A PIONEER SETTLER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 27, 31 December 1925, Page 2

A PIONEER SETTLER.

DEATH OF MR REUBEN PARR. HOME IN THE WILDERNESS.

TE AROHA, Dec. 30. There passed away last night at To Aroha at the ripe age of 86 years one of the best known of the early Waikato pioneers in the person of Mr Reuben Parr. Mr Parr left to mourn him a family of two sons and two daughters, the eldest son being Sir James Parr, Minister of Education, Justice and. Postmaster-General. The family were all present at the timo of his death. Ho liad an adventurous and interesting career, passing through all the ups and downs of the early colonial days. A native of Nottinghamshire, England, he migrated at the ago of 20 years to Canterbury, where he was employed by the first runholders at View Hill, Oxford,.on their estate. Subsequently he married and came to the North Island in 1867. After a brief sojourn at the Thames goldfields, whero fortune did not favour him, Mr Parr went to the Waikato and was a pioneer of the well-known Monovale Estate, near Cambridge, of which he was manager tor Mr E. B. Walker and Mr C. Douglas, and Mr A. Price for soma years. Being satisfied of the iertility of the Waikato ho then took up virgin land himself at Pukerimu, where hil family were born, and in 1877 this sturdy pioneer trekked out into (the comparative wilderness, this bime taking up a large area at Waitoa, in the Hauraki Plains. Like many of the early settlers, however, he lost almost everything in the disastrous slump of the eighties, and had to give up his new venture. With characteristic courage he again took up new swamp country, and, being an experienced farmer, he made a great success of his latest venture, enabling him to retire in comfort in Te Aroha, where ho lived with a married daughter for many years. Mr Parr was a settler of enterprise. He was the first to introduce into the Waikato the modern reaper and binder. The early days were full of trouble owing to difficulties with the Maoris, and Mr Parr will be remembered best by the few remaining old hands as the trumpeter in the Cambridge troop of the Waikato Cavalry, raised in the early seventies by the late Major Jackson for the defen.ee of the white settlers. . Mr ,Parr was a popular figuro not only in the Waikato, but at the Thames, where the famous Reuben Parr gold mine was named by its owner after him. In the early days ho was a member of many local bodies and took a keen interest in sport, being for over forty years clerk of the course of the Te Aroha Jockey Club. On his retirement about six years ago ho was created a life member of the club and presented with a special gold medallion by tho members. He strongly believed in tho value of education. His eldest son, Sir James, often referred to tho sacrifice made by his father during the worst times to keep him at a good school in town in the early days, Mr Parr was one of the late Sir William Herries’ greatest personal friends and was chairman of his To Aroha committee for over twenty years, continuing his activities up to the last election in the interests of the party of which he was- always a staunch supporter. Mr Parris family are Sir James Parr, Mr John Parr (importer, Auckland), Mrs W. Corcoran (Te Aroha), and Mrs W. Hodgson (Hamilton). There are - nineteen grandchildren and itwo great-grand-childron.