PAST RECALLED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1939, Page 6

PAST RECALLED

INCIDENT DURING VOYAGE TO NEW ZEALAND. BABY BORN AT SEA WRITES TO MRS REYNOLDS. When Mr H. C. P. Blandford, of Heretaunga Street, Palmerston North, read recently that one of the earliest white settlers in the Wairarapa, Mrs J-. Reynolds, of Masterton, had celebrated her 101st birthday, he decided to write to her offering his congratulations. Probably he was hot the only one to do so but his action was prompted for a special reason that brings to light a rather unusual connection between the two. Mrs Reynolds has lived in New Zealand for 75 years. She was married in London and came to the colony with her husband in the ship Asterope in 1864. On September 2. three days before the vessel arrived in Wellington, a child was born to Mrs H. M. Blandford, widow of Sergeant Blandford, who had been stationed with the 65th Regiment at Wanganui. Today that child is an old man and he is the person who wrote to Mrs Reynolds. She was delighted to hear from him and wrote as follows in reply; — “Dear Mr Blandford,--! am much interested by getting your letter and must thank you for your congratulations. I remember your mother and your sister who was often on the deck singing while walking around, and we had a pleasant time for the three months’ trip. If you are in Masterton any time we shall be very pleased to see you and will tell you of my family who are scattered here and doing well. I well remember your birth and the excitement of all the passengers wi,th such news.—M. Reynolds.” Mr Blandford was very pleased to receive the invitation and is determined to travel to Masterton to visit Mrs Reynolds, whom he has never seen. He explained that his father who was in the British military forces in New Zealand from 1847 to 1863 had gone home with his wife and when he died in March 1864, his mother, who had been a Miss Carty, of Wellington, decided to return to New Zealand. It was on the voyage back that he was born. One interesting fact in connection with his father's fatal illness that Mr Blandford was able to relate was that he had been nursed by Florence Nightingale, the hero of the Crimean War. Mr Blandford, who will be 75 in September next, has been a resident of Palmerston- -North for 36 years.