OLD COLONIST PASSES

Northern Advocate, 19 April 1933, Page 6

OLD COLONIST PASSES

MR MARCUS WILKINS. (Special to “Northern Advocate.”) . HELENSVILLE, This Day. The death occurred on April 16 of Mr Marcus Wilkins, of Garfield Road, Helensville, at the age of 79 years. Ho was born in Coventry, England, his father being a builder. Later his par--1 exits came to New'Zealand in 1562 with the Nonconformist settlers for North Auckland, the first ships being the Matilda Wattenbach and the Hanover. The rations were doled out but. once a week, •Each adult passenger was entitled to a grant of 4S acres of land from the

Government. On the voyage some of the crew obtained alcoholic drink and there was a. kind of mutiny, with the result that two men were put in irons and handed over to the police on arrival at Auckland. The trip out lasted 116 days. On the following Sunday the family to the Independent Chapel in Albert Street. Mr M. Wilkins was sent to the day school which was conducted in old St. Matthew's Church. Mr Wilkins worked for his father for a time. By the land grants the family secured fin area of 140 acres at the back of Mangawai. The flour had to be packed long distances on the back of men of the settlement. Digging kauri gum enabled the settlers to get cash to buy flour for their families. Some grew a little wheat and ground it into flour with hand mills. The late Sir Henry Brett was one of the passengers in the ship in which Mr Wilkins came to Auckland. The late Bev. Samuel Edgar was a minister on the vessel. Mr Wilkins used to relate that while the family was living in Auckland there was a drought, and his brother put a barrel in a wheelbarrow, with which they used to bring the household supply from a well in Queen Street that was fitted with a pump. That was near the site of the Auckland Stivings Bank. Mr Wilkins, senior, and his sons, Bon and Marcus, next tried their luck on the Hokitika goldfields. They were able to win enough gold to keep them in food and send a little home to thenfamily. They returned to Auckland and tried the Thames goldfields, but soon turned their attention to flax. The next move was to Kaipara, where they took a lease of a timber mill for five years with a purchasing clause. Afterwards they went in for flax-working by five years with a purchasing clause. Afterwards they in for flax working by water-power. For some years pant Mr Wilkins had lived in Helensville, 'where he was greatly esteemed as a man of most genial characteristics. He is survived bv Mrs Wilkins.