PIONEER'S REMINISCENCES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 128, 2 June 1930, Page 8

PIONEER'S REMINISCENCES.

MRS. M. WHEELER.

SIXTY-TWO YEARS' RESIDENCE,

Interesting information on the growth 'of early Auckland has been obtained from Mrs. M. Wheeler, of 33, Finch Street, Morningside, who has just" completed her sixty-second year of residence in the city. Mrs. Wheeler was born in Kidderminster, England, in 1841, and in 1867 married a Mr. W. H. Chatwin, of Birmingham. They arrived in Auckland the following year in the ship Agnes Muir, and owing to the shortage of houses in the township took up accommodation for a time in the Albert Barracks. They moved later to Union Street, a newly-opened thoroughfare, and next purchased two properties in Newton Road, then on the outskirts of the town. Mr. Chatwin was the founder of the Auckland branch of the Good Templars' Lodge, and his wife was the first woman Templar in the city. ,

In 1890 the new suburb of Morningside was being opened, and Mr. Chatwin had the option of buying the whole of the' property on Finch Street, off"Western Springs Road. Five allotments were eventually purchased.

Some years after tha. death of Mr. Chatwin, his widow married Mr. W. Wheeler, whose son, Mr. C. E. Wheeler, was formerly Parliamentary reporter of the "Star." A son of Mrs. Wheeler by lier first marriage, Mr. W. H. Chatwin, was another well known "Star" employee, being lithographer to the firm for '25 years. Mrs. Wheeler has three sons and two daughter living, 12 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.