OBITUARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVII, Issue 182, 3 July 1937, Page 12

OBITUARY.

iMRS CHARLOTTE DONALD

There passed away, last evening, Mrs Charlotte Donald, widow of the lata James Donald, and there is thus severed another of the few remaining links binding the city with the pioneering days of the district. Deceased had reached the ripe age of 83 years, but her stamina, nevertheless, had been such that, but for an unfortunate accident, a few weeks ago when she broke a leg, she would have lived many more years to enjoy the comforts of the happy surroundings which she had so thoroughly earned. Mrs Donald was born at Tawa Flat, near Wellington, and when she grew to girlhood was burdened with her share of the toil that was inseparable from those early colonial days. When she was married to Mr Donald, they took up farming in the AVairarapa, near Masterton, but there was hard work and nothing much in the way of rewards for the young couple and their children. Eventually they decided to venture into the Manawatu, where the prospects looked brighter, and tilt trip was made via the Forty Mile hush and the Manawatu Gorge by dray. At that time there was no bridge over the Manawatu River and Mrs Donald and her children were paddled across in a Maori canoe. Their section of bush and stumps was situated on Rangitikei Line. After a while the family removed to Bunn.v----t-horpe and it was while there that Air I Donald died in 1904. Airs Donald later I retired to Palmerston North, where she had lived ever since, except for a brief period in New Plymouth. Left to mourn her passing are five sons and five daughters. The sons are Alessrs Albert Donald (Wanganui and late of Pahiatun), James and Raymond Donald (Bunnythorpe), Archibald Donald (Kapuni, Taranaki), and Reginald Donald (Palmerston North), and the daughters ATesdames P. Alatheson and 1). AfcKinlay (Hamilton), R. Evans, J. S. Alurray and S. Brndfield (Palmerston North). Airs Donald was predeceased by three sons. <