Overview

Few people have lived a more adventurous life than Timaru's early pioneer George Richard Meredith. He goes to sea at eleven, falls from the rigging, and rescues a princess. Then he is shipwrecked and lost at sea for a week. During this time, he and fourteen other men in the longboat, narrowly escape death by eating his beloved dog. He is rescued and shipwrecked once more. He signs on with a ship to America but is bullied and runs away when it reaches the port. After more sea adventures he arrives in Australia. Gold fever is running high, so George and a mate run off to the gold fields. Things are going well until George has trouble with his eyes and a doctor advises him to go to New Zealand for his health's sake. When he arrives in Lyttleton he finds work chopping wood in Kaiapoi, and helps build the Sumner Road. After a series of jobs pit-sawing, he meets a girl on the Lyttleton docks and marries her the next day. He shifts his elderly parents to Timaru, and continues carving a living out of the bush near Geraldine. Later in life he builds the first lime kiln in Kakahu, and attempts to float a coal mining venture. In 1913 at seventy-nine he leaves us a written record of his life. This first-hand account of the nineteenth century as seen by George Richard Meredith, is a slice of maritime history, and a fascinating glimpse into early New Zealand.

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9781925888645

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Wendy Hamilton is George Richard's great, great, granddaughter. She comes down through the line of his youngest son John, whose son was Frank. Frank was the father of Shirley, Wendy's mother. George Meredith's manuscript fell into Wendy's hands through Shirley's cousin Rex Livingstone. What makes the writing of this book so significant to Wendy, is prior to this she knew nothing of the Meredith branch of the family, other than they came from Timaru. Although Shirley remembers her father faithfully writing to his parents every week, he never once spoke of them. The one thing we do know, is the marriage was not a happy one like George and Jessie's marriage, for it ended in separation. To discover a forefather as adventurous and brave as George has been a delight for Wendy. His voice comes out strong and cheerful in his writing. To find he was a man who trusted God was like uncovering buried treasure. This is the first historical book Wendy has worked on and she hopes it won't be her last. Through it she has discovered she loves researching history. She and her husband, Ian, and four children live in New South Wales Australia.

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