SEVENTY YEARS AGO.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 198, 22 August 1930, Page 11

SEVENTY YEARS AGO.

ARRIVAL OF SHIP PERSIA.

REMINISCENCES OF AN AUCKLAND LADY.

SHORTLAND STREET LANDING,

Seventy years ago yesterday the ship Persia arrived at Auckland after a fairly uneventful run from England, and one of tlie passengers "was Mrs, William Parker, of 12, Inverness Avenue, Epsom.

Mrs. W. Parker,

Her father was the late Mr. -Jo.

Close, who brought his wife and family of nine to New Zealand. Mrs. Parker was the youngest child, and although but four years of age when the Persia dropped anchor the has a clear memory of landing in a boat near where the foot of.Shortland Street is to-day. One little thing remains in her memory concerning that day. The Auckland postmaster gave her an orange, something that was both a novelty and a luxury after months spent on a ship at sea. . Farm Life at Arai. Mr. Close took up farming at Arai, in the- Mangawai district. At that time the only communication was with cutters. by the sea route, and on one occasion tiie boat could not enter Mangawai harbour for a month. The nearest white neighbours were twelve miles off. A home was built of tea-tree, thatched with nikau, and a pioneering life was started. Pigeons and pigs were plentiful in the bush, and stores came at irregular times by the cutters trading up the coast. There were no schooling facilities, so Mrs. Parker was taught by her elder sisters. At the outbreak of the Maori War Mr. Close was called up for service. At that time there was a fairly big tribe of Maoris living near the Close homestead, but they were friendly and gave no trouble. After the war Mr. Close took up farming near Razorback, south of Auckland. Later one of his sons, Mr. James Close, afterwards in business in Auckland as a provision merchant, went farming at Pakaraka, in the Bay of Islands district, and he and his sons became exceptionally well known in North Auckland as stock breeders. Changes in Auckland. After her marriage Mrs. Parker wont to live at Wellington, where her husband had a business as a chemist. A number of years later her husband commenced business in Auckland, and, as Mrs. Parker says, although she is a native of Leeds, Yorkshire, she can claim to be an Aueklander. Mrs. Parker can speak interestingly of the many changes that Auckland has seen in the last 70 years. She can recall the foreshore where there are now modern buildings, and remembers seeing Maoris fishing in a creek which used to run past where now stand the Civic Buildings. Mr«s. Parker has a daughter and son. Miss Margaret A. Parker, of Auckland; and Mr. William L. Parker. B.E. The latter was educated at Canterbury College, and is now in Mexico.