A Bloody Opportunist Life and Times of John Whitey White By John White.

A Bloody Opportunist
Life and Times of John Whitey White By John White.

Publisher: Forget Me Knot, 2021.

Near new softback, no inscriptions. 157 pages, illustrated.

John ‘Whitey’ White was born to working-class parents in 1937 and spent the first ten years of his life in the small village of Seacliff, north of Dunedin. Almost everyone in Seacliff had some connection to Seacliff Mental Asylum, including John’s parents, who met and worked there.

After moving to Nelson at the age of ten, John attended Nelson College and became involved in football, a lifelong passion. Upon leaving school he joined the Lands and Survey as a chainman - surveying on foot the rugged terrain of the greater Nelson region and later, the West Coast.

John spent ten years with Lands and Survey before leaving his stable government job to start his own business ventures in Hokitika, which included: a dairy, a goldmine, a guest house, a tourist centre and property development to name but a few. He completed his National Service, rising to the rank of second lieutenant, helped start a new football club, served as a councillor on the Hokitika Borough Council and on the Hokitika Businessmen’s Association and spent twenty-three years as the public relations officer for Westland, constantly battling against negativity and naysayers for a more progressive town and development of the tourism industry.

A Bloody Opportunist reflects John’s energy and passion for progress during his forty-three years on the West Coast.

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