AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2516, 4 June 1902, Page 10

AS OLD AS QUEEN VICTORIA.

There is not a great number of people) living in this country who were born in the same year as Queen Victoria. They who entered the world so long ago as 1819 and are still with us hale and hearty, are un- - doubtedly in the running to become centenarians. A' notable example of this very small band is Mrs Elizabeth Euller, of Ngv 44, Ryder street, Surry Hills, Sydney. 'This venerable old lady-^iyas born in England and came to Australia with her fiusband before she had attained her eighteenth year, long previotis to the great gold" rush". She has,^ therefore, already- reached the full age attained by Wellington, Goethe, Victor "Hugo; - Bismarclc, and Tennyspn, who found! time to accomplish a vast amount of enduring work, which establishes the fact that it is not among the most uneventful or least: suffering lives we must look for examples of longevity. If that were not so, we should not now be writing" of Mrs Fuller's career. To work strenuously for many years building up a competency, to succeed in that effort, and then to have the proceeds of your industry swept away by the miserable procesa of litigation is disheartening to the lasfc degree. • That is what happened to Mrs Fuller. A weaker mind than hers would have become unbalanced by such a disaster. But that is not all. It is proverbial that! troubles come not as single spies but in whole battalions, and so it was in this case. Enjoying excellent health, scarce knowing what rerious illness was during the first 71 years of her life, Mrs -Fuller now met with a.i accident. Losing her footing while ascending the stairs, she sustained a fractured arm and collar-bone — a serious calamity to befall anybody, but specially a woman 71 years of age.

Mrs Fuller thus writes of her experiences consequent upon her accident: "I became an inmate of the Sydney Hospital, and after being in some degree patched up there, was discharged within two months as cured. My worst troubles, however, were only just be~; ginning. " The fall must have wrenched my - back and injured my kidneys, for a' dull! continuous pain set in -in that region which ' allowed me no 4 est by day or night, produo • ing .urinary difficulties of a .most distress- < ing nature, and an obstinate constipation. ,- I visited the leading hospitals an outdoor . patient, and was at .one time under treat->" ment at my own home by a 'lady doctor!' None of the plasters, liniments, lotions, cr • other medicines -they gave me proved of any ' service. As time passed, the pain in my " back increased so much that tho agony 'I endured was intolerable, and I felt as if." I could have welcomed death to end my sufforings. In this wretched condition I remained two years. Then my daughter, Mrs W. Johnson, of Arden street,- Waverley, bought mo three of Mother Seigel's Soothing Plasters, a box of Mother Seigel's Operating Pills, and a bottle of Mother Seigel'a Curative Syrup. She did this on the advice of a, friend who said he_ was sure they would relieve my sufferings if given a fair triaL Happily for me, the accuracy of his belief was soon established, for the Plasters, used in conjunction with the Syrup and Pills,, at once reduced the backache to a tolerable degree, and in two months had quite mastered it. I was once more able to eat, sleep, and get about in comfort. After bqi long an illness, and at my advanced age, a quick restoration to perfect health andi strength was not to be expected, but I persevered with the three Seigel remedies for six months, and was rewarded by a daily improvement in my condition. At the end of that time I felt as well as a person of my yean could hope to be, and I have remained well from that day to this." The loss of Mrs Fuller's well-earned savings has been in some degree repaired -by the grant of an old-age pension by tho beneficent State of New .South Wales — a boon extended only to those who have resided in the State continuously for at leasfc 25 years, and in itself a sure warrant of the respectability and honour of the recipient. A good thing, and one to be devoutly thankful for, without doubt, but less wonderful than, that other relief which Mrs Fuller ha» bo well described and acknowledged.

The local Coronation Celebration Committee have adopted the following programme for Balclutha. — Religious service irt Oddfellows' Hall at 11 a.m.. at which the children will take a leading part: procession at 2.30 p.m. of volunteers, Oddfellows, school children, and the goforal public:' bonfire on the hill north o f ~* ''-'utha a€ 6.30 p.m. ; fireworks on Doma "* p.m. ; the whole programme to com --ith a concert at 8 p.m.

Mahuta's village of Waahi, on the. Waikato River, has the unique distinction o£ possessing a band of feminine musicians. This is a fife, or rather whistle, band of 11 Maori girls and women, augmented by the ncces=ary male in the pei-son of a youth who acts as drummer. The ladies' instruments are long tin whistles, and the effect, with the addition of the drum, is exactly that of a drum and fife band, rather highpitched, but sweet and pleasing. When the Native Minister and party visited Mahuta'9 settlement last week the ladies' fife band: met them, played them up to the. entrance to the village marae. and then opened out into two ranks and played away on a. popular hymn tune Maorififd into quicktime as the victors marched solemnly through. One of the members of the band (says the Auckland Star) is a rather remark* able-lookinjr girl by reason of her peculiar golden-reddish head of hair. She is a pureblooded Maori, but is what the Natives call an " urukehu," a survival of an ancient golden-haired tinge in the Maori, a relic of some long-forgotten racial strain of Aryznt blood which now and again crop» out in tho Maori and tii« Podvueßuiu