Retired sheep and beef farmer Noel Crawford, of Timaru, has written Antipodean Empire: the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, the history of the New Zealand and Australian Land Company, in its time the biggest land-owning farmer in the country and the pioneer of the frozen meat export trade in New Zealand, as well as the dairy industry.
''My first interest was when I wrote a local history of Cannington,'' said Mr Crawford, a third-generation farmer at Cannington, near Cave, after his grandfather bought a farm there in 1916.
Cannington had been part of Levels Station, once part of the Scottish-controlled NZ and Australian Land Company's empire.
''A lot of new information has ended up in the book. I found the land company kept tremendously good records.
''All were kept in the Scottish Records Office and 10 years ago the National Library and Hocken Library sent people there to copy the records on microfilm.
''So I had access to those 100,000 pages of records which included minutes from the board and correspondence.''
The company had its origins in the 1860s when Glasgow merchant James Morton set about amalgamating unincorporated societies in Scotland that held land in Otago and Southland and buying up vast tracts of land.
''James Morton had a brilliant mind. He determined there were opportunities in New Zealand, which was just being settled.''
The company set about buying land with capital raised through borrowings by Morton estimated at $1.6billion in modern money.
''His weakness was that all borrowings were very short term. It worked through the 1860s and '70s, but a financial crisis hit in 1878.''
Morton had borrowed so much from the City of Glasgow Bank, the bank went broke.
However, the land company survived and once over the crisis, prospered.
''The Bank of Scotland recognised the value of the [New Zealand] properties, so 10 banks clubbed together and took up most of the company shares.''
All the company's properties were in the South Island, stretching from Acton estate just south of the Rakaia River down through the Levels in South Canterbury - the jewel in the company's crown - through Central and North Otago (where the company instigated frozen meat exports from Totara Estate) as far south as Edendale near Invercargill. The company also built the country's first dairy factory, at Edendale.
A well-structured chain of command extending from Scotland to New Zealand ensured the huge landholdings were run efficiently, with a superintendent to inspect the properties, estate managers, stock managers, all the way down to workers.
''The company had to pull back in the 1880s depression but once into the 1890s it became profitable and they made a lot of money into the early 1900s.
''By then they had sold Levels.''
In the late 1890s, the Government had instigated a policy of breaking up big estates to allow working men on to the land and it ended the company's role as a major player in New Zealand.
''The company sold out and focused more on Australia. The money they got for Edendale, Totara, Pareora and others went to buy properties in Australia.''
Mr Crawford believed the company had a positive impact on New Zealand.
''It was foreign capital to develop the land and overseas ownership of the land but when they came here much of the land was tussock. They bought it from the Government and developed it. A lot of money was needed to do that.''
As for the entrepreneurial financier who made it all possible, James Morton, he came to an unfortunate end.
''If Morton's plan had come about he'd have been one of the richest men in the world but he went broke.''
Morton disappeared into Glasgow and ended up penniless.
''He drove a milk cart and then ran a hole-in-the-wall coffee room. After catching pneumonia he died in a nursing home.''
Antipodean Empire: the New Zealand and Australian Land Company will be launched at Timaru Library on Sunday, August 26.
-By Chris Tobin
