EIGHTY YEARS OLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 256, 30 October 1939, Page 6

EIGHTY YEARS OLD

MRS. S. WEBB, OF BRUNSWICK EARLY DAYS OF THE SURVEY Mr. Sam Webb, of Brunswick, will be 80 years old to-day. He is very active and able to work about the farm with the energy of a man much younger. He was born in County Galway, Ireland, and came to New Zealand 1n 1874, arriving in Melbourne by the Lady Cairns and coming on to the Colony in the Albion, landing at Nelson. He cross over from Nelson to Wellington and came to Wa*ganui in the vessel Sliprmbird. which was wrecked in more recent years near the mouth of the Wanganui River. Mr. Webb joined the survey undertakings in and about Wanganui, being associated with the late Mr. J. Annabell and the late Mr Field, after whom Field’s Track is named. Mr. Webb helped in the survey of that inner region toward KaricJ. Those were the days when men wore bowyangs, and used the axe, the spade and the grubber. Mr. Webb can still vividly recall the old survey days when men in the back country had to rely on their ability in the bush to keep their stocks of food going. On one occasion a pigeon was shot on the far side of the Wangaehu River, and so low was the larder at that time that one of the party had to ford the river, then a swiftly moving current, and bring the bird over. No roads, just wild bush tracks. In some cases there were not even tracks, I and the surveyors tramped almost. . every inch of the country inland from I Wanganui toward Kakatahi and be- > yond. In those days Raetihi and , Ohakune were enveloped in bush and . were hardly known. The fringe of , civilisation did not go far beyond Upokongaro. ’ Mr. Webb made a number of trip’s • in the old Stormbird and could tell . something of the fury of the storm along the coast. Little incidents impressed themselves on people’s minds in those days. For instance, Mr. Webb recalls that on one occasion he was not feeling in the best of spirits when the little boat was tossed about in the . waves by the force of wind and water. He saw the captain's whisky bottle and treated himself to a nip. It was the finest whisky he had ever tasted! The late Mr. Ryves-Webb, who was well known in Wanganui, was a brother. Three other brothers have been dead some time, George, Frank, and John. Mr. John Webb died when he was 82, George at 78. and Frank at 71. Two sisters married, Mrs. W. Gray, senr., Long Acre, and Mrs. R. Allen Hamilton.