麻豆传媒团队

鈥楾he Westland Goldfields鈥� was his attempt to set the record straight; but, incidentally, he produced a unique eye-witness account of early P膩keh膩 on the Coast, prospecting alongside M膩ori, braving the hazardous environment, isolation and ever-present risk of starvation 鈥� before the region was overwhelmed by the gold rushes of the 1860s.

Smart鈥檚 account, together with his drawings, is published here for the first time. Hilary Low has done a superb job of presenting Smart鈥檚 manuscript, and complementing it with a lively commentary on Canterbury鈥檚 quest for its own goldfield, and the extraordinary saga of its gold reward 鈥� a tale of hope and persistence, lies and fraud.

Hilary Low聽has a BA in English literature and a postgraduate diploma of librarianship from Victoria University. She has now escaped full-time employment for the pleasures of writing and gardening, among other things. Her first book,聽Pushing His Luck, about the 1863 expedition across the Southern Alps by Henry Whitcombe and Jakob Lauper, was published by Canterbury University Press in 2010. She lives in Wellington, but her family roots are deep in Canterbury.

Listen to Hilary Low being聽聽by Lynn Freeman on Standing Room Only.