WAIKATO PIONEER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21861, 25 July 1934, Page 12

WAIKATO PIONEER

NINETY-SEVEN NEXt WEEK MAORI WAR EXPERIENCES [from our own correspondent] MORRINSVILLE, Tuesday An old resident of Morrinsville, Mr. Enos Holloway, will celebrate his 97th birthday next Tuesday. Mr. Holloway still enjoys good health, and is frequently to bo seen walking about tho streets of Morrinsville. Mr. Holloway was born in Bristol in 1837, tho year that Queen Victoria ascended the Throne. As a youth he learned the baking trade from his father, who had a contract to supply bread to the Great Western Railway Company. He enlisted in the Army at tho age of 18, and left England for Australia with his regiment in the troopship Windsor, which struck a sand bank at Williamstown, near Melbourne, the troops, numbering 400, being taken ashore in small boats.

In 1870, following the commencement of the M/iori War in Taranaki, the 40th Regiment, in which Mr. Holloway was serving, was ordered to New Zealand from Australia. Among other exciting incidents, Mr. Holloway took part in the disastrous attack on the Puketakauero Pa, near Wnitara, when the British casualties were (30 out of an attacking force of 250. Among tho defenders of tho pa on this occasion was the renowned King Country fighter Hewi Maniapoto. Mr. Holloway is one of the few survivors of this attacking force.

During the Waikato War of 1863-64 Mr. Holloway served as a baker on the commissariat staff. Bread was " baked in portable ovens. On receiving his discharge from the Army, Mr. Holloway followed his occupation "as a baker, first at To Awamutu and then at Cambridge. In those days much of his bread was made from wheat grown by Waikato Maoris. Mr. Holloway is a big man, weighing over 12st. His mental powers are undiminished and his'recollections of tho pioneering days in New Zealand aro clear. Mr. Holloway was married at Te Awamutu on September 21, 1866. Mrs. Holloway is 85 years of ago. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway had a family of .14, of whom six are still living. Thero are 21 grandchildren.