Pages From the Memory Log of G. M. Hassing. Edited by Featherstone.

Publisher: Southland Tines, no date but 1930 first edition (Bagnall H450). Very scarce.

Very good hardback. Red cloth boards have some rubbing, marks and fading. Inscription to ffep and title page. Pages very good. 74 pages with b&w frontispiece (portrait).

George Magnus Hassing was born on 16 March 1837 in Denmark. He became a sailor and arrived in Lyttleton in February 1859. There he and two other sailors jumped ship . and proceeded over the Port Hills bridle track to Christchurch. In 1860, George obtained a contract with Stewart and Kinross to supply timber for posts, rails, and shingles for the Wanaka West Station and so started a remarkable association with the Upper Clutha. The Arrow Goldrush led to the establishment of a ferry across the Clutha where the old Albertown was situated near the confluence of the Hawea and Clutha Rivers. This was in January 1863 but he saw a greater profit in selling that ferry and establishing a new one and a store at Sandypoint which he sold to the Maori Chief Patu in 1865. George also purchased the ferry at Rockypoint just before the Bendigo goldfield became wellknown. In 1867 George tried his luck chasing gold on the Buller River. He later joined his friend Alfred Pinn on Pigeon Island (now Mou Waho). There they built the lake vessels Eureka and Nun. The Cardrona goldrush attracted George and he became the main owner of the Empire Gold-Mining claim.

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