DEATH OF A PIONEER.

Shannon News, 3 July 1928, Page 3

DEATH OF A PIONEER.

An old and highly respected Pahau tanui farmer, Mr William Harris, one of the few remaining pioneers, died on Friday last, and was buried on Sunday at Pahautanui, the Rev. Swainson offic iated at the Church of England, and the graveside. The large attendance at the funeral testified to the esteem in which the late Mr Harris was held every family in the district being re presented. Mr Harris arrived in New Zealand with his parents, the late Mr and Mrs David Harris, in 1842, at the age of three years, in the ship George Fife. The family first resided on the old Porirua Road, near Khandallah, and in 1853 took up land in Pahautanui where the parents died each over the age of 80 years. The late Mr Harris married Miss Jessie Clark, who predeceased him some 16 years ago, and of their family of five boys and five girls, seven are still living; George, at Eke tahuna; James and Mrs Carter, at Pahiatua; David at Albany, Auckland; Mrs Gardner, at Whakatane; Mrs Anderson, Te Kuiti; Thomas John Steven, at Pahautanui. There are also thirty-one grand-children, and twenty great grand-children. It was always a pleasure to visit the late Mr Harris and listen to the many doings of the early days of the Wellington district, especially those connected with the old coaching days on this coast and the Maori Wars. He would have attained his 90th birthday on the 4th of October, and would probably have lived to see a greater age, only for the misfortune that he slipped and fell on the verandah, and broke his thigh. He was removed to the Wel lington Hospital, upon which pneumonia set in and caused his death.