MRS. J. BUICK DEAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 47, 25 February 1939, Page 7

MRS. J. BUICK DEAD

PIONEERING DAYS RECALLED. OLDEST WHITE WOMAN BORN IN DOMINION. The death has occurred of Mrs. James Buick, aged 96, at her home in Jackeytown Road, Tiakitnhuna. She was the younger sister of the late Mrs. Ingle, Marton, who was said to be the first white girl born in Petone. Mrs. Buick was born in Waiwetu, Upper Hutt, on June 17, 1843, and so far as is known she was, to the time of her death, the oldest surviving white woman born in the Dominion. Helen Stuart McEwen, who subsequently married Mr. James Buick, then of Upper Hutt, was one of a family of very early New Zealand colonists. Her father, Mr. David McEwen, was an engineer, and he came to the Dominion in the ship Bengal Merchant. Subsequently he became a member of the Wellington Provincial Government. Later he settled in the Manawatu district and was first postmaster in Karere. Sixty years ago Mrs. Buick journeyed with her parents and seven of their children from Belmont, Upper Hutt, up the coast in a one-horse dray to the Manawatu. settling on a Tiakitahuna property of 400 acres, which still remains with the family and where she spent her last days.

She well remembered the turbulent days of the threatening Maori. When she was a small girl flour had to be carried from Wellington through a bush track to their home. Maoris once entered and seized some clothes from the fireside, but her mother bravely went after them and recovered the garments, though a Maori speared her dog. Tiakitahuna was then a solid block of bush into which Mrs. Buick's husband and father veritably cut a hole to carve out a small clearing. On the forest fringe fronting Foxton line with pit-sawn timber they built, a two-storey residence, the first habitation of the Buick family. Notable was the flood of 1880. when residents travelled about the district in canoes They never complained, but worked hard, and attending their efforts came a measure of prosperity. The late Mr. Buick raced Voltaire and others, being a keen breeder of bloodstock. There were 52 thoroughbred horses on his property when he died.

The sons of the late Mr. and Mrs. Buick are Messrs. J. L. Buick. Carterton; H. Buick, Johnsonville; D. Buick, Tiakitahuna; and Alexander Buick, Kauwhata. Those who predeceased them were, Messrs W. Buick, J. Buick and T. Buick. The surviving daughters are Mesdames Edwards, Palmerston North: R. J. Seddon, Tiakitahuna: J. Carruthers, Gonville: and E. Irwin, Dannevirke. Miss E. Buick and Mrs. G. Blanche, predeceased their mother. There were 13 children. Other generations of the family are represented by 25 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. The late Mr. David Buick M.P. for Palmerston for 10 years. was a brother-in-law of Mrs. James Buick. Her son-in-law, Mr. R. J. Seddon. is a nephew of the late Rt. Hon. R. J. Seddon.