James Cox (labourer)

The mill closed in 1890 and thereafter Cox lived a hand-to-mouth existence, a hard life of vagrancy, intermittent and arduous labour, and poverty.

The diary offers a unique and valuable account of New Zealand working class life of the period.

[1] Miles Fairburn wrote a 1995 book, Nearly Out of Heart and Hope, based on Cox's diaries.

[4] Cox's dairies were featured in the 2013 exhibition "Logs to blogs" at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington.

[2][5] Cox was the cousin of nature writer Richard Jefferies; as teens, Cox and Jefferies set off on an unsuccessful adventure, first planning to walk to Moscow and, this having failed, to sail to America, which also proved impossible.