MRS. ELLEN BIRKETT

Taranaki Daily News, 3 September 1929, Page 14

MRS. ELLEN BIRKETT

88 YEARS IN NEW ZEALAND.

OLD TARANAKI RESIDENT.

FIVE GENERATIONS.

There passed away last Thursday at the residence of her daughter, Mrs. Short, in Brooklyn, -Wellington, another of the dwindling band of old colonists in the person of Mrs. Ellen Birkett, aged 95. Mrs. Birkett was born at Maidstone, Kent, and at the age of seven migrated 'to New Zealand with her parents in the ship Tyne. The Tyne, with 98 passengers, left Gravesend on April 6, 1841, and arrived at Port Nicholson on August 9, 1841. The captain was Charles Robertson, and among the passengers were Sir William Martin and William Swainson, who later took prominent parts in the development of the Dominion. As there was no wharf at Port Nicholson the Tyne anchored off Kaiwarra. The passengers were lowered in a basket to a waiting boat, and later were carried on the shoulders of the sailors from the boat to the shore. Mrs. Birkett remembered living in the school until a mud hut could be built near Hick’s paddock above the beach at Wellington. In those days the hills round Port Nicholson were covered with tall tea-tree with little clearings here and there. Mrs. Birkett’s parents later lived in Webb Street, and then made a slow and tedious journey in a fourwheeled waggon to Masterton. After her marriage at the close of the Maori Wars she settled at Manaia. Taranaki in the ’sixties and ’seventies was all bush-covered, with a few fertile clearings. Wild pigs and horses abounded everywhere. Mr. Birkett and his sons were in the Volunteers. Their guns were always ready in case of raids by the Maoris. The Maoris used to say that they were never afraid of the red-coats, the soldiers,' but they always feared the bluecoats, -the settlers, Mrs. Birkett had the greatest respect for the Maori, who was a fine stamp of man, tall, strong and brave. There were five generations in the family, made up as follow.: Mrs. Jane Short, daughter of Mrs. Birkett; Mrs. Sylvester, granddaughter; Mrs. Freeman, great-granddaughter; Master Bryan Freeman, great-great-grandson. Mrs. Birkett retained all her faculties until the end, and until quite recently showed a lively interest in all present-day problems." She is survived by six children, 24 grand-children, 30 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren. The interment took place at Opunake, where her husband, who died 18 years ago, was buried.