PIONEER SETTLER DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 917, 10 March 1930, Page 11

PIONEER SETTLER DEAD

BORN WHEN GEORGE IV. REIGNED ATTAINED AGE OF 101 A pioneer settler who died at Onehunga on SatLirday, was born at Launceston, Cornwall, when George IV. was King of England, and the Duke of Wellington was Prime Minister. The settler v/as Mrs. Eliza Ormiston. Mrs. Ormiston’s marriage certificate, when she married Mr. William Ormiston at Alterton, Cornwall, shows her to have been 102 years of age, but her descendants say she was 101. As Mrs. Ormiston explained on her birthday on August 30 last, she attributed her longevity to a lifelong use of brown bread. When she cam© to New Zealand, she ground wheat in order to make wholemeal bread. As Onehunga’s oldest resident, Mrs. Ormiston was extremely well known. She was a keen follower of religion and, to the time of her death, retained a deep interest in theological literature. Reading was one of 1 her chief pleasures, and she enjoyed conversations with her friends and walks in her garden.

When Mrs. Ormiston was born. Queen Victoria was only nine; Sir Walter i Scott, William "Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lamb were living, and Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning had just reached manhood. All her life, Mrs. Ormiston was connected with the Methodist Church—she deafly remembered the visits paid to her father’s house by John Wesley during his revival caml'.aigns. Her husband left for New Zealand in IS6O and took up land at Mangupai, near Whangarei. Mrs. Ormiston followed with two children in the following year. At the outbreak of the Maori War, the Ormiston family was compelled to seek refuge in Auckland. After the hostilities, the familv returned to Mangapai, and Mr. Ormiston died there in 1874. For many years, Mr. Ormiston had been Hobson district’s representative on the old Provincial Council. For 20 years, Mrs. Ormiston had Jived at Onehunga with a daughter Mrs. J. M. West. Other members of the family are Mr. E. N. Ormiston, of Remuera; Mr. J. N. Ormiston, Mount Lden; Mrs. T E Wavte, Remuera; Mrs J. R. Sinclair. Christchurch; and Mrs. W. A. Sinclair, Epsom. Mrs. Ormiston experienced many hardships in the pioneering days in North Auckland. Her recollections of numerous incidents connected with the early period of colonisation were remarkably distinct. About a year ago, Mrs. Ormiston suffered from an attack of influenza, but since then her simple rou:ine of living had been svararly d j sturbed.