PIONEER SETTLER PASSES

Taranaki Daily News, 16 July 1929, Page 16

PIONEER SETTLER PASSES

MB. JAMES SAUTES, TIKOBANGI. With the death at Waitara yesterday of Mr. James Sarten, at the age of 80, there passed away one of Tikorangi’s earliest and most valuable settlers. The late Mr. Sarten was one of the original settlers when Tikorangi was opened up, and remained there nearly all the rest of his life actively engaged in farming. To him the district and the province owes no small debt of gratitude for services rendered.

Mr. Sarten’s parents arrived in New ; Plymouth by the ship William Bryan! on March 30, 1841, and lived in New ■ Plymouth, where their gon James w T as i born in 1849. As a boy Mr. Sarten ; assisted his father in the wheel-wright- j ing business in premises in Currie Lane, , where the family lived. When sections , in the Tikorangi block were allotted to the officers and men of two companies of the Taranaki Rifles, Mr. Sarten, though aged only 16, secured a piece of land in recognition of services rendered by his relatives during the war period just ended. Over 70 others were allotted sections and the death of Mr. Sarten leaves only three of that number living —Messrs. H. Arden, J. W. Foreman (New Plymouth), and C. Oliver (Tauranga). Though only a lad, Mr. Sarten early put into the clearing from his section of scrub and fern the same energy and enterprise that he continued to show throughout his life, with the result that he soon became known as a successful and up-to-date farmer. He devoted most of his attention to his farm, which he increased in size, and did not interest himself greatly in local body politics, though h e was a member of the Waitara East Road Board for a time until it was abolished. A supplier to the Tikorangi Dairy Company, he was for several years on the directorate. Cricket wag one sport of which Mr. Sarten was particularly fond. He was an enthusiastic member of the Tikorangi Club in the days of its glory and infused a warm interest in the game into his sons, which apparently still remains in the present generation of the family. Mr. Sarten was also a keen supporter of the sport of rowing, and gave frequent assistance to the one time Tikorangi Rowing Club. ' Mr, Sarten married Mrs. McKenzie, a widow, of Tikorangi, and there were three sons and three daughters of the marriage. His wife and his sons Janies and Robert predeceased him. The children living are Mrs. Charles Johnston (Waitara), Mrs. James Purdie (Waitara), Mrs. H. M. Purdie (Waitara), and Mr. Fred Sarten (Tikorangi).