Need advice on baking up files

[Jamie Dobbs]

I would like to set up a simple "backup script" that will tar/gzip the 
contents of the ~/Maildir directories of several users on one of my 
Linux boxes.
What is the best way to do this so that I preserve ownership/groups etc. 
so that when I need to restore it is a trivial process? Keep in mind 
that each ~/Maildir can have multiple hidden sub-directories.

Cheers
Jamie