Who's Who in New Zealand

This was the first of a series of publications containing biographies compiled and edited by Scholefield, and it formed the basis for his later book Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, published in two volumes in 1940.

There was no attempt made by Scholefield to make the Who's Who representative of New Zealand society.

[3] From the third edition, the books contain an obituary section, listing those who were included in the previous section but have since died, plus those whose inclusion was intended but who died prior to publication of the next issue.

When Alister Taylor began working on his own version of the book, he was taken to court by Reed Publishing, which held the rights to the publication.

They settled out of court and Taylor published the first volume of New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa in 1992.