MRS. AGNES ISABEL CAFLER PASSES

Northern Advocate, 27 December 1937, Page 4

MRS. AGNES ISABEL CAFLER PASSES

OBITUARY

With the death of Mrs Agnes Isabel Cafler at her home in Cafler’s Avenue yesterday an historic link with the early development of the Northland peninsula has been severed.

Born in Liverpool, England, 70 years ago, Mrs Cafler came out to New Zealand after the death of her first husband, Mr Haigh, of Liverpool. Here she met and married the late Mr Alfred Edouard Cafler and lived with him in Cafler’s Avenue until his death six months ago.

Not only have the late Mr and Mrs Cafler been linked up with the history of New Zealand but Mr Cafler himself came from a family which has seen much of this world’s historic events.

Mr Cafler’s father was born in 1797, the year preceding the French Revolution. He was the founder of the sugarbeet industry in France and was a loyal supporter of Napoleon, being at the age of 18, a lieutenant in the ambulance corps at the Battle of Waterloo.

Arrived At Russell In 1840

In the chaos that followed Napoleon’s downfall Mr Cafler, senior, left for Mauritius, then a French colony. On the advice of his doctor, he came to Sydney in 1837, the year in which Queen Victoria was crowned, and in 1840 he arrived at Russell. He was there when the Maoris under Hone Heke, cut down the historic flagstaff of Kororareka.

In 1846 Mr Caller, senior, went to Akaroa and thence back to France, re--1 i turning to New Zealand in 1853, settling in Whangarei in 1856. He erected a fine house near the town wharf. Mr Alfred Edouard Cafler was born in this house in 1869. He was educated at the Whangarei Primary and High Schools, later entering the legal firm of which Mr T. H. Steadman was the principal. On account of poor health he took up agriculture as a vocation, specialising in poultry farming, and becoming a much-sought-after authority in this industry. Retired From Active Work, /

A number of years ago he retired from all active work because of poor health. He sold the old home at the wharf and came to live in the house lately occupied by him in Cafler’s Avenue, which was named after his father, who died in 1893. Mr Cafler married the late Mrs Cafler about 31 years ago. Mrs Cafler, who had been in indifferent health for some time prior to her death, was a sister of the late Mrs Louisa Bentley, whose husband, the late Mr Bentley, was a well-known Whangarei chemist. The late Mr and Mrs Cafler left no family. Mr F. H. Haigh, the only son of Mrs Cafler’s former marriage, has arrived from England and will take up his residence in Whangarei.