Still Hale and Hearty at 93

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 144, 20 June 1936, Page 6

Still Hale and Hearty at 93

Mrs. H. S. Buick, Tiakitahuna, Celebrates Birthday POSSIBLE OLDEST NEW ZEALANDER To live to tho age of 93 years and still enjoy comparatively good health is a privilege realised by few, yet this honoured distinction can be claimed by Mrs Helen Stewart Buick, of Tiakitahuna, who celebrated her birthday on Wednesday. She is a remarkable old lady, possessed of all her faculties with the exception of being a little deaf, enjoys a good meal and is able to walk about with tho aid of a stick. On Wednesday there was a family gathering, when the occasion was celebrated by the cutting of a birthday cake and the conveying of customary congratulations. Mrs Buick was born at Waiwetu (Lower Hutt) on June 17, 1543, her parents, the late Mr and Mrs McEwen, having arrived from Scotland in 1841. She married the late Mr Buick, who died 36 years ago, when sho was a young woman of 23 years, and their first home was at Belmont, Lower Hutt. In 1579 tho family decided to move to tho Manawatu, the journey being made by covered-in dray along tho old military road up the Horokiwi Valley and thence along the beach to Foxton. Mr and Mrs Buick walked most of the way on foot whilo tlieir nine children rode in tho dray. Tho first stage of the journey to Karere was made in the train.

Six months after their arrival in the Manawatu, the late Mr Buick took up a 270-acre block of heavy bush land on Jackeytown road, Tiakitahuna. The

first step was to cut out a small halfacre clearing on which a four-roomed house, two-storeys high (two rooms downstairs and two above) was built Vith timber purchased at Rangiotu. The property is still owned by tho family, although the old house has long since disappeared after having served as a stable.

Four more children were born at Tiakitahuna, bringing tho total to 13, of whom nine are still living, namely, Mesdames Edwards (Palmerston North), J. Crothers (Wanganui), B. J. Seddon (Tiakitahuna), Irwin (Dannevirke), Messrs James and David Buick (Tiakitahuna), Mr Barry Buick (Jolmsonville) and Mr Alex Buick (Kauwhata). There were three lots of twins in the family, which must be something of a rocord. There is a possibility that Mrs Buick can lay claim to tho honour of being tho oldest living New Zealander born and bred. In the pioneering days she had to endure many hardships. She can recall many of tho big floods that swept across the countryside in tho early days—bigger floods than are experienced now, she told the “Times” yosterday. There were also heavy earthquakes and as a girl of 13 years of age, she remembers tho terrific upheaval in tho Wellington area when chimneys tumbled down all around them, the bridge over the Hutt river collapsed and the dam supplying tho flour mill with water ran dry. For some time after that they had to eat pollard bread as no flour was available. In the Manawatu there was the plague of mosquitoes. The road into Palmerston North ran close alongside tho railway line, where tho present bitumen highway runs being heavy bush. The way was long and muddy in the horse drays of those days.

Mrs has received numerous congratulations and informed the “Times” yesterday that she was fit for a few more years yet. One of her treasured possessions is a Bible at least 200 years old and containing the names and birth dates of her children.