William Nelson Biography

WILLIAM NELSON, 1843 – 1932*

*Unless otherwise indicated this chapter is based on information supplied by G. Nelson, Havelock North, 16 December, 1955.

As the founder of the freezing industry in Hawke’s Bay, only two years after the first experimental shipment of frozen meat had left New Zealand, William Nelson ranks among the province’s outstanding pioneers; indeed he was one of the great pioneers of the Dominion. It is important therefore to examine those personal qualities which lay behind his success.

William Nelson, born in Warwick in 1843, came from a comfortably-off, middle-class manufacturing family. “The Lawn”, the family’s home, was a two storied building surrounded by five or six acres of parkland and gardens. G. Nelson, his father, was the proprietor of G. Nelson, Dale and Company, manufacturers of gelatine and cement. In all probability G. Nelson was a typical example of the rising manufacturing classes of the 19th Century England – one of those enterprising, self-made men who had found their chance during the Industrial Revolution.

William Nelson was one of the many people who emigrated from Europe to the Colonies and the New World after 1830. For the most part these emigrants were men of initiative and ability, who were not afraid of hard work, and who were inspired by the idea of improving their fortunes overseas. Nelson’s particular ambition was to become a sheep farmer, and he came to New Zealand with the idea of taking up sheep farming. To some extent this interest in the land had been foreshadowed by his boyhood interest in gardening* – an unusual hobby for a lad of 12 to 15 years.

Nelson, W., Diary, 1855, 1858, passim.

He was only a youth of 19 when, with his brother Frederick, he arrived in Auckland on the 7 February, 1863.* He remained

*ibid., 7 February, 1863.

in and about Auckland for some five months, inspecting various farm properties and generally adapting himself to life in the colony.*  He visited Whangarei and went as far south as

*ibid., 7 February to 25 July, 1863.

Mangatawhiri, only the hostility of the Maoris preventing him from continuing his journey to Raglan.

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