– NINETY-THREE YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 12 September 1930, Page 11

- NINETY-THREE YEARS

WAIKATO PIONEER’S LIFE. - - VETERAN. OF MAORI ■ WARS., Mr. Enos Holloway/ of .Morrinsville, a veteran of the Maori wars of the ’sixties, ; and a pioneer baker of the Waikato, celebrated liis' /ninety-th’ird birthday recently. Mr. Hollowly came to New Zealand as a corporal of the 40tli . Regiment-in TSfiO, and settled in the Waikato at the close of the war. He has lived in the same house, in Thames Stl'eet, Mdrrinsvillri, since J 902, when the houses pf the town could be counted practically on the lingers. Mr. Holloway’s ’ father’ was a mlllcij and baker in the village, of near Tiverton, oil the border of IjeVonx shire anil Somerset. Enlisting at thet age of 18, in 1855, when -the Crhriehil War wag ending,' he came' out to*’ Australia with his regiment, and landed at Melbourne' not long after the trouble; with the miners that led to the fight at’the Eureka. Stockade, near Bgllarat. 'Mr. • Holloway recalls I 'a- seven- days’ march from Melbourne do Ballarat in the days, pef-pfe.jailway.s< Later'he went with a detachment to Hqbartpwn, and .he. was there when trouble "with the Waitara Maoris broke out,' *atid all available troops ini” Australia', vyere .Stlmmoiled,to New-Zeajand. ■ ■'. The 40th Regiment took part in the dikastroiis 'attack on Piiketakauere pa, . near; Whitara, .when the British, casualties .were 60 out of an attacking force ‘bT -50.' Mr." Holloway’te the ’only surviving soldier of the 40th who took ■part in .this-tight., “It wag,a grievously .-mismanaged affair/’. he. said. “The swollen rivers., prevented supports from reaching us, and as we were short of arilmunition we ha’d to retire, leaving, our (lead and wounded on the field.” The-Waitara. Maoris had been.reinforced by many young fighting-men from the

King Country .ynder /Rewi Mafaiapoto, and the pa', was "strongly garrisoned. During the .'Avar in the Waikato in ISG3-64 Mr. Holloway served as,’a baker on the commissariat staff. He’took his discharge, and followed . his trade at Cambridge and Te Awamutu until ,an injury./caused liis" retirement. In the ’sixties in Hie Waikato -ME Holloway baked many a loaf* from flour grown and ground by Maoris, .who went in for wheat-growing' in • those days, and he-, hays'; he •mude as" flue and. white a loaf as anyone could makb to-day with roller-ground flour. The commissariat staff baked bread in portable iron ovens and when the forces were camped at Te Awamutu they, turned out 1000 loaves from, ten ovens..

When, Mr,: Holloway paid his first virtit to Morrinsville in the ’eighties' the railway was j-st being put through the district, and. the. most , of the land for miles aroitftd was a 'wiidern'ess of tea-trep,-with- only-.a small portion cleared and in pasture. Since then he has watched tlie evolution '■ of the town —the gradual draining pf the swamps, the clearing of the scr -b and the varied activities that have made Morrinsville one of the richest dairying centres in < •the Dominion, • • • -

Mr. and Mrs. Holloway were married at. To Awamutu 65 years ago, when the town was a frontier outpost. Mrs. Holloway was born in Auckland 81 years ago, her family being among the earliest settlers of Auckland. Mr; and Mrs. Holloway had a family of 14. He attributes his good health throughout a long life to the fact that he has exercised moderation in all things.