OTAGO CENTENARIAN

Evening Star, Issue 22444, 15 September 1936, Page 9

OTAGO CENTENARIAN

MRS CROGOME 102 TD-DAY One hundred and two years old today is Mrs M. A. Crocome, of Royal Crescent, Musselburgh. The event, however, was celebrated very quietly, for this centenarian has no desire for public recognition in any form whatever. Closely associated with the settlement of Otago, Mrs Crocome is a real “old identity,” having been in the province for over 80 years, but in spite of her great age she_ still retains all her faculties. Born in Edinburgh in 1834, she was only 18 years of age When she left her home country for Otago, where she arrived in the ship Stately in 1852. Since that date she has never been out of the province. She resided at Goodwood for two years before she married Dr Joseph Crocome, who was the first medical practitioner in Otago. Dr Crocome was born in Bath, shipping as a surgeon, and after the vessel was wrecked he left Sydney for the whaling settlement at Otakou, arriving there in the year 1836. In 1840 he removed from Otakou to Waikouaiti, where he carried out his medical duties over a wide %nd sparsely populated area. With this work Dr Crocome combined the duties of postmaster, and he was the first man to fill that position in Waikouaiti. He died in the year 1874. Mrs Crocome continued to live at Waikouaiti until 1915, when she came to Dunedin, and has since resided with her daughter, Mrs E. Ritchie, at Royal Crescent. In spite of her great age Mrs Crocome is alert in mind and can lav claim to never having had a serious illness or accident. Although current events still have an interest for her, it is chiefly in the past that she delights. She is able to entertain her friends with vivid recollections of the pioneering days in Waikouaiti, and other interesting stories of one of the most colourful periods of Otago’s history. Her birthday to-day marks another milestone in both the career of an old identity and one of the oldest persons living in New Zealand.