OBITUARY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11762, 9 September 1901, Page 2

OBITUARY.

THE LATE MRS GRACE HIRST. It has been our melancholy duty within the last few days to chronicle the deaths of several ot the pioneers of this district, men and women who have laboured long and faithfully in the noble work of civilizing and developing this new country. Amongst the number was the lateAlrs Hirst, who passed peacefully aw Ay at the patriarchal age of 96 years and 3 months,' retaining to the last a bright intellect and iuterest in the life around her. Her loss will be keenly felt by many outside the family circle. Her strong personality exercised an almost magnetic influence over .all those who came iv contact with her, and the example of her pure and saintly life has left behind it a memory that wil 1 never fade.

Mrs Hirst, in company with her late husband and family, came out to New Zealand in the ship Gv»alior in 18-52; bringing with them the frame and timbers of tha we'l known "Round House" in Devon-street east. They had a nost disastrous voyage lasting over six months, shortness of food and water, mutiny, a captain in the ''horrors," who eventually committed suicide, a leaky and badly trimmed ship sent to sea well insured, and with the intention that she should ever reach her destination. That they never reached port was only d c to the lucky .circumstance of having to put into Cape Town for water and food, where they shipped 'the late Mr Cbantr«y Harris, afterwards a well known Wellington pressman, ?s first mate, who by sheer pluck and good seamanship brought the ship, a partial wreck, into Auckland harbour. Mr and Mrs Hirst and children abandoned the Gwalior off the Bay of Islands, going on by a small coasting schooner to Auckland, where the state of the ship was reported to the authorities, and H.M.S. Pandora was sent out to bring the Gwalior into port. After a short rest in Auckland the Hirst family came on to New Plymouth by the cutter Eclair, and resided in the Round House for a time, but later took up land at Bell Block, which they occupied until the outbreak of the Maori war in '860, when 'they were driven into New Plymouth and their homestead burnt, in this year Mr and Mrs Hirst left on a visit to the Old Country, and in returning to New Zealand the following year in the William Brown were overtaken by a terrible disastet , the ship being burnt some 300 miles from Madeira. After being out all night in an open boat on a stormy sea, they were picked up by a Swedish brig and landed at Madeira, travelling thence to England via Lisbon. Mr Hirst took the first boat for New Zealand, but Mrs Hirst, whose nervous system was for the time completely shattered, remained with her relations for another year, returning to New Zealand by the Silver Eagle in October, 1862. After that Mr and Mrs Hirst took up their residence at Willow Field, removing later to the Round House where they remained until the death of the former on October 11th, 1883. Shortly after this Mrs Hirst removed to No. 3, York Terrace, where, for nearly 18 years, she has lived a patriarchal life, surrounded by children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and many friends, out-living all her contemporaries.

Mrs Hirst came of a' good old North Country stock, and was the fourth daughter and last surviving child of the late Jonathan Bracken, of the Dene, Luddendon, Yorkshire. She was one of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom, with one exception, lived to a good, and in several cases,' extreme old age, the last sister attaining the ripe age of 93. Mrs Hirst has left five daughters and one Ron, 46 grandchildren, and 52 great-grand-children.