PAHIATUA CENTENARIAN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 1715, 22 May 1917, Page 4

PAHIATUA CENTENARIAN.

HER INTERESTING REMINISCENCES.

Yest erday Mrs J. Vile, of Palliatua, attained her 100th birthday. She has had the unique experience of seeing no less than five generations of her family. Mrs Vile was bom in Somersetshire, England, in 1817, in the reign of George HI. She has, therefore, lived under five British Sovereigns. She was present in London at the Coronation of the late Queen Victoria in 1837. Her maiden name was Ann Poster. At the age of twenty-eight she was married to the late Mr John Vile, who predeceased her by sixteen or seventeen years. In 1865 the family came to New Zealand in the ship Anne Wilson, which was known as the “starved ship.” The journey occupied 221 days, and when the port of Wellington was reached the passengers were in a condition of semi-starvation. Several "(including one of Mrs Vile’s daughters) died on the journey from lack of sustenance. When the facts became known to the then residents of Wellington, an indignation meeting was held, and it was decided to deal in a salutary manner with the captain of the vessel. The latter, however, made his escape to his ship, which was lying out at sea. The lafe-Mr John Vile and his family proceeded to the Lower _ Hull, where they spent the first night in a barn owned by the late Mr Liverton. Cor two years they lived in the Hutt Valley, when they were forced by the floods to retreat to the Wairarapa. In 1858 they came to what was Ihen known as the Three-Mile Bush, but is now the township of Carterton. Thereafter the late Mr John Vile and his eldest son (the late Mr Job Vile, M.P.) were employed on the station of Messrs Smith and Revans at Martinborough. Subsequently Mr John Vile occupied what is now known as the Admiral Run, near Gladstone. He and his family afterwards resided at Clareville, then at Masterton, and later removed to Pahiatua, where Mrs Vile has lived for more than a quarter of a century. Although confined to her bed for some lime back, as the result of an accident, Mrs Vile still retains her mental faculties, and can discuss for hours the' stirring events of her earlier career. Her family consisted of five sons and two daughters. The sons were the late Mr Job Vile (who died at Marton), the late Air Alfred Vile (who died at Lyttelton), Messrs William A’ile, John \ ile (Pahiatua), and Henry Vile, Iliumfungi. Her daughters were the late Mrs H. Eagle and Airs H. Preston, the latter being a great-grandmoth-er. Blie has twenty-one grandsons, eleven granddaughters, about eighty great-grandchildren, and several grea t -great -gran dchi klren.