BALLOON ASCENT IN RECREATION GROUNDS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 9966, 31 March 1894, Page 2

BALLOON ASCENT IN RECREATION GROUNDS.

TAKE PLAGE OX TEURSDAY NEXT. In another column it is announced that on Thursday next Miss Leila Adair will make a balloon ascent from the Recreation Grounds, and when up in the air some hundreds of feet, will make a thrilling parachute jump. As there are very few people in Taranaki who have ever seen a balloon, much less seen one ascend, the occasion should prove a great attraction. Should the day prove calm, the balloon will make an almost perpendicular ascent, and Mis-. Adaii- will descend in almost the same place. As Miss Adair will only make the ascent at this end of the district, people far and wide will no doubt come and see the wonderful performance The ascent will take place at three o'clock in the afternoon. An old identity is at present an inmate of the Costley Home, Auckland. His name is Valentine D. Olivaref, and he claims to be the oldest and only survivor of the first colonists of New Zealand. He was born in Spain on the 14th of February, 1817, and came to the colony from South America in 1839, with a load of horses in the barque Justine. He landed at Russell, and at that time there were few pakehas at the Bay of Islands. As Governor Hobson was not then appointed, it is almost needless to add that this was before Auckland' existed. Mr Olivaref has for many years been with Mr Patterson at Kaikohe. He served in Heke's War, and was at the battles of Okaihau, Waikari, Ohaewai aud Kuapekapeka. At the latter engagement he was sho tin the leg. Smce then he worked as a bush -sawyer, until the infirmities of age caused him, like many others, to gravitate to the Costly Home. Like most old soldiers, Mr D. Olivaref has a grievance against the Government. He contends that his services in the field should have entitled him to a pension in his old age.