Onehunga+people

= People Involved = = = ==The first European to live in Onehunga was Thomas Mitchell, a timber merchant from Sydney. He sailed to Manukau in 1835 and established a sawmill for Kauri export to Australia. Thomas negotiated with the leaders of the tribe Ngati Whatua for the purchase of over thousands of acres of the Tamaki Isthmus, and claimed the land and timber there.When he died in 1836, his family moved back to Australia. In 1839 the trustees of his estate sold the land to Captain Willian Cornwallis Symonds, who was the agent of the Waitemata and Manukau Land Company.== = =

Thomas Mitchell was an American actor.


=**__ Elizabeth Yates __**= ==Elizabeth was born in Scotland, but later in 1853, she moved to New Zealand with her family and they lived in Onehunga from 1855 on. In 1875 she married Michael Yates, changing her surname from Onan to Yates. Michael was a master mariner, and he was in the Onehunga Borough Council from 1885, and he was mayor from 1888 to 1892. In 1892, he became ill and stood down from his position in 1893, when, winning by 13 votes, Elizabeth became the first woman Mayor in the British Empire. The news spread around and she was congratulated by Richard Seddon and Queen Victoria.== = =

= € Fun Fact: =

Elizabeth Yates spent a few years in Mental Hospital before she died.


=Surveys and Video=