Old Pioneer.

Thames Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 19827, 2 October 1936, Page 2

Old Pioneer.

LIVING IN THAMES.

91ST. BIRTHDAY,

MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS

There lives in Willoughby Street, Thames, a Avonderfulßlittle old lady, Mrs. L. Young, who last Wednesday celebrated her 91st. birthday.

•Mrs. Young was born in New Plymouth, and was one of the first to be christened in St. Mary’s Church ixi that town. Until she Avas 15 years of age she lived in the little settlement, and can remember seeing the first soldiers ever to arrive in Tai*anaki landing on the beach. As a girl she recalls the red-coats attending services in old St. Mary’s. It was while she was still a girl that she saw the wounded being brought in from the Maori wars. They used to arrive in New Plymouth in bullock drays, and many were the heart-rending sights that were witnessed.

Owing to the proximity of hostilities to the toAvn, many women ajtid children were sent over to Nelson. Mrs. Young, then about 15, grew up there and married in Nelson. Later they mo'ved to Feilding, where her husband died seven years ago. Mrs. Young reared a family of ten. Three sons died in manhood, but four daughters and three sons still live in different parts of the Dominion.

To-day the old lady is well and hearty, and is living quietly Avith her daughter, Mrs. J. Packer, of Willoughby Street. Asked to what she ascribed her long and healthy life, Mrs. Young promptly answered, “Hard work.”

“All my life, as long as I can remember, I haA T e ahvays Avorked hard,” she said.

She lias lieher been out of NeAV Zealand, arid her life has been quiet and uneventful. With all her faculties Avell preserved, one feels that this really remarkable old lady Avill reach the century mark.