Adela Stewart

(1846-1910)

Homemaker and Writer

Adela’s Background and Emigration

In 1870 Adela married Hugh Stewart, Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and brother of George Vesey Stewart the NZ coloniser.  The family emigrated to New Zealand in 1878 on board the “Lady Jocelyn”. (For further information on the Lady Jocelyn and the settlers she carried from Northern Ireland, see this article (Victoria University of Wellington Library).

Adela Stewart and her husband were perhaps better suited to being pioneers than many people from a comfortable background.  Hugh Stewart’s army training as an engineer proved extremely useful for laying out roads and building a house.   Adela, although unused to housework and cooking, was capable and resourceful.  Their extensive travels also helped them to adjust to strange conditions.  They settled near Katikati on three hundred acres which they bought from G V Stewart and later increased their holding by an additional five hundred acres.  The land was of poor quality and they came to regret having ignored the advice of William Rolleston, the Minister of Lands to sell quickly. And buy elsewhere.

 Adela’s diary writings

Adela Stewart’s diary later became the basis for her book “My Simple Life in New Zealand”, which gives a detailed record of her difficulties and triumphs.  The book became one of her best known and best respected books on New Zealand‘s early pioneering days.  Often without domestic help, she became in time an expert cook, baker, and gardener.  As the Stewarts grew older the difficulties of finding help for the farm and household work and for continuing their social life increased.  They sold “Athenree” in 1906 and returned to England.  “My Simple Life in New Zealand”, was published in London in 1908.  It gives a lively and informative account of the process of establishing a new settlement.  Its overall tone is one of stoicism in the face of adversity and a desire to maintain the social lifestyle Adela Stewart had been used to before coming to New Zealand.  It shows her to be an enterprising woman whose devotion to her husband and son were fully repaid.  Following the death of Hugh in April 1909 Adela returned to New Zealand on a visit.  She died on the night of her arrival in Katikati on 12 February 1910.