FATHER OF THE WEST COAST.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3371, 10 November 1911, Page 5

FATHER OF THE WEST COAST.

DIES AGED 82

(Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 9. At Greymouth Samuel Meggitt MacIvlev, the father of the West Coast, has died. He was a native of Leeds, and arrived in Nelson in 1854, and came to the West Coast in 1857, where he met James Mackay, junr., in 1860, who had bought eight to ten million acres from the Natives for £l5O cash and a ton of flour and half a ton of sugar, altogether valued at £3OO. MaeKley (witnessed the signatures. Hie subsequently visited Okarito, and finding gold on the beach, and in the Buffer river, he visited Christchurch in 1863 and wrote a letter to the “Lyttelton Times” which caused a rush to set in. He bought 2200 acres in Little Gray Valley, which he improved, and has resided on it ever since. It carried 1800 sheep, 300 head of cattle, and a building like an English farmhouse. He visited England in ,1886, and subsequently bought 2000 acres at Pakarae, in Poverty Bay, but sold it recently at an . enormous profit, as it w'as vastly improved. He leaves a widow and foul' sons and six daughters, including Mi's James Marshall, wife of the M.L.C. He died peacefully, aged 82.