SEEN MANY CHANGES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 130, 4 June 1930, Page 8

SEEN MANY CHANGES.

VETERAN OF MNETY.

MR. J. MOORE, OF GREY LYNN. *

AUCKLAND IN THE 'SIXTIES

Strange are the vagaries of longevity. Forty years ago Mr. John Moore went out to Waikumete to choose a plot of ground, for the doctors told him he had

a weak heart, and there was no knowing when he might go off. He is still very much alive and to-day is celebrating his 90th birthday at the residence of his son-in-law, Mr. Arthur Corden, 20, Home Street, Grey Lynn, which whom he is now living. Except for a slight deafness the ola gentleman shows very few, signs" of great age; he is always out and about when the weather is fine, and sometimes when it is not. Down to the wharf is a favourite stroll, and regatta day is sure to find him there.

. Born in 1840 in the County of Durham Mr. Moore was apprenticed to one of the ship-building firms that helped to make Sunderland famous.

All the timber used in the shipyards in those days was pit-sawn, and in handling some heavy llengths Mr. Moore, then a young man of about twenty, strained himself. He was advised to go to sea for a. change. . It sounds rather like knocking off work to carry bricks, but the prescription was evidently correct, judging from his present hale and hearty look. He made various passages to ports round the Mediterranean, and in 1800 went out as.far as Mauritius. Three years later he was in Melbourne, and in 1866 in Sydney, whence he made a trip to Auckland. He recalls: that in that year Auckland was suffering from such a slump that everyone who could raise the money made for Australia. The vessel Mr. Moore was in was a brig called the Flying Cloud, and he well remembers a race»she had to» Sydney with the Henderson and Macfarlane barque Kate Cameron. The Flying Cloud carried twenty passengers, and the barque carried thirty, and the fare was only £1 a head!

The Gold Rush. Back again in Auckland in 1868, Mr.: Moore decided to remain, and he has lived here ever since with the exception., of fourteen years at Coromandel. Thei slump that had been so evident in Auck-* land during the first visit of Mr. Moore was succeeded in 1867 by a wave of! optimism and enthusiasm that brought thousands of people to this part of the-, world. It was in that year that gold.! was discovered at the Thames, and for several years aftrewards i money was made and spent like water. Mr. Moora caught the fever and tried his luck at Coromandel. He lived there until 1885*, but failed to make a fortune. When h'd returned to Auckland he set up in busir ness as a coal and firewood merohani in Arch Hill. He retired from businesjw 33 years ago. Since then he has beetfc-. taking life easy, and owing to thtb, astonishingly good health he has enjoyed, he still finds the world a most interest** ing place

In his time Mr. Moore has seen greaft changes in methods and manners. Bje recalls that when he started out vo earn his living in a Sunderland shipyard the hours we're from six a.m. to six p.m. When he first came to Auckland, .in the slump year of: 1866, carpenters were glad, to work, for 5/ a day and a labourer got 2/6 a day—whan he could find work. Mr. Moore's fvnst job in Auckland was looking after Henderson and Macfarlane's coal hulk Bella Marina,"" which used to- replenish the bunkers of ;the mail steamers. The Aorangi's and Niagara's of the day ware the old paddle-wheel steamers Nevada and Nebraska, that ran the• San Frflnr cisco mail service. They were such odd looking craft with their great b«*m engines—much of the beam stuck up above the deck—that the grandparents of present day Aucklanders alwaya referred to them when the conversation turned on mail services. Mr. Moore siiys the paddle-wheelers were, great owleaters, taking on at Auckland 400 tons at a time.

The Green Harp. Another picturesque incident in Mr. Moore's younger days was the Grtten Harp swindle, a goldfields incident that owes its green memory to its musical and intriguing name as much as to anything else. It happened while Mr. Moore was at Coromandel. The men who worked the Green Harp claim used to come off shift at 4 p.m., and irith remarkable regularity they "brought; to the surface specimens that made *he speculator's mouth water, and shares soared. It turned out afterwards that "the specimens, which came from another mine, were taken down the night heiloire. The chief swindler had three years in which to analyse the truth of Xovelaoe's line, "Stone walls do not a prison maje." In the middle 'eighties, when Mr. Moore came back to Auckland, the Surrey Hills (the district west of Ponsoftby Road) was a farm with many tall pine trees on the boundaries of the paddocks. Also in the 'eighties the Great North Road was a stock track, for the city abattoirs were situated where the City Council's workmen's cottages now stand, not far from the entrance gates of the, Zoo.

Mrs. Moore died 35 years ago, but there is a family of one son and two daughters—Mr. J. Moore, Kohimarama; Mrs. A. Corden, Grey Lynn; and Mrs. W. Rainbow, Water View, Avondale. There are 13 grandchildren and 15 greatgrandchildren.