HER 91ST BIRTHDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 772, 19 September 1929, Page 9

HER 91ST BIRTHDAY

ONEHUNGA RESIDENT CELEBRATES 82 YEARS IN DOMINION E.« Sjbty -two years ago, by the good ship Barronfort, hailing from Home, Mrs. Ellen Kiigour arrived in M aoriland. Today still chatty, and alert of mind and limb, she joins her hosts of descendants to enjoy f ull-heartedly the festivities of her 91st birthday. her face beamed with bright ness as those of her 240 descendants representative of five generations, who reside in Auckland wished her the many happy returns of the day. *Tm so pleased to think that I am celebrating my birthday in Onehunga. * she said. “We settled here when we first arrived iu New Zealand, and I have lived here ever since. Then all my people are buried in Onehunga and consequently I do not want to leave here now,*’ she continued. Of Mrs. Kilgour’s thirteen children, 11 are still living and all are in the Auckland province, while she reside** with her daughter. Mrs. Lockwood, of Onehunga. Sometimes she feels like a change and then she sets off to spend a few days with her son. Mr. Thomas Kiigour of Ellerslie, but invariably her stay away from her daughter is brief as she likes the Manukau. CARRIED IN BULLOCK DRAY She was only a little girl, nine years of age, when she came to New Zealand with her people on the Barronfort, which was skippered by Captain Simons. On arrival they were transported by a bullock dray over a badly formed bush track to an old shed which was situated where the Epsom tram barn now stands. Later her people settled at Cornwallis on the Manukau, where her brother, John College, who is a resident of Waihi. was born. Tn vivid fashion she tells of the growth of Auckland. As a girl she used to walk over to the Waitemata side, but in those days there was not a house in Newton. It wa*i a hill, thickly covered in tea tree through which was cut a rough track. The only house in the vicinity at that time was the old Stone Jug, which still stands. Where now stands* John Court’s drapery store was a littlu hotel called the Grey Hound, but above that there were no buildings.

Then of the Maori wars. Mrs. Kiigour tells very clearly and pithily of the skirmish on the Manukau when, the Maoris destroyed the flagstaff and how, on that occasion, the women folk were all rushed to a little house iu Onehunga for safety. When she was married she went to live for a short time in Taupiri and was fortunate in leaving for Onehunga again just as the big Maori wars iu that district commenced. “Do you go out a great deal?” Mrs, Kiigour w'as asked. . “Oh yes, rain, hail or snow, I go into Auckland every Monday,” she replied -with a smile. "The bus men know me now and they all stop for me jusjt outside the gate. I always enjoy a day in the city,” she said.