NEARLY 100 YEARS OLD

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 10, 11 July 1936, Page 10

NEARLY 100 YEARS OLD

MR. JOHN KILMISTER

MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS

Mr. John Kilmister, of Cottleville Terrace, Tinakori Road, one of Wellingtons early settlers, will celebrate his 100 th birthday on' Tuesday next. He was born at Bath, England, and, with his parents" arrived in- Wellington oh .March 17, 1841, by the ship Lady Nugent. He has . lived in or ' near Wellington ever since (about 95 years) excepting for a little. time which he spent in the South Island, at Kaikoura and Gabriel's Gully during the gold rush. . . .'.■"■

The first home of the Kilmister family was a hut at.the top of Bolton Street. His father took an active part in the pioneer settlement of the.Wellington district, pit-sawed >the- timber

for the first house in Khandallah, and assisted in completing the road between Johnsonville and Porirua. The family, shifted to the Hutt, and .subsequently built a house on a section of land on what is now.called The Terrace. The Kilmisters moved to a section of land at Porirua, and later to a farm on the Tinakori Hills, near where the wireless station is now. Mr. Kilmister's. father was' one of the first to start making the road from Wellington to Karori; and he and his brother took part in making a road- through Wadestown. Subsequently John Kilmister bought a farm, at Karori. . He married Sarah Anne Judd, and they and'their family lived on this farm for many years—until their eldest boys were able to take over the property. When Mr. John Kilmister retired from active life as a farmer he came to live in. Wellington. His wife died in 1931 at the age of 88 years. It may also be mentioned that his lather ; and mother died on the same day in the year 1904—his father then being' 96 years of age.and his mother .94.

Many stories of early Wellington are told by Mr. Kilmister. When the family first came here there were Maori pas at Te Aro, Thorndon, and at Kaiwarra. He was twelve years of age when the earthquake of 1848 occurred. He states that he was playing marbles at the time, and was surprised to see his marbles rolling about on the ground. When the family, shifted, to the Hutt, the Natives helped them to build their home. On their removal back to Wellington, the timber for the jiew home was Rafted down the Hutt River and across the harbour.- The earthquake of 1855, he states, started at about 9 o'clock at night and occasional shakes occurred for some days. Mr. Kilmister says that his life in the early days was a hard one, but he looked aft^er himself; he had not been a drinking man, had never smoked, and had always eaten a little less than he felt able to eat.