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Life in Early Poverty Bay

“That Wild Place.”

“That Wild Place.”

This feature of old Gisborne days was related by Mrs. John Townley in the course of a chat on life here in the early days. Mrs. Townley, who was ninety years old on May 6, came to Gisborne, or “The Port” as it was then called, fifty-four years ago. Prior to that she had spent ten years in Napier, whence she had come from the Old Country. Reports often reached Napier, in those days, of wild doings in and around “The Port” and this part of New Zealand was considered a good place to be absent from. Mrs. Townley recollected that, only two months prior to their leaving Napier, her husband had jokingly asked how she would like to live in Gisborne. She had replied that nothing in the world would make her go to “that wild place.” “Yet,” remarked Mrs. Townley whimsically, “there we were, two months later, setting out for Gisborne to start a branch of our firm.

Mrs. J. Townley.

Mrs. J. Townley.

“We were very pleasantly surprised, however,” Mrs. Townley continued, “The people here were wonderfully friendly and we were soon entirely at home. Gisborne townsfolk, then, were a very happy little family page 124 and everybody knew everybody else. When any celebration was held, the whole town attended.

“I well remember the little concerts we used to have,” she continued. “Everybody, of course, came along and all contributed items, whether they had talent or not. Newcomers were always great fun and were usually hard to get on to the platform at first. They always be came alright afterwards, perhaps because, after they had heard the rest, they felt they didn't perform so badly after all.