EARLY SETTLERS AT TOKANUI

Southland Times, Issue 24830, 24 August 1942, Page 4

EARLY SETTLERS AT TOKANUI

MR AND MRS GEORGE PATON The distinction of being the last survivors of the first settlers to take up land, in the Tokanui district is held by Mr and Mrs George Paton, of Princes street, Invercargill, who have been living in retirement for 20 years. Mr Paton came to New Zealand from Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1878, in the William Davie when 18 years of

age. He first took employment at Morton Mains and then at Pine Bush and was doing contract ploughing at Tokanui before the district was surveyed. He took up a bush section at Tokanui and cleared it, bringing the land to a high state of fertility. Mrs Paton, who was then Miss Annie Pollock, came' to New Zealand from County Monaghan, Northern Ireland, in 1885 and married Mr Paton in the same year, the wedding ceremony being held at First Church, Invercargill. The two settlers experienced difficult, times. A bushel of oats was worth only 1/-, butter 4d per lb and eggs 6d a dozen. The nearest railway station was at Edendale, 35 miles away, and the nearest doctor and butcher’s shop at Wyndham. Some foodstuffs were brought to Fortrose from Dunedin by sea and the settlers depended to some extent on wild pigs and birds from the bush for food. Mr and Mrs Paton have been living in Invercargill for 22 years. They have a family of one daughter and they have five grandchildren.