HUNDRED NEXT YEAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21274, 30 August 1932, Page 10

HUNDRED NEXT YEAR

LONG-LIVED SCOTSWOMAN HAD ONLY ONE ILLNESS MEMORIES OF FIRST TRAINS Looking forward keenly to the celebration of her 100 th birthday next April, Mrs. Eliza Ness, of Onehunga, declared proudly yesterday that, except for a slight attack of scarletina when a child, she has never had a day's illness.

King William IV. was on throne when Mrs. Ness was born at West Calder, near Edinburgh, on April 22, 1833, and the cry of stage-coach owners, denouncing the dangers of the railways, was then loud in the Kingdom. Mrs. Ness remembers travelling to Glasgow as a girl on the first railway built in Scotland. "The carriages then were very different from those of to-day," she said. "They were just open trucks and had no protection from the weather." Mrs. Ness retains a delightful Scottish accent, such as is rarely heard nowadays. Her father was a weaver in Scotland in the days when a suit of clothes would often last a lifetime.

When a girl Mrs. N'efes lived for a time at Bathgate, near Edinburgh,- where the celebrated Dr. James Simpson, whose name is associated with the early use of anaesthesia, was born. She often heard how Simpson, when a' lad, ran about the town in baro feet, delivering hot rolls for folks' breakfasts. His father was the Bathgate baker. Mrs. Ness married in 1863 and arrived at Auckland with her husband, the iate Mr. James C. Ness, in tbo ship Siam in 1867. Mr. Ness was in the employ of Dr. Stockweli, who was also one .of the Siam's passengers. In 1870, Mr. and Mrs. Ness went to Piha and spent the following 10 years in the bush. Sir. Ness was then appointed a warder in tbo mental hospital at Avondalc, but after 11 years' service lie caught a chill when a- fire occurred in the hospital buildings and he never thoroughly recovered. He died in 1917. Mrs. Ness recalled that in her younger days a largo mental asylum at Millholm, Scotland, where she was employed, caught lire, and her great strength enabled her to carry to safety several of .the demented and frenzied inmates, the last one being rescued just a few minutes before the building collapsed. Mrs. Ness has been a staunch member of the Presbyterian Church since girlhood. She is now living with her daughter, Mrs. C. Lindberg, of Church Street, Onehunga, whose husband is an uncle of the famous American airman. Mrs. Ness has bad 10 children, fivo of whom are living, namely, Messrs. Charles and Peter Ness, of Grey Lynn, Mrs. C. Lindberg, of Onehunga, Mrs. F. Walton, of Christchurch, and Mrs.- W. J. Morgan, of To Papapa. There are 26 grandchildren, 48 great- grandchildren, and one grcat-great-grand-daughter. Although frail, Mrs. Noss is still able to walk about the grounds, aided by a stout stick. While her sight is poor, her hearing is remarkably acute, and she is able to converse • brightly. •