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Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 274, 25 November 1897, Page 7

At Christchurch on Nov. 22, Mr H. W. L. Digby made an attempt to break the world's record at shorthand, at present held by Mr A. W. Bunbury, of Dundee. The papers were sent out by Mr Pitman to Judge Denniston, who, with Canon Harper, acted as supervisor, Miss Carr reading. Mr Digby appeared to have no difficulty in accomplishing the task—26o words a minute. The papers will be sealed by the supervisors and sent to Mr Pitman.

An awfully sudden death occurred at Kuapekapeka at 6 p.m. on Nov. 10 when Mr Richard Farrer, an old settler of Whangae, aged 62, dropped down dead suddenly, after leaving a road contract in company with Mr David Taylor of Pakarau. A verdict of death from heart disease was returned.

On Saturday Nov. 20, the body of Thos. Meredith, a lunatic who escaped from the Avondale Lunatic Asylum on the sth inst., was found hanging to a willow tree near the Asylum grounds. Meredith had hanged himself with his belt to a limb of the tree. The body, which was in a state of decomposition, was found by a warder of the Asylum.

A gathering of a unique character was held on Nov. 9 at Howick, a jubilee festival Toeing held in commemoration of the landing of the Royal N.Z. Fencibles at Howick in 1847. As might be expected there are now not many of the old veterans left who were landed on Howick Beach half a century ago for the purpose of making a home for themselves amongst the fern and ti-tree in order to form a permanent outpost of military settlers for the future defence of the then infant city of Auckland. As a matter of fact Mr Thomas Heath is the sole male survivor of the particular group that formed the original Howick settlement, while Mrs Heath and Mrs Frost are the last members of the Band of matrons who accompanied their husbands. There are, however, survivors of other adjacent pensioner settlements, and these attended at the Howick gathering today to talk over old times. Mr Heath has now reached the advanced age of 83 years. He saw service in Syria in 1536, and was invalided shortly afterwards. That the Fencibles were settlers of the right stamp to send to a new country was manifest to-day, when their descendants arrived in large numbers at Howick to commemorate the anniversary of the arrival of their progenitors. In order to carry out the celebration successfully a Committee was formed of which Mr John White was the Secretary. Invitations were forwarded to the Hon. Colonel Haultain, the last of the divisional officers, and many others interested in the gathering, it is needless to say that where possible those asked attended.