A LINK WITH THE PAST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16581, 3 July 1917, Page 6

A LINK WITH THE PAST

OLD NEW'ZEALANDER DEAD.

BORN NEARLY 90 YEARS AGO.

The death of Mrs. Caroline Elizabeth Bedlington, a native of the Bay of Islands, who was stated to be the oldest living New Zealand-born European at the time of her death, took place at Whangarei on June 23. She was bora at Paihia, Bay of Islands, on October 15, 1828, and thus was in her 89th year. She was the eldest of the 12 children of the late Mr. Gilbert Mair, one of the earliest settlers in the Bay of Islands, who subsequently settled permanently at Whangarei at the end of 1842.

Mrs. Bedlington, who retained the use of her faculties till quite recently, was able to speak with personal knowledge of many of the interesting events associated with the early days of settlement and colonisation in New Zealand. As a girl of 11 years of age she witnessed the arrival of Captain Hobson, New Zealand's first Governor, and with her parents she saw the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. She also remembered the first visit paid by the late Bishop Selwyn to the Bay of Islands. Mrs. Bedlmgton's husband, to whom she was married in 1861, died in 1891. They had three sons Percy, Claude and Stanley—of whom the last-named only is now alive. There also was one daughter, Mrs. Arthur Hooper. Mr. Percy Bedlington's two sons both enlisted. The elder, Roy, was killed at Hill 60, Gallipoli. The younger, Keith, is still serving in France. When attending the Marsden Centenary celebrations at the Bay of Islands on Chribtmas Day, 1914, Mrs. Bedlington was introduced to the representatives of the Marsden family— A. W. Betts, a grandson, and his niece, Miss Betts, and Miss Marsden, a grand-daughterall of whom were greatly interested in hearing the aged lady's personal reminiscences of their distinguished grandfather. Till quite recently Mrs. Bedlington was able to attend church. Her death occurred after an illness of about seven weeks. She was laid to rest beside her husband in the graveyard at Christ Church, Whangarei.