OBITUARY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVIII, Issue 41, 17 January 1938, Page 11

OBITUARY.

MRS H. V. RUTHERFURD. The death has occurred in her 71st year of Mrs H. V. IlutherfUrd, who was the first European woman to settle in the Wairaimurama Valley, j Raglan. Mrs Rutherfurd was born in India, and was the oldest daughter of the late Captain Sir John Mak-1 gill, of the Royal Engineers, who was on service in Madras at the time. Lord Haldane was a maternal uncle. Sir John came to New Zealand with his family in 1881 and settled at Waiuku. Mr Hamilton Rutherfurd, whose father also was in the Indian Army service, married Mrs Rutherfurd in 189 L and soon after took up With his brother a block of bush land in the Wairamararoa Valley. It was true pioneering work in those- days, for there g .were no roads, and all the material for the house which they built had to he packed in on bullocks. The Rutherfurd home was a noted centre for hospitality. Mrs Rutherfurd brought up a family of six children, three of whom are triplets. All are now married with families of their own. In the earlier ■ years the nearest white woman lived 15 miles away. , Mr and Mrs Rutherfurd left Wairamarama iti 1912, and for some years had a sheep run on Waiheke. after which they took up land in the Po- - hangina Valley, where Mr Rutherfurd ' died in 1927. Mr Duncan Iluther- ! turd, the son, now has the farm. Mrs Rutherfurd is also survived by five daughters. There are 12 grandchildren.