MAORI WAR VETERAN

Taranaki Daily News, 10 June 1930, Page 12

MAORI WAR VETERAN

DEATH OF MR. R. HICKS. A pioneer of the West Coaut, and a veteran of the Maori Wars, Mr. Richard Hicks died at Hataitai recently at the age of 87 years. Born in New Plymouth iu 1843, he lived during his youth at Sentry Hill, where conditions were often very perilous, and later he moved, with his parents, to the Hutt Valley, and then to Wanganui, where the family was engaged in farming. At the age of 18 Mr. Hicks was drilling in the Volunteers, and subsequently became a member o. that celebrated frontier corps, the Kai Iwi Volunteer Cavalry Troop, commanded by Captain John Bryce, who was afterwards Native Minister. Mr. Hicks took up land in South Taranaki about 1875, His farm was at Whareroa,. Hawera. He was there all through the later troublous times, and served in the local volunteer force when it was feared that war w’ould be renewed in 1879-81. In 1888 Mr. Hicks left Hawera and settled in Wellington, where he joined the staff of the city council, serving for 36 years. He married in 1881 Miss M. Enright, of Wanganui, there being three children. Mrs. Hicks survives her husband. The eldest child was the late Mrs. G. F. Norton, of Ngaio, the other two being Mr. R. J, Hicks, of the Wellington City Electricity Department, and Miss Gladys Hicks. Two brothers, Messrs. Robert and John Hicks, reside at Hawera.