EXPLORER’S NEPHEW

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 806, 29 October 1929, Page 11

EXPLORER’S NEPHEW

DONALD SUTHERLAND SEES NEW ZEALAND LINK WITH EARLY DAYS A visit to the scene of his uncle’s exploits as an explprer and pioneer is to be paid by Mr. Donald Sutherland, of Brisbane, Queensland, nephew of New Zealand’s own Donald Sutherland, after whom the highest waterfall in the world is named. Mr. Sutherland, who is paying his first visit to New Zealand, arrived in Auckland on the Ulimaroa tins morning. After a month in the Queen City he will journey South to Milford Sound and the Sutherland Falls. Fighting in the first Maori war, Mr. Donald Sutherland, the pioneer, was a member v of the Third Waikato Militia. In the second war he fought in the Armed Constabulary against Te Kooti’s men. He landed at Onehunga in 1863, being one of 40 men who had come from the South Island to take part. It was in Southland and Otago that Sutherland’s adventures marked him as an historic figure in New Zealand history. After liis discovery of the tall, slender Sutherland falls he and

liis wife made their home in tlie bushclad mountains of the West Coast, and became known as the hermits of Milford Sound. Visits from the outer world were so few that when Donald Sutherland died his body lay in the house for many weeks before Mrs. Sutherland was relieved of her pathetic vigil. Five years later Mrs. Sutherland died in the same house, after carrying on alone during the intervening time. She was buried beside her husband in the heart of what is tlie loneliest as well as probably the loveliest country in New Zealand. Mr. Donald Sutherland, the nephew, has a personal association with the Dominion, for he fought with the Australians beside the Neiv Zealanders in the Boer War. It so happened that he was close to the New Zealand lines when they were attacked at night by the Boers during the ap proach to Arrowsmith. It was a tragic occasion, for the New Zealand troops were practically annihilated.