The Boy Colonists, or Eight Years of Colonial Life in Otago, New Zealand carves a notch in colonial and literary history. Written by Edward Simeon Elwell in 1878, it details one boy’s brief farming career on the early sheep stations of New Zealand’s lower South Island. His story encapsulates the lifestyle of many British settlers that sailed to Australia and New Zealand, who then catalogued their experiences in stories for those back home. Elwell’s novel seems to most closely resemble a piece of colonial travel writing; therefore, it shall be largely discussed in the context of such literature. Although little seems to be known of the author’s history, the novel’s broader history of colonial writing is ripe for exploration. The story follows the lifestyle of the main character Ernest, as a meticulous retelling of his new life. It reads with an intention of sending the story back home to family, or to be shared with a wider public eager to learn of the new country. As a pasted combination of diary-like entries, letter excerpts, adventure passages and several echoes of a farming manual, The Boy Colonists follows the traditional format of nineteenth-century travel writing, and subsequently provides a raw insight into settler life in early New Zealand.Write your paragraphs inside these tags