THE LATE REV. J. B. WATKIN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18929, 29 January 1925, Page 7

THE LATE REV. J. B. WATKIN.

Sir, —In your issue of January 26 appeared a biographical sketch of the late Rev. Jabez Bunting Watkin, who is stated to have passed away in his ninetieth year. When on a visit to Tonga as the guest of Mr. Watkin some two years ago, he pointed out to me ths site on which, stood the house of that notable native ruler King Taufa-ahau, on the island of Lifuka, in the Haapai group of the Friendly Islands, He told me that he was born in . the King's house, whither his mother had been removed at the King's instigation, during a hurricane that, raged on March 31, 1837. In the judgment of the King, the modest mission house Of his father was unsafe for a woman in delicate state of health m a, time of storm. The date of Mr. Watkin s birth I subsequently verified from h'S father's journal, which is now stored in the Mitchell Library in Sydney. Mr. Watkin was therefore in his 83th year at the time of his death. It may be of interest to note that his father, the lato Rev. James Watkin, left the Friendly Islands for Sydney about the year and on May 17, 1840, landed at Waikouaiti Bay, Otago, from the brig Regia {pot the Magnet as erroneously stated m l)r. Hocken's History), to inaugurate the firs v Christian mission to the.Maoris _of tfca South Island. At Waikouaiti Mr. Watkin lived with his family, including Jabez, for over four years. Jabss subsequently became a local preacher in Christchurch, and in 1863 was received into the Methodist ministry in Queensland. In tlie year 1866 he returned to the islands of his a>S a missionary, and has ever since laboured Palmerston North, January 27, 1925.