EARLY BIRTHS IN CHATHAMS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30108, 17 April 1963, Page 14

EARLY BIRTHS IN CHATHAMS

German Diaries’ Evidence

Claims that Mr C. H Downes, who died in Wellington earlier this month was the first white child to have been born in the Chatham Islands, are disputed by Mr N. R A. Cox. of Puriri s' -cet Mr Downes was born in 1882 but Mr Cox has evidence that children were born to German couples on the (hatham Islands in ’he 1840’s Mr Co., himself lived in the Chatham Islands for many vears. and is a grandson of Mr A W Shand, the first magistra e on the islands Mr Cox’s sister Miss Daisy Cox. was born in the islands in 1874 Mr Cox has it his possession the diaries of a member of the party of five Ger man Lutheran missionaries who arrived in the Chatham Islands in 1842 The diarist. Mr Engst. records that three of his colleagues. Messrs Schirr meister. Bauc.te and Miller in 1845 married three German women who arrived in the islands in that year. Offspring from those marriages. says the diary, included »wn daughters to ‘he Schirrmeisters. two daughters and seven sons to the Bauches and two sons to the Millers, all born in the Chatham Islands Many of these were probably born in the late IB4o’s. says Mr Cox. Many of these second-gen-eration Germans would have been well into adulthood by the time of the first recorded baptism in the islands. m 1882. says Mr Cox This baptism. by the Rev. P C. Anderson. has already been quoted by Ruby Hay in s letter to the editor of “The Press” last week. Mr Anderson in 1882 baptised 37 white children aged between eight days and 11 years.