Letters to Grace : writing home from colonial New Zealand / edited by Jean Garner & Kate Foster.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 197-200) and index.

Summary: This remarkable collection of letters provides a rare female perspective on life in colonial Canterbury, when letter writing was the only way to keep a close relationship with family members on the other side of the world. The writers were four women of the Hall family. Unlike Charlotte Godley and Lady Barker, whose correspondence, experiences and impressions of the time have been widely promulgated, the Hall women were anonymous members of the middle class in England with no ties with the aristocracy. But ironically, the letters are significant partly because all four were the wives of public men in New Zealand, Rose being wife of Sir John Hall, who was Premier of New Zealand 1879-82. Sarah, Agnes Emma and Rose were married to three Hall brothers, and the youngest correspondent was Agnes' daughter, Agnes Mildred. The recipient was the elder women's sister-in-law, Grace Neall, in England.

"This remarkable collection of letters provides a rare female perspective on life in colonial Canterbury, when letter writing was the only way to keep a close relationship with family members on the other side of the world. The writers were four women of the Hall family. ... Sarah, Agnes and Rose were married to three Hall brothers, and the youngest correspondent was Agnes' daughter, Agnes Mildred. The recipient was the elder women's sister-in-law, Grace Neall, in England."--Back cover.