Ian Clarke

Genre:

  • Adult Fiction

Skills:

  • Novelist

Branch:

Auckland

Location:

Orewa

Publications:

Edward Constable, Settler

A biography of one of New Zealand’s first settlers. Edward Constable was one of New Zealand’s first settlers. He came from humble beginnings in Kent, and like many of the first settlers; he set out with nothing more than a dream of a better life. In the 1850s he built the Kentish Hotel, an historic hotel with the record for the longest serving liquor licence in New Zealand. During the 1860s his three flax mills became a crucial source of employment at a time of vast unemployment and poverty. He sailed to San Francisco and twice visited England, but the second trip ended in tragedy with the death of one of his daughters and he never returned. He led an interesting life, but behind his public persona there was something Edward had kept hidden for 30 years - a serious criminal offence, that, had it been discovered, could have cost him his reputation, his livelihood and above all, his freedom.

A Promising Start; Dudley Sinclair and New Zealand's First Settlers

Dudley Sinclair arrived as a member of the New Zealand Company on one of the first five ships bringing settlers to New Zealand. While other New Zealand Company men became immortalised in New Zealand history, Sinclair has been overlooked by historians. As an entrepreneur, he started the first brick-making business in Wellington, a newspaper and steam mill in Auckland, was a shipowner and merchant, with copper mines on Kawau and Waiheke Islands, and was the first New Zealander to sail to China and Manila. Shortly before his death he had been challenged to a duel and horsewhipped. Someone was out to get him, he told the High Sheriff of Auckland. The next morning, he was found dead with his throat cut. It was assumed he had committed suicide. This could be the oldest cold-case in New Zealand history. Whilst this book is a biography of Dudley Sinclair, it also interweaves his story with the challenges endured by settlers during the early years of colonisation.