99-YEAR-OLD LADY FLIES

Taranaki Daily News, 30 November 1932, Page 6

99-YEAR-OLD LADY FLIES

OPENS HASTINGS CARNIVAL FLIGHT THOROUGHLY ENJOYED. JAUNTY COMMENTS TO THE PILOT. NINETY-SEVEN YEARS IN COLONY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Hastings, Last Night. Mrs. Mary Ann Adamson, who entered her hundredth year on Sunday, went for half an hour’s flight to-day in one of the Hawke’s Bay and East Coast Aero Club’s machines. She thoroughly enjoyed her experience and during the flight spoke jauntily to the pilot, Flying-Officer Gerrand, about the sights below her. She was seeing from the air a town which she knew when it contained not a single formed road, street or footpath. Mrs. Adamson had long expressed her regret that she had not been up in a plane and to-day’s trip was offered to her as marking the opening of a carnival being held at Hastings this week. At the end of the flight Mrs. Adamson was crowned queen of the carnival by the Mayor (Mr. G. F. Roach) and cheered by the large gathering. Speeches of congratulation were made by Mr. Roach, Mr. J. S. Barton (Napier Commissioner), Mr. Vigor Brown (Mayor of Napier) and others; Mrs. Adamson, whose 77-year-old son was one of the spectators, arrived in New Zealand 97 years ago and it is claimed that she is the oldest British-born colonial.