AUCKLAND IN THE FIFTIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 189, 12 August 1925, Page 12

AUCKLAND IN THE FIFTIES.

BEST PAID BOY IN AUCKLAND. EIGHT SHILLINGS FOR 78 HOURS. Speaking of the changes which have taken place in Auckland during recent years, a well-known old identity said lie was glad he had lived so long. In 18.30 he was the best-paid boy in Auckland. He worked in a butcher* shop in Wakefield Street, and had to be at his work by 6 o'clock becaJ?c the tirst job he had to do every morning was to go and look for the old horse on which he rode around the town to get orders. The animal was a cunning old steed, and, although he was put in a paddock at the back of where the Albert Park is now, he often broke through the fence and got away up to Parnell, where there were many open fields where the grass was better. When he got back to the shop he was given his breakfast, then he went for the orders and delivered the meat. In the afternoon he had to help to make sausages, and got finished with his work about seven at night. and' for this he got 8/ per week and his food. He kept himself on his wages, and he remembered well that the boys had no extravagant habits in those days. All other boys of his age got less wages than he got, but a few-shillings went a long way in the old days, because of the simple habits and tastes of the people. One thing he specially remembered, and that was that there were no expensive handbags in the old days; those who came to the shop to buy their meat and carry it aVay always used an ordinary Maori kit. He could remember well that there was generally a shortage of sheep's heads, out of which a pot of good broth was made by the thriity housewife. He "was sure the people had not half-the ills of the present day, because they took so much niore exercise. People still laughed at him when he walked from the ferry wharf to Karangahape Road instead of taking a tramcar, but he could not get out of the habits of a lifetime, and a walk uphill filled his lungs with good, fresh air. He hoped the young' people of to-day would have as pleasant recollections of their boyhood days*6o- or 70 years hence as he had of the early days of Auckland in the 'fifties.