EARLY SETTLERS

Evening Star, Issue 23832, 12 March 1941, Page 3

EARLY SETTLERS

MEETING OF ASSOCIATION COMMITTEE The monthly meeting of the committee of the Otago Early Settlers" Association was held yesterday afternoon, when there were present the president, Mr W. J. Strong (in the chair), and Messrs W. H. Ferens, A. F. Cheyne, J. Hope, F. H. Gampbell, J. W. Patton, E. Webster, J. Dey, H. Baron, A. G. M'Kenzie, R. T. Stewart, F. W. Knight, D. J. Calder, and W. K. Bru & h - .. ■ j j The following gifts were received and votes of thanks passed to the donors:— From Mrs E. Edmond, Ravensbourne, interesting photograph of the driving of the first pile, Mole, Otago Heads, and also a photograph of early St. Clair. From the Misses Mackav, East Taieri, a very old telescope field glass, brought to Otago by their late father, 18M. Also his Bible, psalm book, and also old Gaelic book dated 1811; from Mr A. J.' Arliss, nominal roll, 7th Contingent Boor War, 1901, and copy of 'The Times' (London), .1805; from Mrs M Turner, framed portraits of Mr and Mrs W. Turner, 1861. In addition to these the Secretary reported having received on Monday from the descendants of Mr William Dawson, an early settler and a member of the association, • some gifts of outstanding historical interest. Thev were as follows:—From Mrs Windleborn,' o"f Waimate, a made from the first gold discovered in the Tuapeka district. The gold from which it was made was taken from the creek bed at the lower end of Gabriel's Gully in February, 1858, nearly three years before the arrival in New Zealand of Gabriel Bead, tho prospector after whom the gully was later given its name; from Mr G. T. Dawson, Timaru, a greenstone tiki found in 1861 by the southern mailman when crossing the Edendale Plains, and given by him to Mr Dawson's late father, who was his companion on the journey; a snuff box or " sneeshin-

mull,” made in Scotland a century and' a-half ago, from potatoes, and brought to' New Zealand by Mr Dawson’s father in. the ship Phoebe Dunbar, 1850. The box contains a quantity of the snuff with which" it was originally filled in Scotland; tho anvil on which Mr Dawson’s late father sharpened the first picks used in open* ing the Kaitangata coal mine in 1856. The following deaths were recorded during the mouth:—Mrs Alex. Whyte, 1850’a; Mrs Susan Parker, Leith street, 1860’s; Alex. Petrie, Berwick, 80, descendant, Agra, 1852; John W. Davison, Dunedin, 1864; Mrs Emily Wood, Auckland, late Dunedin, 81, 1863; Miss Edith Hodgkinson. 81, Invercargill, s.s. Airedale, 1860. The following descendants were enrolled during ( the month:—Mrs Hawthorne Miller,., Wellington, great-great-grandfather, lame* Paterson, George Canning. *1857; Mrs M. Turner, St. Clair, father, Ttiorndean, 1867; Miss F. M. Clearwater, Broad Bay, grandfather, Whaler, 1840; John Andrew, Hyde; great grandparents, Mjiori, 1852; Mrs E. Edmond, Eavensbourne, father, 1862; John M‘Lew, Morrison’s, father, Lady Egidia, 1860; Henry Barker, Wanaka, father, s.s. Aldinga, 1863; Henry Fraser, Milton, father. Jura, 1858; Robert H. M’Millau, Milton, father. James M’Millan, Strathmore, 1856; Mrs R. L. Cook, Milbum, grandfather, Bernicia, 1848: Miss J. Parlanc, Milton, parents, early 1860’s; Mrs E. Searle, Bathgate road, South Dunedin, father, Mariner, I 860; Mrs A. T. W. Roberts, Oamaru, mother. Resolute. 1864; Mrs W. Bennett, Baldwin street, North-east Valley, -father, 1860’s; Mrs James Fleming,- Abbotsford, parents, Silistria, I 860; Mrs M, C. Harland, Dunedin,'grandmother, Philip Laing, 1848; Albert G. Melville. Gore, grandfather. Lady Egidia, 1861; Mrs Donald M’Donald, Abbotsford, parents, Aboukir, 1864; Mrs David E. Paton, Maheno, father. Prince of Wales, 1863; Mrs M. I. MTntyre, Balclutha, father, Hamilla Mitchell, 1864; James F, Suther-. land, Invercargill, parents, Henrietta, 1860; Mrs J. Powell, Christchurch, mother, Silistria, 1850; John Thomas Black, Dunedin, father, Alpine, 1859: Misses Selina and Ellea C. Brown, Woodhaugh, father, early 1860’s; Misses Agnes F. and Margaret P. Brook, South Dunedin, grandparents, Crimea, 1863; Mrs N. H. M'Pherson, Dunedin, grand-