LEADERS OF SOCIETY.

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 34, 7 May 1881, Page 362

LEADERS OF SOCIETY.

[As the printers were good enough by an awkward transposition to make pi of this article last week we re- j print it._ No. I.— Mrs. Whitaker. The wives of the Governors of this Colony have heen of course, in one sense, its leaders, and fe ay Avill forget the perfect manners and foreign I grace of Lady Bo .yen. But they have come j and gone after a shorter or longer stay, and left us sometimes mourning, sometimes the re- ! verse. Mrs. Whitaker, for over thirty years, with tAvo or three occasional absences, has been the leader of our society ; nor has her position changed very much during that period. She came to New Zealand as the step daughter of the then Colonial Treasurer, the Hon. Mr. Shepherd, and of course took her place at once amongst the creme de 10. creme. Nor Avas the society then to be despised ; it consisted of the officers of crack regiments and magnificent men of war. NeAV Zealand Avas then England's pet Colony, and was pampered with men and money ad libitum. At Kororarika Miss Shepherd married Mr. Whitaker, avlio Avas even then a man of mark. Of course she had to rough it with all the early colonists. To he for months together with only a soldier servant to help her, and to go to the pleasant reunions of those days in a cart or Avaggon, if it was too far or too muddy to walk. But women never grumbled in those days over real hardships— they left that to the present generation. I look back through the mists and shadows of thirty years, and see Mrs. Whitaker —tall, and slim, and fair, .vith pretty sloping shoulders, and a sweet smile, which she still retains. Ah, well, "La jeunesse evanouit." In after days, Avhen better times dawned upon the lawers (for it Avas not good to he a laAvyer in the early times — ironmongers, drapers, batchers, &c, made large fortunes, and the man who worked hy his head gave way to the man who worked hy his hand) Mrs. Whitaker was indefatigable in helping any one in distress, and even then we had sad cases, though not amongst the labouring class. She was one of the chief 'patronesses of the

first bazaar ever held in Auckland for the relief of the AvidoAV and orphans of the British fleet and army after the Crimean Avar. She founded the Old Women's Refuge, and for a long time sustained and visited it. I never kne.v her to turn a deaf ear to any tale of real distress. As the Avife of the Superintendent of Auckland and the Attorney-General of New Zealand, she has exercised a Avide and generous hospitality. Her country house at the Lake and her house in town are equally open to her friends and visitors. For the benefit of those of my young readers Avho don't like soiling their fingers, I may mention that Mrs. Whitaker is a first-class cook, and many visitors to the Lake will remember the delicious plats produced there under the superintendence of her skilful fingers. From having spent her early life in the West Indies, the Attorney-General's Avife has a certain imperiousness of manner .vhich some people take for pride, hut she is not in reality proud. Into the humblest cottage at the Lake she goes, and is on familiar terms with all the people. Mrs. Whitaker gives the old folks an annual entertainment, and provides the Sunday-school feast. Like most Avomen, she has a temper, hut I never kneAV her ( .vithout some very cogent cause) turn her hack on an old friend. Circumstances may have changed, years may have passed, but she is ever staunch and true. When Aye lose her there Avill he feAV to take her place, and none certainly to do the Avork that she has done. Esmond.