WANGANUI PIONEER

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 21, 23 December 1938, Page 4

WANGANUI PIONEER

MRS D. G. POLSON. WANGANUI, Dec. 22. Living quietly in her home in College Street, Wanganui, Mrs I). G. Poison yesterday received many callers who wished her many happy returns. It was her 92nd birthday. Mrs Poison continues to enjoy good health in her old age, yet it was in consequence of indifferent health that in her youth she was brought to New Zealand by her mother. The Edinburgh physician who recommended a change of country was none other than Dr. James Simpson, the discoverer of chloroform !

Mrs Poison is a native of Stirling, Scotland, and first resided in Dunedin where she met her husband, the late Mr Donald Gunn Poison. On her marriage she came to Wanganui where her husband bought the Manurewa station. In the early days it was necessary to pole all stores up the river and this work was done by the Maoris.

Mrs Poison was present at the opening of the Wanganui Town Bridge, the scheme for financing it having been formulated by her husband. On the occasion of the last visit of the famous Maori rebel, Tee Kooti, to the Wanganui district, he sought to go through the Manurewa Station, but Mr W. J. Poison, now member of Parliament for Stratford, then only a lad refused permission until his father had given the word. The Maoris responded by proclaiming that “We are now ‘on the law’.” They then sat clown on the riverbank and sang a song. When Mr D. G. Poison arrived he found Te Kooti wearing a top hat, a frock coat, and a blanket instead of trousers, and no boots. He was astride a horse. Mr Poison not only gave permission for the Maoris to pass through the station, but gave them a fork, sent them into a field of potatoes and told them to dig as many as they wanted. He also gave them sheep to roast. There were' about 80 Maoris in the party and they were making towards the East Coast.