John Kilmister

Lived to 101 years.

Arrived in New Zealand with his parents in 1841 by the ship Lady Nugent.

He remembered playing marbles when the 1848 quake hit Wellington.

At 19 he worked on making Makara Road for 5/-/day.

At 22 he went to the goldrush at Gabriel's Gully, Otago but arrived too late.

He & his bro [4] Henry farmed 750 acres on the ridge from Karori to Ngaio.

Their 1st Sky Farm was where the chimney & macrocarpas are, where mill grindstone was found.

2 huge rocks there have been carved to form walls.

The 2nd Sky Farm was further north.

The land was mostly bush.

In 1867 from a single rimu, John obtained enough pit-sawn timber to build a 4 bedroom house.

In 1870 he & his brother Henry are 2 of Karori's 12 farmers - p146 of BURCH & HEYNES 2012.

When he retired to 23 Cottleville Terrace, Thorndon, his sons took over the farm.

His obituary in the Evening Post 12.10.1937 has a photo of him.

As a boy he lived for a while in a whare in Hutt Valley when there were pas at Te Aro, Thorndon & Kaiwara.

See also The Stockade 1985 18, 2-5 & 1986 19, 14-15.

There is a photo of him with his grandson Walter on p145 of BURCH & HEYNES 2012: "This Crown Studios photo was taken when John was 97; to reach the studio he had to go up in a lift, for the 1st time in his life. He hung on to its walls complaing about these new-fangled inventions'."