FAMILY RECORD

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8872, 15 February 1943, Page 3

FAMILY RECORD

ORIGINAL HOME USED 75 YEARS IN ONE HOUSE BUILDING SPARED BY MAORIS To have lived to the age of 75 years and spent the whole of her life on the property and in the house in which she was born is the record of Miss Ada Cowling, of Westown, whose death occurred in the New Plymouth Hospital recently.

Miss Cowling was a daughter of the late William and Mary Cowling, her parents having been among the early pioneer settlers of the district who arrived at New Plymouth by the William Bryan on March 31, 1841. The house at Westown, as it stands on Elliott, road to-day, still contains a portion of the original house built by Miss Cowling's father and is believed to be the only one in the district which was not destroyed by the Maoris when they burnt all the buildings in the district during the days of the Maori War troubles. It has been well cared for and is still in a good state of preservation. Tts upright weather boards and low gable roof mark it distinctively as belonging to the days of the beginning of settlement in the district.

The reason for the house not being burnt was that the Maori chief placed a tapu on the: building because it belonged to the minister of a small primitive Methodist chapel and was situated on the property, part of which became the Hurden cemetery. Original Crown Granl The property at Westown was taken up by Mr Cowling as a Crown grant when the area was settled by Europeans and it has remained in the possession of the Cowling family, without interruption down to the present time. The property was noted for a fine range of puriri trees and portions of these were used in the building of many of the original bridges over streams and rivers in the around New Plymouth as roading communications developed. Such a record of the long possession and occupation of the same property by one family in New Zealand is rare, but of course is quite common in England among people such as those from whom Miss Cowling's forebears came. The late Miss Cowling was a very line type of woman and possessed all the qualities of endurance, perseverance and self-reliance which characterised the pioneer settlers of the district. She was of a retiring nature, but highly esteemed by a wide circle of friends in the district in which she bad lived for so long. She took a prominent part in church activities in the district and also in having the area < set aside as the Hurden cemetery.

The remaining members of the family are four sisters and one brother. They are Miss J. Cowling, Mesdamos H. Cottier, E. Simmons and C. West, all of New Plymouth and Mr James Cowling, of Kenya Colony, in Africa.