M.P'S TRIBUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 105, 30 October 1940, Page 12

M.PS TRIBUTE

THE LATE MRS. A. L. GRIBBLE

AN EARLY PIONEER

A tribute to the late Mrs. A. L. Gribble, of Stokes Valley, Heretaunga, whose death at the age of 75 years occurred a few days ago, is paid by Mr. H. E. Combs, M.P., who knew, her very well, and writes as follows:—

In this Centennial year, thoughts of New Zealand as it was come uppermost almost every time one of the older citizens answers the final call. This is particularly the case when such a one happens, to be a really gentlewoman; one of those courageous souls who faced the ups and downs of early colonial life with cheerful patience in their own difficulties and sympathetic encouragement of those more hardly pressed. Just such a pioneer was Mrs. Annie Letitia Gribble, who, as a young girl and woman lived in the Forty Mile Bush, was married, and had her family there. ■'■ Forty miles of bush! What visions of forest giants this conjures up— matai, totara, rimu, tawa —yielding their lordly might to the impact of the settler's destroying axe or the swish of his cross-cut saw; the distant drone of sawmill; the town bell's mellow note in the dusk! What terrors, too, of Nature at war with man! Floods, tornadoes, forest fires, surging over hill and valley, leaving accident, death, desolation, and destitution in their trail! Against, merged into, indeed, a part of such a background moved and had her being Mrs. Gribble, of Stokes Valley. Hospitable to the stranger, gentle to those in trouble, yet intensely practical in facing her daily problems, ■ hers was the same spirit that animated tens of thousands of our pioneer women and helped to build our New Zealand. Theirs as much as anybody's are the achievements of which we are all so proud today.

Forty years ago Mr. and. Mrs. Gribble brought their young family to Wellington and some fifteen years later, in partnership with their daughter and son-in-law, took up a section of swamp and scrub land in Stokes Valley and set about the heavy task of converting it into a smiling farm. The pioneering spirit again to the fore, more ups and downs, but finally success. Now, her labours done, she has passed on, leaving a memory of love and courage to balance the sorrow of those nearest and dearest -to her.

Mr. Gribble predeceased his wife two years ago, as did three of her four children, Messrs. Stanley and Horace, and Mrs. Barnard. The sympathy of a wide circle of friends is extended to her surviving daughter, Mi's. Cecil Young, of Stokes Valley, to her grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.