DEATH OF PIONEER.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 54, 3 February 1937, Page 12

DEATH OF PIONEER.

MRS ELIZABETH GEORGE,

Mrs Elizabeth George, a pioneer resident of the Hutt Valley, died last week, at the age of 92 years. She was well known also in the Wairarapa (states a Wellington paper). The late Mrs George’s parents, Mr and Mrs Alexander Yule, came out to Petone in the barque Bengal Merchant, landing in Petone in Eebruary, 1840. They lived in Petone for two or three years and then moved up to Taita, where Mrs George was born. The Hutt Valley in those days was covered with dense bush, and most of the land was cut up into 20-acre sections, timber-cutting being practically the only industry. Many houses were built high off the ground because of of the prevalence of floods. When Mrs George was 14 or 15 years old about 15 people were drowned in Stokeß Valley through tile flooding of the Hutt River. As the result of the big earthquake of 1855 her father’s house was shifted off its piles and made uninhabitable.

When Mrs George was 18 years old the family removed to the Waifarapa district to take up farming at East Taratahi. Apart from five years spent in Taranaki, Mrs George lived in the Wairarapa until she returned to Petone two years ago. Surviving members of her family are Mr Alex George (Tawaha), Mr T. George (Akatarawa), Mr James George (Martinborough). Mrs H. Carty (Petone), Mrs D. Murray (Lower Hutt), and Mrs A. Taylor (Palmerston North). MRS M. G. BIBBY. The death occurred suddenly, yesterday, of Mrs Mary Glover Bibby, of Napier. Aged- 69, Mrs Bibby suffered an illness a short time ago, but she had recovered. She was an indefatigable social worker and was keenly interested in the principal women’s organisations in the district, including the Women’s Institute and the W.C.T.U. She received a jubilee medal in 1935, and was for many years a resident in the Waipawa district.