BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 63, 12 February 1936, Page 2

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS

MAORI WAR RECALLED. HAWERA, Feb. 10. Two of South Taranaki’s oldest residents, Mr Henry Betts, of Okaiawa, and Miss Ginger, of Hawera, celebrated their birthdays within a of each other. Mrs Betts was 99 on Saturday, and Miss Ginger 97 on Friday. Mr Betts is the “grand old mail” of South Taranaki. He has enjoyed wonderfully good health and led an active life until about two years ago, when his health commenced to fail. During the past 12 months he has been practically confined to his house, and now spends most of his time being wheeled about in a chair. Mr Betts came from Kent, England, where he was born in 1837, the year of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne. He first settled in Canterbury, but later took up his residence at Okaiawa when the district was being won from the bush., For more than 50 years he has lived in his present homestead. An enthusiastic gardener, Mr Betts soon transformed his section into a beautiful garden—one of the show places of the district. Miss Ginger, whose relatives were closely connected with the development of the Manutalii district, came to New Plymouth 84 years ago. Her family lived in North Taranaki through the Maori wars, except for a period when, leaving her father and his two elder sons, who were on active service, the family removed to Nelson to escape danger. After hostilities ceased the family removed to South Taranaki where Miss Ginger, the only survivor, has lived ever since.