EARLY SETTLERS’ ASSOCIATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12185, 9 July 1925, Page 3

EARLY SETTLERS’ ASSOCIATION

ADDRESS BY STO THOMAS McKenzie. There was a large gathering at the Old Settlers' Hall last evening, when Sir Thomas McKenzie, late High Commissioner of New Zealand, delivered an interesting address on the early settlement of the Dominion. Sir Thomas, who was greeted with sustained applause, dwelt on the progress of Wellington since his first acquaintance with the country. His first introduction to Wellington, he explained, was in 1873. when he Visited his brother in the Hutt Valley and afterwards joined him on a survey party in the R&ngitikei. Ho was, he considered, one of the first white men to put an axo to that great stretch of country which extended to Taihupe and further. His first acquaintance with New Zealand was earlier than. that, his father coming to New Zealand in 1858. "Our first house was not such as is demanded by every young person getting married in these days," said Sir Thomas.

"Our first home was a mud hut, and afterwards a fern-tree whare of three rooms. And I have heard my mother say that the happiest days of her life : were those spent in that fem-tree house." He had gone to school in a little mud school five miles away—the first school built in Otago. Sir Thomas mentioned that a similar association to that in Wellington existed in Dunedin. He pointed out that Otago was settled by the Presbyterian Church and Canterbury by the Church of England, as the result of the Oxford movement. "I am not sure that Wellington or Auckland were settled by people of particular religious tendencies," he 6aid, "which probably explains why they had flourished so considerably." (Laughter.) In Otago, he said, the landing was celebrated by a religious service, in Christchurch by a boll, which indicated the difference between the two nationalities.

Speaking of the Southern Sounds, Sir Thomas stated' that he. with his party, was tho first to open communications in 1894 between the Southern .Lakes and Dusky Sound, and kept his audience in continuous Imighter ns ho recounted humourous incidents in connection with the trip. He dealt at length with the various discoveries in Southern Otago, including McKinnon Pass, which he took tho first party through after McKinnon's trip. On the motion of Mr I?. McLean a hearty vote of thanks to Sir Thomas McKenzie was carried by acclamation.