INTERESTING CERTIFICATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 March 1939, Page 4

INTERESTING CERTIFICATE

BAPTISM AT AUCKLAND IS. IN 1852. ASSOCIATION WITH EAST COAST PIONEERS. “I hereby certify that I did on the thirty-first day of March, 1852, at Port Ross, in the Auckland Islands, baptise the infant daughter of Isaac and Sarah Ann Cripps by the names of Harriett Sophia. Witness my hand this thirtyfirst day of March, 1852 —G. E. Carwithen, Chaplain of H.M.S. Calliope, Port Ross, Auckland Islands, March 31. 1852.”

This interesting document, now placed in the Turnbull Library, Wellington provides an interesting link with an early attempt to colonise these remote and desolate islands. Added interest is given to it by reason of the fact that the name of Cripps is a wellknown one in the Wairarapa district, associated as it is with the pioneering days of the East Coast. The certificate of baptism is an ordinary sheet of note paper, apparently written by the chaplain when he landed on the islands, when the opportunity was taken for him to baptise the infant. The commander of the H.M,S. Calliope (this ship was not the warship of the same name, which steamed out of Apia Harbour, Samoa, in a hurricane in 1889) was Captain Sir Everard Horne.

The child concerned in the baptism, later Mrs John Groves, of Bushgrove, came to Wellington, with her parents about September, 1852, and after remaining there for 18 months, went to Mataikona, Castlepoint and Whareama, spending a short period in each place, and ultimately arriving at “Seven Oaks,” in 1858. Her marriage to Mr John Groves took place in 1875. Mrs Groves remained a resident of the East Coast district for the rest of her life, her death occurring at a comparatively early age in 1894. Mr Groves was taken ill while returning to New Zealand from England in 1905, and was landed at Fiji, where ‘he died. Members of the family are Mesdames A. R. Fannin (Taihape), J. J. Weir (Auckland), and D. McCleary (Te Kuiti), and Messrs H. G. Groves (Marangai), W. G. and N. W. Groves (Bushgrove) and K. Groves (Longbush). - Another daughter was fatally injured at the homestead when .thrown from a gig. Mr Thomas Cripps (Masterton), and Mr George Cripps (Paraparaumu) are brothers of the late' Mrs Groves, and Mrs R. Wilson (Wellington) is a sister. There are also 15 grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren.