Book Launch - Hawarden Hall - December 6^th 2025 

Good afternoon and thanks for coming to this launch of Book VII.  My name is Murray Downes and I am the editor of the book.  

This is the end of a 2,000 page, seven-book project that began in 2007 at the suggestion of Janet Jensen.   The committee is not aware of any similar project on this scale anywhere in New Zealand.  Unlike many localities, we have the advantage of a clearly defined geographic area:  from Hitchin Hills to The Lakes; South to Karetu Downs; East across to the middle of the Weka Pass and halfway down the Scargill Valley.

With the completion of this book, we have recorded the biographies of about 1,400 women and men who lived and worked in the district over a period of about 150 years.  My great-grandmother, Janet Armstrong emigrated from Kirkcudbright in Scotland in 1877 and moved here from Culverden in 1887.  Many of us here are related in some way and have links to the district going back to the earliest settlement.

This is a wonderful collection of stories.   While there has been great interest from readers today, I feel certain that they will be of huge value to readers and researchers in 200 and more years’ time.

I would like to recognise the committee that has managed the last three books: 

Pat Crean, Pam Downes (Finance), Val Ginders, Geraldine Hassall (Inventory), Janet Jensen, Doc Sidey, Marg Wright.

We tightened our processes this year.  My wife, Pam, has maintained a separate log of stories received so that we were able to track them through editing to the final proof copy of the book.  This has been in addition to her work handling the finances, logging orders and working closely with Geraldine who has controlled the stock of books and shipped books

Marg Evans and Mike Crean assisted with the proofreading.  The committee came together and performed a massive fact-checking and correcting task under quite intense time pressure as the book went through two more proof stages. 

Julie and Jeff at Hilton Press have done a wonderful job taking the raw files and turning them into an attractive book.

Special thanks to Douglas Sievers Jarrett and Helen Macdonald.  Douglas gave us permission to use the painting he owns on the front cover.  We were unable to identify the artist beyond his Christian name - Douglas.  Helen provided the photo on the back cover of her father, Neil, loading wool bales the hard way. 

Keith Yorston recorded many memories and Michele passed these on to us to include selectively where there was space in relevant biographies.  

The masterstroke with this project was the decision, at the very start, to approach individuals and ask them to write their own stories.  It might seem obvious, with hindsight…  but the other approach to it would involve interviews, recording stories, getting someone to write them up.  You can imagine how long that would take: getting the stories on paper, then getting them checked… changes… more checking…  I can tell you:  we would not have completed the last three books in three years if we had used that approach.

These books are the result of individual efforts on the part of the people who wrote biographies.  The committee has managed the process and edited the biographies to make them consistent, while retaining the maximum amount of individual expression.  If we have been successful, you will find it hard to detect the changes we made to your drafts.  All the dates should be in a common format; commas have been added or removed, typos and spelling errors have been corrected, possessives (and non-possessives like the 1950’s) have been fixed; “Mum and Dad” and “my mother and father “should all follow a set capitalisation rule…  abbreviations have been extended to the full word… generally.   This book is written in standard English.  American spelling has been changed to English… generally. 

I am grateful to all those people who responded to my requests for more detail and photographs.  It has been a pleasure dealing with so many, including those that I have not spoken to for more than sixty years.

The project is now complete.  The committee will remain in place for a while to deal with ongoing sales and any reprint needs. 

A website www.hawarden-waikari.com has been built to provide information about the project and to enable people to make enquiries.  It will probably be maintained for several years or while there is interest in it.

Thank you.