PIONEER’S DEATH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1940, Page 6

PIONEER’S DEATH

« EARLY DAYS IN WAIRARAPA. The death occurred in an Auckland private hospital on Thursday of Mrs Mary Anne Campbell, at the age of 79. She was one of the pioneers of the Wairarapa, and her father, the late Mr W. J. Roydhouse, was the first telegraph and electrical engineer brought out under contract to the New Zealand Government. Mrs Campbell was born in London, “within sound of Bow bells,” where her father was a pioneer in electrical engineering, and was responsible for the laying of the first cable between Calais and Dover. The daughters of the family treasure as heirlooms brooches made from this cable. Mr Roydhouse and his family came to New Zealand in the ship Euterpe in 1869 and he was for some time engaged in laying first land lines and cables in both islands. He afterward settled in the Wairarapa district, where he started the first newspaper, the Greytown Standard.

When Mrs Campbell came to New Zealand as a child of seven, sections of the Maoris were still troublesome, and she could recall an occasion on which a band of Hauhaus raided the home, took the stew that was cooking off the fire, and sat round eating it with their fingers. At the age of 18 Mrs Campbell married the late Mr Edward Alexander Campbell, a solicitor in the Wairarapa. who later practised in Paeroa until his death 16 years ago. Mrs Campbell, who had a family of eight sons and daughters, had of recent years lived in Auckland,