AFTER FIFTY YEARS.
OLD SHIPMATES' REUNION. JUBILEE OF THE WAITANGI. A largo number of the passengers who arrived at Lyttelton by the ship Waitansi on October 13, 1878, assembled in Cliristchurch last Saturday to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the event. Mr. P. Morrison presided. Mr. J. 0 Jameson, who was largely responsible for tho gathering, read a list of about 130 surviving passengers, which he said was not absolutely complete. Many names were called without a response, but a very fair proportion of the passengers who had survived the halfcentury stood up to receive a printed sou venir of the reunion. The souvenir was illustrated by a picture of the ship, which was of 1128 tons register, photographs of Captain Ilodder and Mr. Barns (first mate) and a photograph of the Market Square, Cliristchurch, in the 70's, with tho old post office and a gathering of early settlers in horse-drawn vehicles or on horseback. 4
The officers on the ship were:—Captain Ilodder, Mr. Fred IT. Barns, first mate; Mr. Wollastou, second mate: Mt\ Hammond, third mate; Mr. James Beale. boatswain; and Dr. Ross, surgeon. Those who issued the invitation to the reunion were:—Messrs. Patrick Morrison, David llawke, Frank Penfold and James Beale.
Mr. Alfred Bunn, aged 76 years, recited, in verse composed by himself, a story of the voyage and recounted some anecdotes of 50 years ago. The chairman, after singing a verso of a sea chanty, which ho said ho picked up on the Waitangi, confessed to having been threatened with a bread and water diet by tho captain—a threat which was never carried out. Mr. Morrison, whose ago is 67 years, gave his account of the voyage in song, enriched by an Irish brogue and with laughter-compelling references to the anguish of relatives at his departure «*tnd an amazing adventure in the roaring 'forties, when he was washed overboard by a giant wave and lifted back on the deck by two others, landing in a group of fellow-passengers.
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New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20080, 18 October 1928, Page 14
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331AFTER FIFTY YEARS. New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20080, 18 October 1928, Page 14
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