DEATH OF PIONEER

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 8, 4 October 1932, Page 11

DEATH OF PIONEER

Link With the ’Forties MR. CHARLES WALLACE The death of Mr. Charles Wallace, one of the last survivors of the Wellington of the ’forties, occurred at Johnsonville on Friday. Mr. Wallace,. who was in his 81th year, was born at Ngahauranga, where his father afterwards kept one of the old coaching hotels. Partly on account of bls youth, but principally because his kinsfolk on his mother’s side were fighting against the pakeha, he took no part in the Maori wars, but when hostilities ceased he joined the Armed Constabulary, and served for some years in Taranaki. Later he acted as Native interpreter to the Hon. John Sheehan, Native Minister in the Grey Government. Subsequently Mr. Wallace, who had married, resided at different places on the coast, and assisted in negotiations for the sale and settlement of Native land as interpreter of the Court. Several years he spent at Otaki with his half-brother, Mr. James Howard Wallace, later retiring to Johnsonville. He is survived by his widow (formerly Miss Margaret O’Toole) and children —Mrs. Fred Simeon, Mrs. Harry Bramley (Johnsonville), Mrs. W. O'Connor (Gisborne), Miss Isobel Wallace (Johnsonville), Mr. James Wallace, and Mr. Cyril Wallace. A very large gathering of old settlers and friends, and representatives of the Maori race attended the funeral at the rural cemetery at Porirua on Sunday. At the conclusion of the burial service, conducted by the Rev. Father Griffin, of Johnsonville, following the Native custom, a kinsman of the deceased on the Maori side, Matat Parai, of Waikanae, advanced to the graveside and delivered a brief address in Maori. The following translation was supplied by a Maori scholar present: “My parent of the elder branch go forth to our ancestors in the World of Night. That is the home ordained for us all from the beginning of time. It seems to me that this is not the most fitting resting-place for you, but that you should enter the bosom of earth at Walplro in the confines of Wellington, where your grandparent Hemi Parai awaits you. However, since you have elected to rest here'among your children, who have preceded you into the Great Beyond, let it be so. Rest here with your beloved ones. The spasm of life allotted you by the Creator is ended this day, and so we bld you a long farewell.”