Hedley's Books, Masterton, 2012. Pictorial hard cover in tidy condition. Contents tight and clean. Signed by the authors on the title page and by Edward and William Beetham at the rear.
Brancepeth was one of the largest sheep stations New Zealand had ever known. It was in 1856 that four hundred Merinos began grazing in the wilderness of the Wairarapa's eastern hills, but by the turn nof the century 100,000 more were spread over a giant 31,000 hectares of productive hill-country. In the earliest heady days of its settlement, a single pit-sawn whare with a hand-hewn shingled roof stood at the heart of the station. But following the formation of the Beetham-Williams family partnership, known as The Firm, Brancepeth quickly prospered. An enormous 32-room homestead with a battlemented tower was constructed, as well as a grand stable with a coach house keeping a large collection of horses, buggies and motorcars, a library of 2000 Victorian books, a school, a smithy, store and a cookhouse serving the station and its 300 staff clustered amidst the hill country. The glory days of this vast farm have passed, but at its heart the remarkable homestead and the precinct of buildings still bearing the Brancepath name provide a glimpse into a long-forgotten world. .--Back cover.