MEMORIES OF OLD RIVER VESSEL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 168, 19 July 1938, Page 6

MEMORIES OF OLD RIVER VESSEL

; DEATH OF MR. JAMES MURRAY HE HELPED LAUNCH THE Tl HUA Lying upriver, 40 miles from Wanganui, ner funnels just showing above low water, rests the old paddle steamer Tuhua. She was the First craft to take up regular services between Wanganui and Pipiriki, ana was built to the order of a private company at the foundry establishog . by the late Mr David Murray, whose ' eldest son, Mr James Murray, died at ’ Wanganui on Saturday. ’ Mr David Murray was engineer on ’ one of the first steamboats to tr.idc ’ to the port of Wanganui. Perhaps it was the fact that the craft was named “Whanganui” (it is understood thai the letter “H” was included without quibble in those days) that, induced Mr Murray eventually to settle in a place-of the same name. He went first to the Rangitikei district, but later came to Wanganui and established a foundry, where construction of steam boilers* was specialised in. The eldest son, James, worked in the foundry with his father, and before his fathers death virtually became manager. It was a red letter day in the history of Wanganui when the Tuhua was launched near the site of the cattle wharf of to-day, which, by the way ,is to be pulled down. It was u pioneering venture among settlers along the river, and those in the town were interested in the land being opened up along the valley. The first trip to Pipiriki carried people into a land of wild bush, populated by millions of birds in their native slate. The Tuhua ran for some time, but ou one downward journey her bow took a wrong turning. She nosed into a little used channel between the bank and the island of Karatia and became fast. It almost seemed as though she wearied of coming back from tne enchantment of the upper valley and wanted the stillness of the inland reaches rather than the bustle and smoke of the town. There she lies today, her kauri decks as good as when the late Mr J. Murray and his father nailed them down. Iler boilers, so the settlers say, came down strema years afterwards, and were tumbled out to j sea by yellow flood waters. Mr James Murray, just before hi., | death, recalled those oFu days. He was greatly interested in an article ; which appeared in the “Chronicle ’ ' under the heading of “Steamboat ] Round the Bend.” When his fathei : died he carried on the management of t the foundry and was prominently as- s sociated with the Wanganui Chambct j of Commerce and the Wanganui 5 branch of the New Zealand Empii>. - ers’ Federation. As a member of St. c Paul’s Church choir his tenor voice , was greatly appreciated. He was a c quiet, kindly type of man at heai 1 and inherited from his father that r Scottish trait which people often look 1 upon as stubbornness but is really t strength of purpose. i - |