glass darkly" and publishing contemporary historical records had "lightened the glass in a way", he said.
The book helps clarify some matters both large and small, pointing out, for example, that Cook had formally named Cape Saunders, on the seaward side of Otago Peninsula, in 1770, in honour of Sir Charles Saunders.
However, contrary to the popular view, Cook did not formally "name" Saddle Hill, although in his log for Sunday, February 25, 1770, he noted there was "remarkable Saddle hill laying near the shore", southwest of the cape.
Mr Church said that early links between European people and Maori in the southeast South Island well before the arrival of the missionaries had often been overlooked by the writers of New Zealand histories.
He hoped the book would not only highlight the history of the southeast coast but also help draw attention to the historical treasures held in the Hocken Library.
The book was published as a memorial to the late David Charles McDonald, reference librarian at the Hocken Library for 26 years until his death in 2000.
Stuart Strachan, former Hocken librarian, said Mr McDonald had gained a "national reputation" among historical researchers for his "immensely detailed knowledge of New Zealand resources and for his extraordinary helpfulness and unfailing courtesy to researchers of every kind".
• The book's technical editor was Paul Sorrell.
