104th BIRTHDAY

Hokitika Guardian, 12 March 1929, Page 3

104th BIRTHDAY

CELEBRATED AT FEILDING. BY OLD HOKITIKIAN. Regarded as the oldest European woman in New Zealand, Airs Frances Webb celebrated the 104th. anniversary oi her birthday at Feilding on March 2nd. Airs Webb was born at Silverwelh, a lew miles from Truro, in the County of Cornwall,.in 1825, in the reign of King George ’IV. She has therefore lived during the reign of five British Sovereigns, and was 12 years old when Queen Victoria ascended the throne. Airs Webb, whose maiden name was Frances Harris, lived in Cornwall until her marriage in 1851 to Air William i* obh, at Lnikinhorne, Liskeard, Cornwall. With her husband Airs Webb sailed from Liverpool just before Christmas. 1857, for Australia in the American sailer Tornado, which took six months to accomplish the voyage. Arriving in Melbourne, they later weiit to the gold diggings at Bendigo where Mr Wehh introduced the first gold quartzcrushing plant that went to Australia. Mrs Webb still wears a brooch made of some of the gold secured there by her husband in those early days. After some years at Bendigo ATrs -Webb and her husband went to the diggings in Otago and lived subsequently at Dunedin, Hokitika and New Plymouth. Sue now lives with one of her two daughters. For one. of such a great age Airs Wehh retains possession of her faculties to a marked degree and she has received many congratulatory messages from a wide circle of friends throughout the Dominion.