CLOSE OF LONG LIFE

Taranaki Daily News, 3 January 1930, Page 10

CLOSE OF LONG LIFE

OLD NELSONIAN’S DEATH -

TRAGIC EPISODE RECALLED.

RAUPARATIA AND THE WAIRAU. One of the oldest surviving Europeans born in the South Island passed away yesterday in the person of Mrs. IL Allport, of Mount Eden, and formerly of the Nelson district, who was within a fortnight of completing her 87th year. Her death severs another link with the stirring incidents of the days of early colonisation in New Zealand. The fortunes of her early childhood were closely interwoven with the fateful tragedy of the Wairau massacre, which cast a shadow over the early labours of the New Zealand Company, and dealt a severe blow to the young Nelson community that pioneered the work of settlement in the South Island.

Mrs. Allport’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Smith, arrived at Nelson in August, 1842, six or seven months after the arrival of the first immigrant ships at that port. Their daughter—the late Mrs. Allport—was born on January 14, 1843. In June of that year Mr. Smith was a member of the unfortunate party which was organised by the Nelson police magistrate, Mr. H. A. Thompson, to proceed to the Wairau with the object of arresting the Maori chiefs, Te Raiiparaha and Te Rangihaeata, on a charge of arson arising out of the burning of a hut-erected by members of the New Zealand Company’s survey 'party.

HISTORIC CLASH AT TUA MARINA.

The latter incident, and the tragic sequel, were the ‘ outcome of 3. dispute regarding the possession of the Wairau lands, which the company claimed to have purchased. The encounter with the natives, and the tragic fate of Mr. Thompson’s.party, is a matter of ,ofttold history. Of the 49 members of the party, no fewer than 22 or 23 fell either in the fight on the banks of the Tua Marina stream, or were massacred by Te Rangihaeata, whose wife—daughter of Te Rauparaha—was killed in the affray. Mr. Thompson, the leader 'of the party, and Captain Arthur Wakefield, brother of Edward Gibbon Wakefield and agent of the New Zealand Company at Nelson, were among the number—about nine—who, -were massacred. Captain Wakefield' had joined the party in the capacity of justice of the peace. Mr. Isaac Smith, who was one of the special constables; was also one of those who survived the exchange of shots, but who fell a victim to the vengeance of Te Rangihaeata. There was no interference by the Alaoris, so far as is recorded, with the bodies or personal property of the victims of the affray. Mr. Smith’s watch was recovered from his body and returned, to his widow. Subsequently it passed to the late Mrs. Allport, and it is now in the possession of her son, Mr. A. Allport, of Te Puke. ■

FORTIFICATION OF CHURCH HILL;

The lato Mrs. Allport was only; five months old at the time of the tragedy and her widowed mother had not reached womanhood’s full estate, being only 20 years of age. The residence of herself and her husband, where her daughter was born, was a primitive structure on what afterwards became known as the Church Hill, and on which the Nelson Cathedral now stands. After the massacre, when the residents of Nelson lived in daily dread of an incursion of Maoris from the Wairau, rude fortifications were hastily thrown up on the hill and Mrs. Smith’s abode was within the entrenched area. The anticipated attack by the natives never came. Mrs. Smith afterwards married Mr. Benjamin Lusty, an early Nelson settler, and four generations of their descendants are nowresiding in various parts of New Zealand. Mr. John Smith, a son'of ’ Mr. Isaac Smith by an earlier marriage, died in 1902 at the.age of 70.

After her marriage to. Mr. Henry Allport, son of Mr. Thomas Allport, an early Nelson pioneer, Mrs. Allport resided with her husband successively at Collingwood, Stoke and Richmond, all in the Nelson district. They removed to Auckland 33 years ago, and for the greater part of that time Mrs. Allport has re-

■■ ...d at her late residence in Eden Vale Road. Mount Eden. Her husband died 10 years ago at the age of 80. She enjoyed fair health mntil only a week prior to her death. Of a family of 12, there are seven survivors—four sons and three daughters. There are 43 grandchildren and 36 great-grandchildren, making a total of 86 surviving descendants. Mrs. Allport was for many- years a member of the Mount Eden Baptist Church.