Sixty Years in New Zealand.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1573, 4 December 1885, Page 4

Sixty Years m New Zealand.

. The Southland Times states that there died o» Sunday morning an aged man who was probably the longest resident Enropean m the colony, m the person of John Farrel. • He was a native of Yorkshire , and a shipwright by trade and, as a carpenter of a whaler, first came to tho coast of New Zealand m 182*. In 1828 he arrived at Hawkes Bay with aivessel.and there, m company with another of the crew, lie ran away from the ship because it was dangrrously leaky- He made his way across the North Island among Native tribes who had never seen a white man before and was kindly treated by them ; m fact, lie said that hospitality and good feeling were traits of Maori character until they were pervsded with the contending creeds of Christianity. As was customary with the Pakchas o£ those days, ho married a Native woman, and bi-came domiciled with her tribe. His knowledge of mechanics made him quite an acquisition to his hapu, and his services were frequently availed of to repair the firearms used by the Natives m their tribal wars. He settled .m Wellington for Rome tim«s where he carried on Bn extensive trade -m pork-curing. From there ho 'migrated to Port Cooper (Lyttleton; between forty and fifty years ago, and was engaged m shipbuilding, and there he built the first boat that won a race. Farrell settled for some years at Koaputai (Port Chalmers"), where he went into business at a time when Custom House officials were unknown. His wife having died, and Ins dauchtpr having married a resident of Invercargill, .he returned north, and was lost to sight for some time. He turned up at Invercargill about twenty years ago, and was then close on seventy yeai-s of age, but has been at work nntil within a few weeks ago. He was eighty-six ypnrs of ag© at the time of his death, and had been sixty-one years on the coast of the colony. Like many Pakeha- Maoris, he could tell ot landed possessions lightly valued and loadily parted with that have since became "immensely valuable. In addition to land elsewhere, a portion of the site rf the town of Napier once helonged to him, ft'nd he parted with a picturesque island m the North* to a Native woman who hfuJnnrsrd him through a sickness, m return for h«r kindness. The deceased leaves an offspring of nine grandchildren and RftVPntcen groat- grandchildren. His daughter Mrs Small, died several years