Westland: The Journal of John Hillary Emigrant to New Zealand 1879. This item is unavailable.Westland: The Journal of John Hillary Emigrant to New Zealand 1879

In 1879, John Hillary, a shopkeeper in the small north-eastern town of Tow Law, County Durham, who held strong religious beliefs, was persuaded by a clergyman acting on behalf of the New Zealand government that a much better life awaited him and his family in that country. He decided to emigrate and, accompanied by his wife and six young children, he departed England aboard a clipper ship called "Westland".

Arriving in Christchurch after a long and eventful voyage, John and his family soon grew disillusioned with their new life, mainly because they struggled to find work and occasionally faced hostility from the locals. Six months later, they decided to return to England, this time travelling on a steamer which took them through the recently opened Suez Canal. This journey also offered the family some exciting and poignant moments.

Throughout the entire period, John diligently kept a journal that vividly and compellingly depicts the lives and adventures of emigrants in late Victorian times, both on board ship and during the depression they faced in New Zealand at that time.

A century later, his grandson, John Haddon Hillary, wrote a book entitled "Westland", which reproduces the journal exactly as it was written, but includes many insightful comments of his own.

Having married into the Hillary family, I became aware of the book and found it fascinating as I read it. Now, with the passage of time and the advent of the Internet and genealogical websites, I have been able to add my comments and observations to the journal, which include details of what happened to the family throughout the rest of their lives.

Modestly, John Haddon Hillary, when writing the original "Westland", stated that he had no claim to fame and that "the real author is the diarist John Hillary, who took the trouble over one hundred years ago to make a record of his journey". However, he admits that he has always had a love of ships, "perhaps instilled by the adventures of his past relatives".  In 1979, the centenary of John Hillary's epic adventure, "Haddon", as he was known, took it upon himself to publish his grandfather's journal and to greatly enhance it with his unique and well-researched commentary. He died in 1998.