MISS LYDIA E. SHAW DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1928, Page 13

MISS LYDIA E. SHAW DEAD

LINK. WITH PIONEERS GONE PASSENGER ON AMELIA THOMPSON. SAW TOWN GROW FROM BEGINNING. At the age of 93, Miss Lydia E. Shaw died at her home in Currie Street on Saturday. She was a child of seven when on September 3, 1841, she arrived here in the Amelia Thompson, the second ship to bring settlers. New Plymouth was then a handful of huts and whares and a Maori pa or so on the fringe of a great forest. A small band of men and women had come thousands of miles to hew a clearing and build themselves a home among a strange and savage people. Miss Shaw saw their early difficulties and helped overcome them. In the next 86 years she worked and watched in the long struggle to prosperity. She had seen a modern port and town grow up as the wilderness was pushed back towards Mt. Egmont. Despite the fact that her years were not far short of a century—next April she would have been 94—Miss Sh..-w continued to lead an active life until the end. She moved with the times by keeping, herself posted on the latest ideas, she read the papers and books, and her favourite recreation was a game of bridge. Her manner, carriage, and preferences were those of a woman very much younger; she was of a most hospitable nature, loved bright company and was delighted always to meet new friends. Yet among numerous relatives of much newer generations were several great great great nephews and neices. It was only during the last year that age seemed to have had any noticeable effect on her, and it was only during, the past three weeks that there were any indications that the end was at all near. Even during this period she had not lost her interest in her relations and her friends. ENDEARED HERSELF AS TEACHER.

There are hundreds of »ien and women in Taranaki and scattered over the rest of New Zealand who owe their education to Miss Shaw and who have never forgotten their respect for her kindly, just and upright treatment of them. In a day when schools were one of the luxuries dealt sparingly to the pioneers she herself received her education as opportunity arose, nevertheless it was a sound one, characteristic of the time. She attended private schools conducted by Mrs. Harris, whose daughter Emily later became a well-known painter of New Zealand flora, Mrs. Newland, Mrs. S. Popham King, the two Misses King and the Misses Horne, daughters of Dr. Horne, and one of whom later married Major Charles Brown. Miss Shaw first taught herself when in 1868 she took over a small school formerly in charge of her neice, Miss M. A. Shaw. It was conducted in the meeting house of the Kawau Pa, on a hill, since levelled, at the 'bottom of Currie Street; the place had not been used by the Maoris since _ the beginning of the war in 1860. This institution was subsidised by the Provincial Government, but in 1878, when it was moved to the sandhills behind the present Foresters’ Hall in Gill Street, it was taken over by the Colonial Government, the Education Act having, been passed in that year. Miss Shaw thus became the first Government female teacher in Taranaki. In 1884 this school was closed and Miss Shaw from several positions offered her chose that of headmistress of a new school on the South Road, which later became the West End primary ; here and at Fitzroy children were taught up to the second standard, afterwards going to the Main Central School. Miss Shaw retired in 1900.

Her former pupils have many stories to tell of incidents with which she was connected. On one occasion the school in Gill Street was being visited by an inspector who was deaf. "Now children, whe® you are reading to him be careful to be very polite,” said Miss Shaw to the children in the second standard. "He will not hear you, but if you are polite he will give you a pass.” Frequently in recent years she would be stopped in the street by a man or woman who recognised her, her slim trim figure, her upright carriage and her sprightly step. “Don’t you remember me, Miss Shaw?” they would say. “I am —The changes wrought by years in making, adults of boys and girls would in most cases be an effective disguise, but it only required the mention of some special incident for the former teacher to recall a whole train of memories and to discuss them with delight and animation. PRIVATIONS OF PIONEERS. All the privations and makeshifts of the pioneers were known to Miss Shaw in her earlier years. Neither window, door, nor chimney had the raupo house at Devonport (near the site of the Terminus Hotel) to which she was taken by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Shaw on their arrival from her birthplace, Plymouth, in 1841. The family had been five months on the voyage in a vessel of not more than several hundred tons register. To cap all, it was too rough to land on the open beach when New Plymouth was sighted and stormy weather kept the sailer on a waiting cruise for three weeks before the passengers could be put ashore. There was not a cow in the settlement —one they brought died after eating tutu —and goats were the only source of milk. Potatoes grown by the Maoris were the only food produced locally, and on one occasion it was necessary to mix rice with the flour to make it last until the next ship arrived.

Miss Shaw’s brother James had proceeded the family in the William Bryan, the first ship to bring settlers; after him is named James’ Lane. He made what preparations he could for the reception of his family, but they were not many. In a following, ship, the Regina, Mr. Shaw, senior, imported a house from England. It was sent in sections and these were erected in lower Currie Street, on a rise then overlooking the sea. When it was ready the family moved from their raupo dwelling and a garden was made. Long since the view has been blocked by a frontage of business premises, but the house is still there—the oldest in New Plymouth—and in it lived to her death the last survivor of the Shaws who came in the Amelia Thompson. The place has been added to many times in the intervening years, but Miss Shaw always used the original rooms, though she had them altered and brought up-to-date with the changes that fashion and invention decreed. One of those huge open fireplaces tucked under a giant chimney, so popular in the last century, is to-day transformed _ to a pigmy grate, and electric light has followed the candle. Miss Shaw never stayed in a groove. Mr J. T. Shaw was associated with timber interests in New Plymouth and was a ship’s architect. After his arrival here he designed several small sailing craft but followed farming as his main pursuit. Miss Shaw’s eldest sister married Dr. St. George, who was a passenger on the Amelia Thompson and the others became Mrs. Douglas and Mrs. Henry Halee. The

brothers were Janies, Ebenezer and Thomas William. Mrs. Haise’s husband was a judge of the Native Land Court and when he was transferred to Auckland in 1859 Miss Shaw accompanied the ydtmg family. War broke out and she was not permitted to return for about two years and so missed the actual experiences of those troubled times in Taranaki. With the death of the other original members of her family she had for many years been looked upon as the head of the elan. Her home in Currie Street was the headquarters for relatives scattered over a very wide area and she herself was a foster mother probably to 36 nephews and neices who at various times came to New Plymouth for their education.

Now that she is gone it is believed the only survivors of the passengers to New Plymouth by the Amelia Thompson in 1841 are Mr. Thomas Allen, of New Plymouth, Mrs. S. Wright and Mrs. W. R. Greenwood (formerly the Misses Oxenham), of Wanganui, and Mrs. Telfar (formerly Miss Mary Johnston), of Urenui. The ages of all of them hover round the nineties.

The funeral took place yesterday afternoon at Te Henui Cemetery. Members of the family assembled at the residence in Currie Street and a short service was conducted by Archdeacon F. G. Evans. Then the cortege moved to St. Mary’s Church, where the archdeacon drew attention to the fact that M : ss Shaw had been one of the oldest parishioners in that old and historic building, and that with the exception of brief periods away from New Plymouth she had been a constant worshipper in St. Mary’s ever since it was erected. The remainder of the service was conducted at the graveside, to which many beautiful wreaths were brought. The pallbearers were Mr. Ernest Shaw (Okau), a nephew, and Messrs. Truby King (Stratford), Ronald Douglas (Palmerston North), Hamilton Douglas (Masterton), Graham Hammond (Opunake), and Douglas Fox (Okato), all of whom were greatnephews.