A Blighted Fame: George S. Evans 1802-1868, A Life

Author: Helen Riddiford

isbn: 9780864738967

George Samuel Evans, barrister, editor and politician, was a man of his time, born to battle. He was a zealous, driven, extremely hard-working advocate for parliamentary and colonial reform. Reckless and unpredictable, a brilliant scholar with formidable skills in both oratory and journalism, he was bred to pursue the goals of civil and religious liberty. His passion for reform sprang from a dissenting background and upbringing in his fathers' parish in East London. It led eventually to New Zealand, a colony of ragged uncertainty, ambition, rivalry and deprivation. When Edward Gibbon Wakefield, the architect of the systematic colonisation of New Zealand, virtually abandoned his project, it was Evans who took up the reins. He and a small band of others assured the scheme's continuation and, for better or worse, spurred a reluctant government into taking action to procure the country for the Crown. In those crucial first years of settlement he was the outspoken critic of successive governors at a time when government and missionaries appeared to combine forces to pit themselves against the undertaking of the New Zealand Company. He continued his work for New Zealand in England, and later forged a parliamentary career in Victoria.

2014 Hardback 504 pages

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