Woman Pioneer’s Death

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 3, 4 January 1941, Page 2

Woman Pioneer’s Death

MRS A. L. WILLIAMS, GISBORNE The death has occurred of Airs. Agnes Lydia Williams, widow of the late Air. T. S. Williams, and a pioneer in the true sense of the word, who had her home in tho Waiapu in tho uiuties and exercised the greatest influence in that area through a gracious personality and strong religious feeling, says the Poverty Bay Herald. Mrs. Williams was probably the oldest surviving settler on the East Coast, for she had reached the age of 85 years und had lived there since her husband took up the management of what was then known as the Tuparoa Run in 1894. They established themselves at Kaliarau, the homestead of the previous owner of the run, and continued to live on the same site to the time of their deaths. Born at the Bay of Islands, Mrs. Williams was a descendant of the second generation from two outstanding figures in the early colonisation of the Dominion. Her father was Air. John Williams, fifth son of Archdeacon Henry Williams, and her mother was the only daughter of Air. James Busby. Thus she was a grand-daughter of two men who had most to do with the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, for it was through the influence of Air. Busby, Bri tish Resident, and Archdeacon Henry Williams that the reluctance of the Alaori chiefs was overcome, and the sovereignty of British acknowledged.