James Inglis

James Inglis combined writing, commerce, and public office in a Scottish-born career that took him from India to colonial Australia. Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier records his years managing an indigo concern in northern Bihar, close to the borderlands then commonly described in English as the Nepaul frontier. Publishing both as James Inglis and under the pen name Maorilander, Inglis combined travel narrative, local observation, work routines, and sporting episodes. He later settled in New South Wales, entered politics, and served as minister of public instruction. His other books included Our Australian Cousins and Tent Life in Tigerland. Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier reflects the assumptions of a British colonial observer, so its descriptions require historical context. At the same time, it preserves detailed accounts of landscape, transport, agriculture, camp organisation, and social encounters in a region undergoing economic and administrative change during the nineteenth century.