Overview
Hunter was born and educated in Banffshire, Scotland. After working as a businessman in Glasgow, he emigrated to New Zealand in 1840 aboard the Duke of Roxburgh. With his wife, four sons, and six daughters, he landed in Petone at the new settlement of Britannia.
Like many well-to-do settlers, Hunter could afford to travel with plenty of luggage. Among the personal possessions he brought was his piano - probably the first to ever arrive on New Zealand shores. Indeed George Hunter's life was to become a series of firsts.
He made his home in Wellington. Soon after his arrival, he asked a builder by the name of Samuel Parnell to erect a store for him on Lambton Quay. Parnell agreed, on condition that he work no more than eight hours a day. At a time when workers were routinely expected to put in a ten hour day, this was a revolutionary idea. Hunter was flabbergasted, but since builders were scarce, he had no choice but to agree. In so doing, he was probably the first New Zealand employer to grant an employee an eight-hour day. The incident would become legendary. Parnell would go on to become active in labour reform, and would be known to later generations as the father of the eight-hours movement.
The store built, Hunter, set himself up as Wellington's storekeeper-general, in partnership with Kenneth Bethune. Hunter was soon one of the settlement's most prominent citizens, and when Wellington's borough council was formed, he became the city's first mayor. As such, he seems to have been popular and hardworking.
His life came to an untimely end in July 1843, when he caught a chill and died. It is notable that the Māori chief Te Puni sent a generous gift of produce to Hunter's bereaved family, and appeared with all his tribe to mourn at the funeral. Clearly, while there was some conflict between Māori and Pākehā in the area, there was still a great deal of goodwill.
This George Hunter turned out to be the first in a line of George Hunters to achieve political and commercial success in the colony. His eldest son, George Hunter, took over the store and also bought a lot of real estate in Wellington and Hawke's Bay. From 1870 to 1879, he represented Wellington City in Parliament. And the first George Hunter's grandson, Sir George Hunter, was member for Waipawa, first from 1896-99, and then from 1911 until he died in 1930.
Text originally published in Tai Awatea, Te Papa's onfloor multimedia database (1998).