MRS BAKER.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12189, 9 May 1905, Page 3

MRS BAKER.

Mrs James Baker, of Kaiapoi,' who landed in Canterbury by the ship j Creasy, and who waa the relict of the | late Mr J_e. Baker, of Kaiajjpi, died on Sunday, after an eventful life. She ' had about completed fifty year*' resi- j dence in Canterbury, and claimed to j bo the first European woman to take up a permanent living in the Kaiapoi borough. Upon arrival in Canterbury with her husband j and eeven children, they stayed the first uight in the barracks erected by j Captain Thomas at Lyttelton, and next day they found a camping place in the Cemetery Gully. Here they erected a tent, and cut tussocks to sleep on. Being unused to tents, they had •some trouble to keep it uo in a wind, and to render it water-tight when it rained. Mr Baker suggested going further up the hill, where ho dug an excavation, roofing part of it wibli a blanket. The fireplace was more than once swamped, and heavy rains cut watercourses across the floor of this cave "dwelling. Temporary occupation was obtained of a wooden l#i_e belonging to Mr W. Oldfield—a very early settler in Lyttelton —and subsequently .Mr Baker got a site for a whare at the back of Captain Scoullar's section. Mr Baker worked for a time at forming the Ferry road from the Heathcote to the city, and the Christchurch streets, and used to assist in landing cattle for Mr J. T. Parkinson from Sydney vessels. The latter was done by swimming them ashore at Gollan's Bay. The family for some time resided in this Bay, but later, in the ketch Flirt (since wrecked on the bar), commanded by Captain G. F. Day, they conveyed their chattels to Kaiapoi. In tlie main room of their house in Otaki street the Wesleyans and Presbyterians held their first services, and the first Methodist Sunday School was started in 1855, and continued to be held in their house till the Methodist Church was erected 'in IS6I. As tha ministers came at long intervals there wero -i time numbers of children waiting baptism, and some of them wen? grown to a gcod .size when the ceremony was performed, and were ineliiwl to object. Mrs Baker once told our representative that their objections w:»rc met by forca on the part of the parents, and on one occasion it took two men all their tirae to hold one recalcitrant youngster while tho minister performed the rite of baptism. Mr Baker for a time rented from the Provincial Government the whole of tho land from Clarkville and Kaiapoi Island to-Eyreton as a cattle run, but settlers began to desire selections on it in 1858, and in a year or so it was sold at £2 per acre. (Some of this land is now worth over £30 par acre.) It was on this land that some of Mr Baker's early grain crop was grown. The late Mr Baker was one of tho first mail carriers between Kaiapoi and Christchurch, carrying tlie letters in canvas saddlebags. As years went on the industry of tho father and his family brought about ,the purchase of land *>nd ,a. threshing plant. Mrs Baker's huebajid predeceased her about ten years. Though she reached tlie ago of eightyseven, she was always a most active woman, and found timo to do many kind neighbourly acts, being the true type of a good colonist. She leaves a very large circle of relatives, and a wider ono of persons who will honour her memory. She leaves ton children, thirty-seven grandchildren, and twentythree great-grandchildren.