AN INTERESTING MEMOIR.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1712, 31 December 1919, Page 2

AN INTERESTING MEMOIR.

THE LATE MRS THOMAS KEBBELL.

On January 22 next it will bo 80 years since the pioneers of the New Zealand Company landed at Petone, and laid the foundation of the settlement of New Zealand. Ship after ship followed in succession laden with immigrants and stores, and among them was the Blenheim, which cast anchor in Port Nicholson on December 27, 1840, welcomed by bright sunshine. Among her passengers was a girl twelve years of age accompanying her father, mother, brothers, and sister, who had left the homo of their ancestors to found a now home in a new land, McDonalds of Druimantorran, in Scotland, they sought a favourable turn of fortune’s wheel in New Zealand. The people of to-day cannot really form any conception of travel as it was iu those days. The Blenheim was a ship of 373 tons burthen, and on that voyage carried 197 passengers, besides officers and crev.’. Salt moat i and biscuits were the staple food, and the i voyage lasted four months. the excitement of the child on waking one i morning and finding the ship at anchor may !bo imagined, and her joy at seeing the 1 beautiful harbour of Port Nicholson, suri rounded by bills, bush-clad to tho water’s edge and alive with singing birds, created ian impression which lasted her lifetime, i For eight years she saw forest disappear

to give place to dwellings aim paw-no "m----iug the infancy of the city of Wellington. Towards the end of 1848 she married Mr Thomas Kcbboll, who was then a pioneer settler on tho banks of the Manawatu river but in the meantime she nacl oxpeneneed the awful earthquake of that year. Imit convulsion so disturbed the peace of mind of some of the settlers that they chartered a schooner to take themselves a;id then goods and chatels to Sydney. He ysi ei at tho earliest, moment, and among tliem, was one of three men prominent in nc ca for constitutional government, ::n “ wore known as “'1 he 1 hive I' s - ( wreck of the schooner at the licalls put <- end to the desire of Dr William I' lt/.horber to cast the dust of New Zealand from oil his feet, and he subsequently did great service to the colony in helping to adjust tli ■ differences between Downing street and us distant proleg, ending in the launching o th(> “self-reliant” policy which ] quickly brought an end to the Native troubles that iiithcrto under tho Imperial contiol, i' !,seamed interminable. , The bride accompanied her husband r< | the Manawatu, making the jonrned on : horseback, which at that time was the only

alternative to walking, ivmmg . (Old Porirua road, ami passing tho Im ■ 1 Harbour on the west side, they swain th ■ horses across the entrance to the harbom ' at the ferrv east of where Plimmerlon Uo\\ I stands. Following (lie Maori track through | tho bush over the Pukcrua hill and urn.. ! (o the seashore, they rode along the coas ■ t to the Manawatu river, and thcnco to then l'T°; nowadavs know of the difficulties i which then beset travellers on that coast 'high spring tides, the rivers \\ a.kauam ! Otaki, Muuakau, and Oliau each Indue to S flood, and each with a deep channel running j back into the sandhills. Many a travelle I had been compelled to wait for hours

('vi'll (lays until tin' fl«ul had subsu <n or tho tide lip.il ('I)IxhI sufficiently to. allow of a passage .in comparatively shallow wat (he line of the breaking waves; or m the ease of tho XJlaki the traveller miglP have made a laboured journey, odamh an sought, the assistance, of a friendly Maoii who would lake him across the river m a canoe and tow the horse behind, « (lavs the. bench was tho mam road muthward from Paekakariki. as fai as Ico Ferry on the Bangitikei nyer. The earthquake of. 1856 «n ; cedented floods m the river end. d the M na watu venture, and the bride of 48, wHI three children out of four (one having me the “New Zealand death" -drowned in the river! were brought to Wellington where she saw' further great changes in the d; velopmont of the city. She had ah eao> seen forest removed for dwelling and p< ■ tores; later she saw shops and stores ieplaeo dwellings, and still later slio saw dwellings dis)jlaco horses and cows. , Nurtured ia times wii"ii womans rights" were motherhood and home management, homo life was the life of tno .ate ■ Mrs Kehbell. With nil her faculties clear to within a few hours of death, she h\ed loved hv children, grandchildren, and greatcramt' hildren. With her dead,, it might almost, he said that the foundation of this Dominion has now passed from, the ken of the eve-witness into tho domain ot tradition.—Dominion.