GENEROUS PUBLIC BEQUESTS

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 15 June 1933, Page 6

GENEROUS PUBLIC BEQUESTS

NEW PLYMOUTH, RESIDENT’S WILL

LATE MR) C. S-. SANDERS

Bequests' made by tlie will of Mr C. S. Sanders, who died at New Plymouth last week, are £IOO.O to the AV ©stern Park Board, £SOO to the. board oontrolIhiOj tire reserve, £350 to the New Plymouth Borough Council for Rhododendron Dell in Pukekura Park, £350 to the New Zealand Division of the Cancer Campaign, a<nd £250 to the Stratford Public Hospital. The- residue of tlio estate, after private bequests, is bequeathed on trust for the benefit of Pukekura Park, New Plymouth. It is under-stood that tbe residue will be a substantial sum. The bequests made iby Mr Sanders are typical of his generosity and his great love of nature, which was a dominant force within him throughout his life, whether at Ngaere where he spent his earlier years or at AVestown, New Plymouth, where he later settled. He was the founder of the beautiful Ngaere Gardens. AVhen, he came to New Plymouth his: love and. appreciation of the beauty of bush and garden still moved him so that here again he made one of the finest gardens in the district. He 'has remembered the Westown district by his .bequests to the AVestem I'arK Board and Reserve T committee. At AVestown ho displayed a- particular interest in rhododendrons, and his interest in this flower has resulted in the bequest of 3i sum for expenditure on the rhododendron dell at Pukekura Park. The remaining two legacies indicate Mr Sanders’ appreciation of the work of those institutioms devoted to the oar© of the ailing.

Mr San dens was 82 years of ago when he died. He was horn, in March, 1851, at Marwood, Devonshire. His father came to New Zealand when Mr Sanders was only a few v-ears 1 old, and the rest of the family followed in 1860 1 . They came in the sailing vessel Annie Longton, which arrived at Nelson after a slow passage. Here the Sanders family received its education. Mr Sanders on completing his schooling spent several years on the gold diggings at Oolilingw-ood, hut though he contrived to make a comfortable living was one of the hundreds who failed to “strike it rich.”

With the ambition of being a landholder, Mr Sanders came to Inglewood, where he took a block of buish land on Bristol Road in the Moa, block. He was one of the first settlers in that district. While there he heard of the arrival at Hawerai of bis elder 'brother Henry, from Nelson. Quixotidally enough, he sold hi® farm and left for Hawera to meet his brother. The upshot of the reunion was that the brothers decided to take up land at Ngaere and Mr Sanders resided there from 4881 until 1912. when he took up his residence at- New Plymouth.