A PIONEER PASSES

Southland Times, Issue 19395, 8 November 1924, Page 4

A PIONEER PASSES

MRS JANET BLAKIE. The passing of Mrs Janet Blakie at her residence, Crinan street, Invercargill, recalls the early days of settlement in Southland, when the present rich and fertile province was a vast expanse of uncultivated country over which roamed scattered bands of natives who knew this part of the country as Murihiku, or “the tail end” of the South Island. The early settlers, arriving with their families after lengthy and uncomfortable sea voyages from the Old Country, found a task to daunt the hardiest, but it says much for the courage and determination of these fine old pioneers, who bore the heat and burden of the day, that they laid the foundation of the present rich and fertile province. Such a one was the late Mrs Blakie, who was born in Ayrshire in 1842, and who came out to New Zealand with her father and mother, Air and Mrs Jas. Gray, and three sisters, all of whom have predeceased her, in the sailing ship, Sevilla, with Captain Kerr in command, in the year 1864. The family were advised to come to Southland by Mrs Gray’s brother, Mr James Wilson, who was Speaker in the Provincial Council in the days when Southland was a province. After a short time the family took up their residence at Lower Waianiwa. Three years later, Janet Gray married Peter, eldest son of James Blakie, of Ryal Bush. The newly-wedded couple took up their residence in that locality, where they lived for. 40 years. In those times there was no railway, and it was quite a common thing to foot it to Invercargill or travel by dray. Mrs Blakie, who possessed a very retentive memory, was a mine of information about the trials and set-backs of the settlers in those days, when the roads were little more than rough tracks, with the horses up to their girths in many places, and the necessity of unloading the dray and carrying the purchases over bogs and swampy areas. Mrs Blakie was predeceased by her husband some twelve years ago. She always took a keen interest in church work and was one of those who started the first Sunday School in Ryal Bush, and after coming to Invercargill, where she has resided for the past 16 years with Miss A. Blakie, she still maintained her great interest in Sunday School work, and one of her proudest possessions was a long-service diploma for Sunday School teaching. Mrs Blakie always enjoyed the best of health, and was only five weeks ill when the end came, after a long life of usefulness. She attended church service up to seven Sundays ago. The late Mr Blakie is survived by one son and two daughters:—Dr. J. L. Blakie of Surrey Hills, Melbourne; Mrs A. H. Lillicrap, Earn street; and Miss A. Blakie, who resided with her mother at Crinan street. " Another son, the late Mr Peter Blakie, predeceased her’ some 13 years ago. The sympathy of a wide circle of friends will be with the family in the loss they have sustained.