KNEW WELLINGTON AS GROUP OF MUD HUTS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 526, 1 December 1928, Page 6

KNEW WELLINGTON AS GROUP OF MUD HUTS

PIONEER’S DEATH CAME TO N.Z. IN 1840 (Special to THE SUN) PALMERSTON N., Friday. One of the oldest pioneers of the Wellington Province, Mr. Friend Hook, died at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. Robert Hooker, Palmerston North. He celebrated his 99th birthday on November 14. Born in Kent in 1829, Mr. Hook came to New Zealand with his mother in the ship Coromandel, arriving at Port Nicholson in 1840. Port Nicholson in those days was composed of a group of primitive mud huts. As a boy, Mr. Hook had to sell wood or home-made brooms to eke out a precarious living. On the outbreak of the Maori War he joined the militia and served right through the campaign. Pie took part in the gold rush to Gabriel’s Gully with moderate success, and later returned to break in a farm from the virgin bush that everywhere covered Tawa Flat. For nearly forty years lie wa.s foreman of that stretch of road between Johnsonville and Tawa Flat, working on the road all day and attending to the milking of his herd of cows in the morning and evening. During his strenuous life he saw Port Nicholson grow into the city of Wellington, and Cobbe’s coach give way to the Manawatu railway and the motor-car. Mr. Hook retired from his farm in Tawa Flat 20 years ago, to live at Levin, and eventually came to live with his daughter in Palmerston North four years ago. Like many of the pioneers, Mr. Ilook reared a large family, there being 17 children, of whom 16 lived to reach maturity. Seven sons and five daughters still survive. There are 66 grandchildren and a number of greatgrandchildren.