PERSONAL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 15955, 25 October 1919, Page 5

PERSONAL.

Mi Muri Taiaroa, who was among the first to come upon the wreck of the Tainui, and the rescuer of Cook Farrand, is at present in Wanganui. Mr J, B. Reid, a one time resident of Wanganui, and a member of the local staff of Levin and Co., Ltd., is at present on a visit to Wanganui. Mr Eeid, who is now located at Adelaide, W.A., leaves Wanganui to-day. The death took place recently at Oakura (Taranaki) of an old Army veto eran and highly-esteemed resident of that part of New Zealand, Mr John Andrew Nicholson Magrath. Mr Magrath was the eldest son of Colonel Magrath, of the 2nd Madras Infantry. ’ He was born at the Neilgherry Hills, India, in 1850, and 'was educated at the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. In 1868 he entered the Warwickshire Regiment, now known as the South Wales Borderers, as ensign, rising to the rank of lieutenant. He left the Army in 1871, and came to Wellington in the ship England. After some years spent in the Rangitikei, Wanganui, and Wairarapa districts, during which time he was a teacher under the Wellington and Wan ganui Education Boards, he retired to the life of a settler at Otaihanga. In 1874 he was married in Wanganui to a daughter of the late Captain Magrath, of the 65th Eegiment. Some few years ago he went to Oakura, and lived with two of his sons, who were farming together there. The following interesting details of the life of the late Teone Makarika (McGregor), a half-caste Maori of Foxton, arc taken from an exchange:—Tutepourangi’s (feone’s grandfather) people, in order that his only daughter, Hinekaua, might not fall into the hands of Te Rauaparah and his allies, gave her over to Captain Jock McGregor, whose ship was then at anchor at Whakapuaka, Cable Bay, Nelson. McGregor married her, and a son, Teone, was born at Wellington. He was left there in charge of some Europeans while Jock McGregor went to Wanganui and bought land from the Wanganui Maoris. After a time he returned to Wellington to take his son ro Wanganui. Arriving at the mouth of the Manawatu River, he-' left his son in charge of the ferryman while ho went on to Wanganui to get a horse to convey his son to Wanganui. On his return to the Manawatu he discovered that Wereat te Waha, Chief of the Pm.uk a was, had kidnapped his eon. Eventually • Teone MakariM married a daughter of Pouti Hairnha (chief of the Takihikus), whose wife was Rangiwaia, a cousin of lhakara, who was chief of the Ngatiraukawa, and who sold this part of the Wellington Province to the Government under Dr. Feathers ton. Jock McGregor, Teone’s father, was the man who jumped over the Shakespeare Cliff, close to tie Wanganui bridge, when the Wanganui Maoris chased Mm. The spot is known as “McGregor’s Leap.” Teone Makariki leaves a widow and several children, grandchildren, and great-grand-children, numbering in all about 200. lhakara,- Mrs Sciascia, Mrs Tuiti McDonald, and Mrs Hui (of Koputaroa) are children by his first wife. His remains are now at Koputaroa, and will be buried in the family cemetery there. Among the passengers by the Maheno on Tuesday for Sydney is Mr W. R. Setter, of the local Railway engineering staff, and well known in Friendly Societies’ affairs prior to the war. He intends being absent from New Zealand for about three months, and is making the trip on account of health reasons, caused from wounds while on active service.