WAR VETERAN'S DEATH

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22209, 9 September 1935, Page 11

WAR VETERAN'S DEATH

OLDEST INMATE OF HOME MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS The oldest resident of the Veterans' Homo, Mount Roskill, Mr. William Anderson, died yesterday at the ace of 94. He had lived at the home for the past six years. Mr. Anderson claimed to have been the first white child born in Wellington, and the whole of his active life was spent within the Dominion.

Until recently Mr. Anderson had vivid childhood recollections of what Wellington was at the time of the early days of the settlement. He knew the site of the present city when it was nothing more than wild unbroken country, with numerous wild pigs roaming about. There were large numbers of Maoris then in tho district, especially in the vicinity of Kaiwarra, where he once lived. At the outbreak of the Maori wars on the East Coast Mr. Anderson left by steamer with a detachment from Auckland just after the Poverty .Bay massacre in 1868. He was engaged with the mounted forces in the pursuit of Te Kooti for about a year, and he was awarded a medal for good work in a skirmish in the vicinity of Ahuriri, Napier. After the war he became associated with the building trade, and continued in it all hisi active life. He is survived by children and. grandchildren, the great majority of whom are in the Dominion.