OLD RESIDENT DIES

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 456, 11 September 1928, Page 11

OLD RESIDENT DIES

MR. G. SMITH, OF ONEHUNGA ARRIVED BY ORIENTAL QUEEN Another link with the troublous times of the Maori war is severed by the death of Mr. George Smith, of Pawa Road, Onehunga, a member of one of the oldest families in the borough. Born at Briensford, Ireland, in 1847, the late Mr. Smith arrived in Auckland with his parents by the Oriental Queen in 1849, liis father being a sergeant in the 63rd Regiment. He was apprenticed to the late Mr. James McIntyre of the Clyde Ironworks, Onehunga, and in later life followed the trade of blacksmith at Hamilton and at the Northern Wairoa. lie is survived by his wife, three sons and three daughters, while his two brothers, John and Robert, two of the oldest residents of the isthmus, are still hale and hearty. The Oriental Queen was the transport ship which brought the No. 8 Company, New Zealand Loyal Fcncibles, with their families to New Zealand after Hone Heke’s war. They were settled by Sir George Grey at Onehunga, Otahuhu. Panmure and Howick as a protection against possible raids by the Ngapuhi and other savage tribes in the north. They were given free grants of land and here and there on the isthmus may be still seen the original twin houses in which the old Fencibles lived. The ranks of the Oriental Queen’s passengers are rapidly dwindling away, but a few still remain, principally in Onehunga, to relate the hardships of their pioneering days.