Her Hundredth Year.

Gisborne Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 10744, 15 November 1928, Page 6

Her Hundredth Year.

IR. C. BLACKBURN’S MOTHER. ■Cheerful outlook on Lip;/ “I like to hear people laugh and ' know they are happy,” is the. aeerful outlook oii life held by an sh'burtop lady who is now within a '.ar of attaining her century. This Mrs. Sarah Tresize, who resides ith her daughter (Mrs. E. M. Ritlie) at 113 « Tailored Street (Ash■jrton). , In an interview occasioned by her ilebration last week of her ninetyinth . birthday. Mrs. Tresize gave vidence of the retention of wonder......ii vitality. Apart from slight deafness and ♦nd occasional lapse of memory, the ild lady has retained her faculties ind has many interesting tales to •.ell of the old days, when aeroplanes, notor-cars and fast steamboats were unheard of. She spends her days in her easy chair, muting and, perhaps, sometimes thinking of the days gone by. She needs no glasses to aid her in reading. Born in Croydon, on October 29, 1829, Mrs. Tresize has seen four Sovereigns, on tlm throne of Eng!and, being eight years old when Queen Victoria, was icrowned. In '.354, she married Mr. Alfred Blackmrn, and in 1363 they came to New Zealand in the sailing ship Metro)olis, landing at Lyttelton on June .7, after being 101 days on the ourney. They brought three children /ith them, Mrs. T. A. Harrison, now .ead; Mrs. T. E. Barnard, now in ydney; and Mrs. Ritchie. Three oils were born in New Zealand, lessrs A, H. Blackburn, of Devonort; B-. Blackburn, of Wellington; nd C. Blackburn, of Gisborne. The new arrivals carried all their, orldl.v belongings over the hills rom Lyttelton, and Mr. Blackburn uind employment when tile work of iercing the hills commenced. In uigust, 1860, he was appointed tationmaster at Templeton, and in 874 he. took up a similar position t Rakaia, then a very small duser of buildings. He retired in .1893, nd lived there till his death in 1906. ..'hree years later Mrs. Blackburn carried Mr. John Tresize, who died 11 1911. Mrs. Tresize has seventeen ;randchildren and twenty-five greatTandehildren. Airs. Tresize’s only brother, who ived till he was eighty-seven, fought 1 the battles of the Crimea, includng the Inkerman and Balaclava, .ought in the Indian Alutiny, and 3 ter took port in the Alaori wars in Hew Zealand. Airs. Tresize recalld the stirring davs that preceded ’ ‘ r ~ ■- rl