Newspaper Proprietor
Regarded as the founder of modern Kerikeri, George Edwin Alderton was born in Surrey, England on 25 August 1854. His parents, Charles William Alderton and Sarah Crockwell emigrated with their children to New Zealand in 1865. They settled at Whangārei after arriving aboard the ‘Lancashire Witch’.
By 1875, Alderton had established the very small district’s first newspaper, the Whangārei Comet and Northen Advertiser. He worked every facet of the business, acting as reporter, compositor, publisher, printer, and business manager. Within two years he had grown the paper to 12 pages and began publishing it weekly as the Northern Advocate and General Advertiser.
A a successful visionary, Alderton used his paper to promote the development of the Whangārei district. Advocating for the use of steam power in maritime transport he convinced local businessmen to invest in the purchase of the steamboat ‘Argyle’, which established a significant link between Whangārei and Auckland in the 1870s and 1880s. Alderton also took a petition to Wellington in 1878 lobbying for the implementation of a railway line from the coal mines at Kamo to the Whangārei wharf. The next year, Sir George Grey, premier of New Zealand visited Whangārei to turn the railway’s first sod.
Orchardist
On his property, ‘Kensington’, Alderton planted citrus orchards and vineyards and was sent by the government to study agriculture in New South Wales in 1884. Through this, he published a government-backed booklet on orange cultivation and was then sent to the United States in 1886 to report on the viticulture and fruit growing there. In 1897, he retired from the Northern Advocate, by then a well established newspaper. He started a new publication, ‘Resources of New Zealand,’ which aimed to “describe the varied resources of the different portions of the colony.” It ran until 1911.
‘Prince of land-agents’
After moving to Auckland in 1907, Alderton became a land agent for T. Mandeno Jackson and earned a reputation as a ‘Prince of land-agents’. Through this position he was able to convince George Ridell to form The North Auckland Land Development Corporation on land he had purchased in 1914. This corporation transformed the land into an urban development and land for horticulture. This marked the beginning of the horticultural industry in Kerikeri, and although the company faced difficulties, it is still an industry which flourishes to this day.
Alderton was married to Ida Sissons in 1880 and together they had eight children, five girls and three boys. Two of their children died in infancy. Both surviving sons went on serve their country, George Edwin Lisle Alderton in the Navy and Trevor Dudley Hall Alderton as a pilot. Lisle served in WWI before becoming a Naval Prosecutor in Malta and then in WWII he served as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve. Trevor, graduated as a pilot at the Walsh Brothers Flying School and was accepted into the Royal Flying Corps. Tragically, Trevor died in England during an aeroplane accident on 16 June 1918. He is buried at Narborough Cemetery in England.
Headstone Inscription:
Sacred To The Memory of
Ida
Dearly beloved wife of
George Edwin Alderton
Aged 60 years
So Greatly Loved, So Dearly Mourned
Accidentally killed by motor car
August 11 1921
Ida died due to unfortunate circumstances, she succumbed to her injuries after being hit by a vehicle in Remuera in 1921. Ida was 60 years old. Her husband George, died later in 1942 at the age of 87.
George Edwin Alderton
Died 1942
