MAORI WAR VETERAN

Taranaki Daily News, 8 November 1932, Page 6

MAORI WAR VETERAN

SERVICE IN TARANAKI.'

93RD BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK.

One of the few survivors of the famous band of soldier-settlers recruited in Australia and brought to New Zealand in the ’sixties, Mr. Edward William James Gregory, of 3 Seymour Street, Ponsonby, Auckland, will celebrate his 93 rd birthday to-morrow. He • helped build the historic Sentry Hill redoubt in Taranaki, which was the scene of a sanguinary action in 1864, and was one of the few who escaped the White Cliffs massacre in 1869.

Of Quaker ancestry, Mr. Gregory was born at Yatton, near Bristol. As a Young man he joined the First Somerset Volunteer Artillery . Corps, but finding the even tenor of life in peaceful England too monotonous for his adventurous nature, he took passage in the ship Devonshire for Australia. Melbourne was then flooded with disappointed goldseekers, and when the New Zealand Government sent Colonel Pitt over to recruit 4000 or 5000 soldier-settlers, with the promise of receiving free grants of land after three years’ service, he eagerly grasped the opportunity. Mr. Gregory, then a sergeant, landed with a force'of soldier-settlers at Sentry Hill, on the North Taranaki coast, in 1863, and two days later the historic redoubt was built. Shortly after he had left the district the Hauhau attack was repulsed. After receiving his discharge Mr. Gregory took up land in Taranaki, but later served in the native contingent at Urenui under Captain T. Good, and subsequently acted as colour-eer,-geant in the militia u.nder Captain (later Colonel) Messenger, after whom Mount Messenger is named. When the war was over he married, and took up land at Drury, which he subsequently sold to the late Mr. Arthur Yates. He retired nearly 30 years ago and came to live in Seymour Street, where he has remained ever since.

Although he is less active than he was a few years ago, his memory is still retentive and he possesses all his faculties. Mrs. Gregory died about three years ago, aged 82. There are three daughters, Mrs. H. J. Beeche, Mrs. J. S. Millar and Mrs. S. Maddaford, of Auckland, and six grandchildren.