DEATH OF PIONEER

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 84, 3 January 1929, Page 8

DEATH OF PIONEER

EARLY DAYS AT BANKS PENINSULA Dominion Special Service. Dunedin, January 2. Mrs. Francis Helps, of King Street, Dunedin, whose tragic death as a result of a motor accident on New Year’s Eve was reported yesterday, was one of the old identities of Canterbury, having been closely connected with the early settlement of Banks Peninsula before her arrival in Dunedin 30 years ago. Pier father, Mr. Edward Goodwin, was one of the earliest settlers on the Peninsula. Mrs. Helps was born at sea on the Bussorah Merchant 75 years ago, when the vessel was two days off Perth. For nine years the family resided in Sydney, coming to Lyttelton in 1852 and settling at Pigeon Bay, Banks Peninsula. The pioneering work accomplished by the family earned them the respect and esteem of those who followed immediately afterwards, and there will be many of the older generation in that district who will feel keenly the loss of one who had always proved herself a willing worker for those less fortunate than herself. In 1877 she married Mr. Francis Helps at Lyttelton, coming to Dunedin about 20 years afterwards. She had lived continuously in this city ever since. She is survived by her husband and a family of seven children, two sons and five daughters. They are Messrs. E. B. Helps (Hastings), A. M. Helps (Akaroa), Mrs. H. Morris (Wanganui), Mrs. T. Armitage (Auckland), Mrs. O. Evans (Dunedin), and the Misses Maud and Marjorie Helps (Dunedin). There are also ten grandchildren.