HAS LIVED UNDER ALL GOVERNORS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18887, 11 October 1929, Page 15

HAS LIVED UNDER ALL GOVERNORS IN NEW ZEALAND.

BLENHEIM, October 10. His Excellency the Governor-General was amazed on his visit to the Old People’s Home at Blenheim to find himself conversing with a man who has lived in New Zealand under all the Governors and Governors-Genera! the Dominion has known. He is Mr Charles Webbey, who was born in Somerset, England on June 11, 1840, and arrived in New Zealand with his parents eight months later by the ship Clifton on February 14, 1841. This was during 1 the regime of Captain William Hobson R.N», who -was then a mere LieutenantGovernor, acting under Sir George Gipps, the Governor of New South Wales. A few months later Captain Hobson, with his seat at the Bay of Islands, became the actual Governor of New Zealand. Mr Webbey serves as a living link with the days which witnessed the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the days of Governors Shortland, Fitzrov, Grey and all the others whose figures are even now almost legendary. Mr Webbey was a grown man of thirty-three when Sir James Fergusson, the father of the present Governor-General, took office, and he remembers him well. Mr Webbey has never left New Zealand in all the years which have intervened since his arrival. He followed mining pursuits and is well-known in most parts of New Zealand and especially in Mahakipawa, where he lived for many years.

Mr Webbey complained to his Excellency yesterday that on two occasions last year when visiting Wellington, he called - Oox-ernment House, but was unable to find his Excellency at home, and ’ his Excellency expressed deep regrets. He was much interested in his chat with the old man.