MISSIONARY DAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 254, 27 October 1939, Page 10

MISSIONARY DAYS

I Perils undergone by missionarie: among the Maoris are recalled by the death on Friday of Mrs. Sarah Jane Brittan, of Rahiri Road, Mount Eden widow of the late Mr. H. L. Brittan in her 81st year, states the New Zealand Herald. I Mrs. Brittan was the only surviving daughter of the Rev. T. S. Grace who arrived at Auckland in 1850 tc take up work on behalf of the Church ■ I Missionary Society. Rather more than a year later Mr. Grace establish- • ’ ed the first mission station on Lake I Taupo, under the protection of the * famous chief Te Heuheu Tukino. and his daughter was born there in 1859. 1 Although the Taupo people took no I part collectively in the war in 1863-64, i that part of the country was much I disturbed by the conflict, and while j her husband was temporarily absent from the station Mrs. Grace was obliged 10 flee. With her children, of ■ whom ihe late Mrs. Brittan was one, | and a governess-companion, she made i the long journey on foot over Maori tracks to the sea at Matata. ■ The party arrived there barefooted I and in rags, only to meet further 1 danger from a Maori war party which . was passing along the coast. They were saved partly by the courage of : the old chief of the place and partly Iby a chance incident which caused i the war party to decide that their lives should be spared They were eventually brought to Auckland by a I coasting vessel. Mrs. Brittan was married more [than 50 years ago. her late husband being a member of a pioneer Canter- ' bury family and one of the first chil- * dren born at Lyttelton after the ar--1 rival of the original four ships in 1850. , After living for a long period at Tauranga. and later in England, Mr. and ?»Irs. Brittan made theii home at . .Mount Eden about 24 years ago. I There are no descendants