ONE OF THE PIONEERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 15 April 1925, Page 6

ONE OF THE PIONEERS.

THE LATE MR. GIDEON INKSTER. A pioneer settler and one of the earliest residents of the district passed to his rest on Sunday, in the person of Mr. Gideon Inkster, of Normaniby (says the Star). He was born S 3 years ago in the Shetland Islands, and came out to Australia in the fifties of last century. After some years in Adelaide, he left for Sydney, and shortly after sailed for New Zealand in the schooner Breadalbane, reaching Auckland in. 1851. He was immediately attracted to the gold, diggings in Otago, and was some years at Dunstan. From there he returned to the North Island, settling in the Manawatii, and in 1870 he trekked through to Taranaki, and bought land at Normanby, which was his home until his, death. With the late Mr. John Winks he brought eight hundred head of eattle, fording or swimming the rivers, and reaching their destination after an adventurous journey. The Maoris being still troublesome, he joined the militia and served in the forces, being stationed at Waihi.- There he bad to go each night after his work on his bush farm. He built a whare, and had it stocked with some months’ stores, hut it was burnt down by a tramp. He built another and Ibegan to get the bush felled, and so to carve out from the wilds the fine homestead and farm as it now exists at Normanby.

He was an active worker on public bodies and was one of the earliest members of th© Waimate West Road Board and the Hawera County Council. He was one of the promoters of the present A. and P. Association. He was also one of the originators of the first cooperative store at Waitara, and later, with Mr. A. A. Fantharn, the genesis of the business of the present Farmers’ Co-operative. Mr. Inkster, some twenty years ago, suffered an accident to one of his legs, and after some months’ treatment in an effort to save the limb, it was found necessary to amputate it; hut despite this disability, h« was an active worker on hie farm, doing very heavy work till he was far past the allotted span, and even till a few months ago he worked about the homestead. For a month or two he had been confined to the house and he passed quietly away in his sleep.

He was never married, and his relatione arei Nephews (Messrs. John, Gideon and James Forbes) and grandnephews and nieces in New Zealand, and Australia. He had been a wonderful man during a long and varied life, a man of great resource and pluck, truly a pioneer who helped to lay the foundations of the farming industry as it is to-day,