DIAMOND WEDDING.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 211, 7 September 1927, Page 11

DIAMOND WEDDING.

MB. AHB MBS. B. W. WHITE.

BOTH BORN AT AUCKLAND.

Two old residents of Auckland, Mr. and Mrs. R. W. White, to-morrow celebrate the diamond anniversary of their wedding, A singular coincidence is that in tbe evening relatives and friends will assemble to celebrate the event at St. Matthew's Parish Hall, which was the building in which the couple joined hands half a century ago. Mr. White was born at Waihekc Island in IS4S, where his father was a boat builder at Awarua Bay. "There wa« plenty of good kauri up the valley in those days," remarked Mr. White, when chatting over old times with a representative of the "Auckland Star." He added that timber for the frame of the boats could then be got easily from the pohutukawa tree* which lined the coast of the island. Mr. White spent his childhood in the backbtocks right up till he was fifteen years of age, when the family moved to VYhakatane. Later they went to Ooromandel. When the war broke out in the Wtaikato, the family came to Auckland as they feared that the Maoris at Coromandel might join their countrymen in the Waikato and make it hot for white residents. In Auckland Mr. Whit* was apprenticed to Mr. Henry Niccol to learn boatbuilding. The yard was then in Mechanics' Bay, but two years later was moved to Dcvonport. He came out of his time just about when tie Thames goldneld was opened, and, like most other young men, tried his luck at djggiflg- The party of which be was a member was one of the first to peg out a claim on the WaioUhi block* the second section opened on the field. Fire years Liter Mr. White returned to Auckland and hm* since carried oa tbe business of a contractor, hating done harbour works here, and then, in partnership with Mr. R. R. Hunt constructed about 24 miles of tbe railway from Hamilton towards Te Aroba. Mr. White has also done a lot of wharf and bridge building in various places. He has onlr been out of New Zealand once, that wu when he paid a brief visit to Sydnev. Mr. White married a MiM Coghlan who was born in Auckland, the service being performed by Rev. Haesard who was at that time incumbent at St. Matthew's Anglican Church.