Index		Compiled by Dawn Chambers	email: d.chambers@paradise.net.nz


1931 Mar 3 - Evening Post
Aged Lady's Death

The death of Miss Selina Broderick, who passed away at the age of
85 on Wednesday, recalls memories of the earliest days of colonisation
in New Zealand, for her relatives were among the first residents of
this district. Miss Broderick's death took place at the residence of
her niece, Mrs Catherine Garrett, at Earp street, Johnsonville, and
she was buried beside her parents at the Ohariu Cemetery on Friday,
the Rev. Mr Walke conducting the services in the church and at the
graveside.

Miss Broderick was born in Wellington, near the Maori pa (then
occupied by the hapu of which the late Hon. Wi Tako, M.L.C., was the
head, and a genuine friend of the pakeha). Mr Drake, her uncle,
started one of the first breweries on the banks of the Kumutoto Creek,
and at the urgent solicitation of the early wheatgrowers added a small
gristing mill, to which the wheat was carried often on men's backs.
The flour and bran were taken away in the same manner, their being
no animals to do the work. The power was obtained from a large wheel,
driven by the water of the Kumutoto Creek, which drained most of the
central block of the Wellington of to-day, and found its outlet to
the sea at the foot of Woodward street. Lambton-quay was impassable
at high tide, thus necessitating a bridge over the Kumutoto Creek,
on Wellington terrace. The old mill-wheel was in existence in the
mid-'seventies, not far from where the Wellington Club now stands.
Mr Drake (who traced his descendants from the great Admiral Drake,
of Elizabethan days) was a many-sided man, with a strong bent for
botanical studies and collection. He went to reside later on on his
land, half a mile beyond Johnsonville, and thither Mr Creasy 
Broderick, his brother-in-law, also went; the house that he then
built can still be seen on the right hand side of Porirua road. Some
years afterwards he moved to Ohariu Valley where he and his wife lived
to the end of their days. Like his brother-in-law, Mr Creasy Broderick
was a man of many interests. A doctor with whom he became friendly on
board ship coming out went to Sydney, as nobody seemed to want a
doctor in those early days in Wellington. He advised Mr Broderick to
follow suit, and wrote that there was a tannery for sale there. The
plucky pioneer accordingly went across, bought the tannery, and
conducted it successfully. During that period the Californian gold-
digging rush broke out, and Mr Broderick fitted out a ship with all
sorts of goods that he thought would be required at the new Eldorado.
When he got to San Francisco he found scores of vessels before him,
with their cargos discharged and deserted by their crews, who had
flocked to the diggings. In consequence, Mr Broderick lost heavily,
and after disposing of the tannery in Sydney he returned to his land
at Ohariu Valley. This land he had purchased from the New Zealand
Land Company before leaving London.

Though he had been a tailor's cutter in an important establishment
in London, he felled the bush, broke in bullocks, made their yokes,
and worked the farm with them. By that time his two eldest sons,
William and Thomas, were of considerable help. They took up a section
on Porirua road, two and a half miles beyond Johnsonville, and there
Thomas, who had married Miss Hobbs, remained for the rest of his life.
William, the eldest brother, removed to Hawera, and took up bush land
at Te Roti, near the Opunake branch line. The youngest son, Walter,
was one of the founders of the Island Bay Bowling Club, and made a
bequest of 1,000 pounds to that club. He was one of the best shots
in New Zealand for many years, and won a large number of prizes at
shooting matches. The late Miss Broderick could also handle a gun,
and used to accompany her brother when the larder was in need of wild
turkeys, pigeons etc., which were plentiful in the Broderick bush
till townspeople found out their preserves.



1936 Oct 30 - Hawera Star
First Te Roti Resident
Late Mrs M. J. Broderick
Early Hawera Pioneering Days

The first white woman to settle at Te Roti in the early pioneering
days of the Hawera district. Mrs Mary Jane Broderick, widow of the
late Mr William Broderick and mother of Mrs A. M. Winks, Hawera,
and Mr W. E. Broderick, Maxwell, chairman of the Wanganui Hospital
Board, died at Hawera, yesterday, aged 86 years.

Born in County Armagh, Ireland on May 23, 1850, Mrs Broderick was
the daughter of the late Mr John Watson, who had an indirect
association with the founding of the Manchester Block and the town
of Feilding as its centre. Mr Watson was steward-secretary for the
Irish estates of the Duke of Manchester, who sent an agent to New
Zealand, the latter returning to England and instituting the
Manchester Block Corporation under whose administration the Feilding
district was first settled. Feilding received its name from Lady
Mary Feilding, daughter of the Duke of Manchester, and it was from
accounts of the new colony that Mrs Broderick received an urge to
visit the Dominion. As Miss Watson, she sailed in the Eastern
Monarch with friends in 1873 and landed at Christchurch, where she
remained for three years, until her marriage and subsequent removal
to Wellington. Residing there for a short period, Mr and Mrs
Broderick 58 years ago came to Taranaki, and after residing on Glover
Road, Hawera, for three years went to Te Roti, when that district
was in standing bush. Mr and Mrs Broderick were the first white
settlers to take up land and, with later arrivals, experienced all
the trials and hardships of pioneering. During the Maori troubles
which disturbed other parts of the district Mr and Mrs Broderick
won and retained the high esteem of the Maoris, who frequently invaded
their property, but at no time sought to molest them. Twenty five
years ago Mr and Mrs Broderick retired to Hawera, and in 1922 Mrs
Broderick was predeceased by her husband.

She took the keenest interest in the borough jubilee celebrations
in 1932, having watched the town grow from a few scattered houses
to the status of a borough and to its present degree of solidarity.
For the past three Mrs Broderick had been in indifferent health and
her passing was not altogether unexpected. She leaves her son and
daughter and three grand-children. The funeral takes place privately
tomorrow.