Pioneering bullock driver and farmer

With the death of Mr Alexander Petrie, which occurred at his home at Waitepeka on Friday, there passes from mortal ken the last remaining member of that early band of hardy pioneers who settled in the Puerua district in the early days of the settlement of South Otago. The late Alexander Petrie, who, at the time of his death, was in his 84th year, was born at the parish KeithHall, Aberdeenshire, in 1837. He came to New Zealand by the ship Strathmore in 1856, being then 19 years of age. On arrival he went to work for Mrs Shand of Green Island, subsequently working at other places on the Taieri until he started contracting on his own account. For a time he worked on Greenfield and Clydevale stations. He was the first white man to take a team of bullocks onto the Maniototo Plains, going there with Murison Brothers to find a run for them, and taking with him a fourroomed house and all their gear. The trip was a very rough one, the track having to be made as they went along. On June 15, 1859 he purchased the property at Puerua now held by Mr W. Beatty, but left for the diggings in the great gold rush of 1861, where he stayed for about 12 months. He next started carting from Kaitangata and later on Tuapeka, through Waipori to Dunstan with bullocks. He followed his occupation as a driver for several years between Dunedin, Kingston and Invercargill, returning occasionally to his property at Puerua. Some 56 years ago in January last he married Margaret Pagan, youngest of three daughters of the late John Pagan of Waiwera, and settled permanently on his farm at Puerua. He leaves a sorrowing wife and a family of five sons and four daughters to mourn their loss.