DEATH OF PIONEER

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 13

DEATH OF PIONEER

NEARING IOOTH BIRTHDAY

A pioneer who next month would have a-ttained her 100 th birthday, Mrs. J. C. Ness, of Church Street, Onehunga, died at her residence this week, states the "New Zealand Herald." She had been able to recall the first visit of the then young Queen Victoria to Scotland. She remembered that when the young Queen went to Edinburgh over ninety years ago a staging in Princess Street gave way and caused injury to many people. On a later visit the Queen was accompanied by her young daughter, afterwards the mother of the ex-Kaiser, and her son, afterwards King Edward VII. The young prince did not appear to bo sitting up and taking notice as graciously as wore the lady members of the party, and Mrs. Ness remembered seeing a queenly hand quietly cuff a princely ear.

Mrs. Ness arrived in Auckland in the sailing ship Siam over sixty years ago with her husband, Mr. James C. Ness, whom she married in Scotland in 1864. They came when the Thames gold rush was at its height and when Auckland had been deserted by numbers who had gone to seek their fortunes. At first the newcomers lived in Grafton Road and Symonds Street, but subsequently they spent ten years at Piha on land which had been taken up as a cattle run, and with a view to cutting out the kauri bush. Tho milling work, however, was never undertaken. In those days Piha was isolated and difficult of access.

Few young people of today would be able to realise the strenuous nature of a life such as that which Mrs. Ness has lived. At the age of nine, through the loss of parents, she was sent out into the world to fend for herself. Those who knew her well say that in the old days in the bush, as elsewhere, she was nurse and doctor to the district at large.

Mrs. Noss was a staunch member of St.. Peter's Presbyterian Church, Archhill, the 48th anniversary of which she attended last December. For the past five- years she had resided with her daughter, Mrs. C. Lindberg, of Church Street, Onehunga. There are two other surviving daughters, Mrs. E. Morgan, of Te Papa, and Mrs. F. H. Walton, of Christchurch, three sons, Mr. David Ness, of Campbell Road, Onehunga, Mr. P. K. Noss, of Grey Lynn, and Mr. C. Ness, of Grey Lynn. There are also 26 grandchildren, 40 great-grandchild-ren, and one great-great-grandchild.