PIONEER’S BIRTHDAY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 851, 20 December 1929, Page 6

PIONEER’S BIRTHDAY

NINETY-TWO TOMORROW j' ADVENTURES IN ERUPTION i Tomorrow Mrs. M. E. Hooper, of 24 Abbott’s Road, Mount Eden, will celebrate her 92nd birthday. A pioneer settler of the Auckland Province, she has many memories of stirring times in the early days, the Tarawera eruption being only one of her personal memories. The second daughter of the late Mr. ai?d Mrs. Edward Allen. Mrs. Hooper was born at Leamington, Warwickshire, on December 21. 1537. The family arrived in Auckland by the Black Eagle in November, ISGI. and settled on an estate at Mount Albert known as Allendale. Mrs. Hooper was a teacher at the Waipa Mission School under the late Rev. Alexander Reid. In 1565 she- married the late Dr. R. R. Hooper, then Government Native Medical Officer, and they lived in the Waipa district until the Maori disturbances. While Dr. Hooper was stationed at Galatea, about 50 miles south-east of Rotorua, the Tarawera eruption occurred. Earthquakes and terrific explosions followed by discharges of ashes and cinders and of thick smoke and steam, made the region uninhabitable, and the family was assisted to Rotorua by a party of surveyors and natives. The journey was a difficult one. At times the horses had to be coaxed across smoking fissures in the ground, and food was always difficult to procure. The nights were spent in Maori villages from which the natives had fied in haste. '.Dr. Hooper v, r as ill at the time, and did not live long after the hardships of their escape. Mrs. Hooper has lived in Auckland ever since. Two of her sons are at Gisborne and the third son at Whakatane. There are five grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. Mrs. Hooper is one of the oldest members of the Pitt Street Methodist Church, which she still attends whenever possible. She has an excellent memory, often surprising younger friends by her recollections of public events of the past.