Lady BarkerCritiques

This was a good, easy book written in an engaging style. The narrative is composed of letters sent by Lady Barker as she travelled to New Zealand and took up life with her husband on a station in Canterbury. It was nice to get a woman's perspective, as so much of what I read from early settler times in New Zealand comes from men. Lady Barker was of course a little more well off than the average immigrant so her perspective is coloured by that, though this does lead to a comical and endearing scene in which she tries her hand at baking and...it doesn't go so well.

She was also pretty adventurous and like a lot of women writers from past times she emphasises feminine fragility while taking on challenges that many modern-day people, male or female, might hesitate to confront. She bush-bashes, climbs hills, rescues sheep, and participates in burn-offs (the last maybe a little too enthusiastically).

Written in 1870, STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is a fascinating account of the time Lady Mary Anne Barker lived on a sheep station on the south island of New Zealand. It is just a series of letters that she wrote back to her family in England, starting with her arrival in MelbourneAustralia en route to Christchurch. It gives the reader a real insight into life as a settler in the 1860s, with all its highs and lows.

I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.

Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.

STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.

Opening Sentence: “…Now I must give you an account of our voyage: it has been a very quick one for the immense distance traversed, sometimes under canvas, but generally steaming…”

Written in 1870, STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is a fascinating account of the time Lady Mary Anne Barker lived on a sheep station on the south island of New Zealand. It is just a series of letters that she wrote back to her family in England, starting with her arrival in MelbourneAustralia en route to Christchurch. It gives the reader a real insight into life as a settler in the 1860s, with all its highs and lows.

I gripped my chair in sympathy as she is careened at high speed along the highway by a drunken passenger coach driver. I chuckled at her first attempts at cooking and I cried with her when her naughty dog has to be put down and when she has to help dig dead lambs from a snowdrift after a huge blizzard. Mary Anne writes in a light-hearted style, and she vividly portrayed the lives of genteel sheep farmers (and the not so genteel) the weather and the beautiful scenery and wildlife.

Born in Jamaica, educated in England, her first husband Lord George Robert Barker was knighted for his role at the Siege of Lucknow in India. He died 8 months after receiving his title, however when Mary Anne arrived in New Zealand she was with her second husband, Frederick Broome. For her writing Mary Anne retained her Lady Barker title although later in life her second husband was knighted and she became Lady Broome. During her life Mary Anne lived in England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Mauritius, Australia and Trinidad. A well travelled lady with some eighteen published works.

STATION LIFE IN NEW ZEALAND is considered the best of the settlers’ tales from the years of colonization of New Zealand, and is a classic of early New Zealand literature.