The War period had tired Ben Smith greatly.  The additional work at the Inn,  with the Store,  and on the farm,  although very profitable,  had brought worries.  His older sons had married;  Peter and Ezra had left Wairoa South with their wives.  Peter had gone to Auckland where he set up a carrying business,  eventually a most profitable venture.  Ezra moved to Gisborne where he became well known as a carpenter and apiarist with an interest in politics.  Walter opened a bakery in Wyndham Street,  Auckland.  Mary Anne too,  had married.  One evening in 1867 Ben’s wife had to assist him up the stairs and,  at the age of fifty-four,  he died on 27 September 1867.  Whaler,  ship’s carpenter “Forty-niner”,  and innkeeper,  his friendly nature made him respected by all who knew him.  He feared neither Governor,  nor the great Rewi Maniapoto,  whom he had once shown the door after Rewi had carved his name on the highly polished bar at The Travellers’ Rest.  He must have been an extraordinary,  ordinary man.  He was fortunate too,  in that he married a woman of courage,  industry and tenacity of purpose.

By his Will Ben bequeathed to his wife all his household furniture,  utensils,  consumable stores,  provisions,  wines and liquids,  linen,  china and glass.  The property at Wairoa South and his Real Estate holdings in Auckland were bequeathed to his friends,  Mr Samuel Jackson of Auckland,  and Mr John McDonald of Wairoa South;  though from the conveyances we see that Mr McDonald apparently did not act as an Executor.  Martha Smith was therefore enabled to continue in the management of The Travellers’ Rest.  And in due course the Licence to Sell Liquor was granted to her,  the transfer of the license being confirmed in the Auckand Provincial Gazette of Saturday 15 August 1868.

The business remained in operation for some years and continued to prosper although the really good years had passed.  Mr Samuel Jackson gradually sold off the property and the first conveyance was registered with a sale to Mr Burnside on 6 June 1882,  followed by the sale of 57 acres to Mr Corbett on 10 April 1883.  Ben’s eldest son,  William Benjamin Smith,  carried on the farming opertions for some years,  until the final disposal of the reduced acreage.  He also farmed on his own account.  Final interest in the property was severed in 1891.

The Traveller’s Rest eventually passed into the hands of Frederick Mullins,  the son of J H Mullins and his wife,  Mary,  formerly of Bell.  The house itself came to an end when,  in an altered form,  it was destroyed by fire in April 1894.  Frederick then built the present house about 1960.  He named it Whinfell after his grandfather’s home in Cumberland.  He also cleared the rest of the land and drained the swampy area and so today a pleasant little stream flows through the property.  The chimney of the old Inn stood alone for many years about 200 yards away from the new house.  Spring bulbs bloom on the site and an ancient fig tree survives.  Part of an outbuilding in which some of the Forest Rangers used to sleep is still in existence behind the present home.

Martha Smith retired to Ponsonby Terrace,  Ponsonby,  Auckland.  She died on 28 January 1891 after a full and adventurous life,  having borne healthy children in primitive conditions on land and in ships at sea,  accompanying her husband in all his ventures,  yet maintaining the standards of her early upbringing.  She remained to the end of her life “Low Church”,  as behoved a descendant of Huguenots.  Eventually she did find what could be called a Land of Promise in its true sense.  Major von Tempsky called her “a cheerful wife”;  perhaps she would not have wished for a better epitaph.

Grafton Gully,  near the centre of the sprawling city of Auckland is now never free from the noise of cars and pounding trucks.  Motorways and motorway ramps run its length,  and intersect it and bridge it,  and busy urban roads rim it.  It was formerly a peaceful and beautiful valley.  There were graceful trees,  ferns and a small stream.  Nestling among the trees there were then the graves of those who founded the city and fought for the right to rest peacefully.  But for William Benjamin Smith and for his daughters,  Beatrice and Edith,  as for many others,  there was to be no permanent rest.  Their remains were to be displaced,  first to make way for the building of the Grafton Bridge,  and then for the motorway.  Their gravestones are now set into the wall along the Symonds Street boundary of Grafton cemetery,  and their names are recorded on the black granite memorial erected to the memory of Auckland’s earliest pioneers.  Perhaps the fact of remembrance was to be their ultimate reward rather than that rest they had always sought but did not ever really find.

The dedication to the memorial reads:

This Consecrated ground marks the final resting place of many brave soldiers and sailors who gave their lives that  OUR NATION may live and many faithful men women – who in divers walks of life – worthily upheld the standards of Civic Duty and the ideals of the Christian Faith.  May their memory be forever honoured and cherished by us the Living.