ROMANTIC LIFE ENDED.

Otago Witness, Issue 3775, 20 July 1926, Page 77

ROMANTIC LIFE ENDED.

DEATH OF MRS BEDGGOOD. AUCKLAND, July 13. The late Mrs Bedggootl, of Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, whose death occurred yesterday, was the oldest surviving white woman born in New Zealand, and was a notable identity of the north. She was the youngest child of John King, one of the Rev. Samuel Marsden’s pioneer party of three lay missionaries. Her death breaks the chain that has linked the present with that far past beyond the coming of Governor Hobson and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, when the Maoris held undisputed sway. The pioneer party settled at Oihi, on the’ northern shore of the Bay of Islands, where Marsden’s first sermon in New Zealand was preached on Christmas Day, 1814. There the Marsden Memorial Cross, unveiled in 1907, stands today, and above, it is the little enclosure where many members of the King famikr are buried. The eldest of John King-8 12 children was born in Sydney, and was a baby in arms, when the party arrived. All the rest save Mrs Bedggood were born at Oihi. Her birthplace was the Te Puna settlement, a few miles away, to which the party removed before Kertkeri and Paihia. became thei mission s chief centres. Her brother (Holloway.) was the first white child born in tine country. All Mrs Bedggood’s life wae spent in the Bay of Islands save for a visit to Auckland in the very early days. She went from te Puna to Kerikeri at the age of 22, to keep house for her brother, and there married Mr Bedggood, who died about 10 years ago. Ibe« were no children of the marriage. f The deceased's earlier life was full or thrills. Cannibal feasts often took place within sight of the family’s home, -apd on one occasion the severed heads ot three victims were placed by the feastera on the window sill of John Kings house, so that when the blind was raised in the morning their eyes stared in. That was a typical memory of her girlhood, jghe .maintained a truly wonderful alertness' of body and mind almost till the end of her long and romantic life, which extented into her ninetieth year. She was a toddler of about ’wo and a-lialf yeats when Governor Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over New Zeal an a, and was a girl of school age at the eventful and stirring period of Hone Ileke a war and the sacking of Koreraraka, when bloodshed- and strife were spread over the now -peaceful shores of the Bay of Islands. 1