"ONEHUNGA VAGRANT."

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 215, 11 September 1929, Page 9

"ONEHUNGA VAGRANT."

A VERSATILE POET.

EARLY DAYS RECOLLECTIONS FROM BULLOCKS TO BENZINE. The "Onehunga Vagrant" is not a wanderer from place to place without any settled habitation, but a versatile poet who has used that term for many years as a nom-de-plume. Ho readily admitted, when interviewed, that his name was correctly registered as Thomas Sharp at Tranmere. near Liverpool, England, where he was born in September, 1849, and that he has resided in Onehunga for 70 years.

Mr. Sharp was a promising lad of ten when the good ship Shooting Star, by which he travelled with his parents

from England, dropped anchor in the Waitemata Harbour on November 19, 1849. They stayed only a few weeks in Auckland, and then went to Onehunga, where his father started business as a shipwright and boat builder. Mr. Sharp, sen., built the Avon, the Lady Barclay, and several barges for the Government. The "Vagrant" has cause to remember how his father's shipyard was kept going day and night during the Maori War, as he had to hold candles at night to light the men at work. He learnt his father's trade, but preferred to be on the water. When 21 years of age, he obtained a waterman's license, and started the Mangere ferry service from Onehunga, using a pulling boat for the conveyance of passengers and cargo across the Manukau Harbour. When Mangere people wanted his boat,

they used to hoist a flag. They were embarked and disembarked from the rocks at low water, and from one of the bays at high tide. The fare was 1/ per head each way until the ferry service was subsidised by the Provincial Government, when it was reduced to 6d, with extra for night work. This service continued for five years, and was discarded when the wooden bridge was built from Onehunga to Mangere. At that time there were many ships trading to the Manukau. They used to anchor off the "Bluff," about two miles below the present wharf at Onehunga. These ships gave work to a fleet of a dozen or-* more watermen, as all cargo had to be lightered each way. When

the first wharf was huilt at Onehunga, now known as the old coal wharf, Mr. Sharp transferred his services to the fishing trade, in which he continued for many years.

From bullocks to benzine is a long way, and Mr. Sharp can remember when, loaded with tea-tree for home fires, a four-yoke bullock wagon, with wagoner and long whip all complete, was a common sight in Onehunga.

The first bus service between Onehunga and Auckland was started by Mr. McGee, licensee of the Redan Hotel, afterwards known as the Hibernian, and now the Club Hotel. The vehicle was really a wagonette with a canvas cover, or tilt, as it wag called in those days. The fare was ?./6 single and 4/ return, with stopping places at three hotels on

the way—the Royal Oak, Watties, Epsom (both since closed), and the Royal George, at Newmarket. Khyber Pass had not been cut down then to its present grade. It was a steep hill to climb, and when the coach was full the men had to get out and walk to the top. Many people used to walk to the city on the off chance of getting a lift in a dray for part of the journey.

Mr. Sharp married Miss Mclnnes, of Pollock. They have three eons and three daughters. Mr. Sharp is still one of the fleetest walkers in Onehunga, if not in Auckland. He thinks nothing of walking to the city, and to keep pace with him the average man twenty years his junior would probably want to stop

for a rest as often as Mr. McGee's passengers did.

Mr. Sharp has a heterogeneous collecion of poems contributed by him to

the ."Star" and other papers. As he will be 80 years of age on the 19th inet, he will be eligible to join the "old colonists' brigade."