TWO HARDY PIONEERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 187, 9 August 1932, Page 9

TWO HARDY PIONEERS.

NINETY-SECOND BIRTHDAY.

ARRIVED AUCKLAND SAME DAY.

Two Aucklanders celebrating a 92nd birthday to-day are Mr. Edwin Auger, of Ponsonby, and Mr. James Joseph Cooper, of Onehunga, both singularly well in spite of their great age. Oddly enough they arrived in Auckland on the same the Ironsides, which anchored in the Waitemata on August 24, 1864. Mr. Cooper, who was a sailor, heard there was a Mnori war and that sai'lors were wanted to man gunboats on the Waikato, so one night he swam ashore, landing in Mechanics' Bay, and that was the end of his deep-sea career. After a short while he went to Duncdin, where he had a brother, and took part in the famous gold rush of the 'sixties. In 1873 he was back in Auckland, where lie married, and then went farming at Pakuranga, where he lived for 30 years. When his wife died, he came in to live with his daughter, Mrs. G. Vazey, of Onehunga. He has six children, 35 grandchildren and two great-grand-children.

Mr. Edwin Auger, who came out in the Ironsides as a passenger, was a bootmaker and then a letter carrier in the Old Country, and for 58 years he was well known as a bootmaker at the top of Parncll Rise, next to the Alexandra Hotel. He was also agent for the "Auckland Star," and one of his sons still keeps on the agency—a record for a newspaper agent. Sirs. Auger died in 1921, a few weeks before her diamond wedding day, and Mr. Auger has been living ever since with his son, Mr. Fred Auger, Ponsonby Terrace. One of Mr. Auger's earliest memories is the Crystal Palace Exhibition of 1851, the first of all the great international exhibitions. He has been a Forester for 70 years, and is also a prominent _Freemason, and still attends lodge meetings. Mr. Auger has seven sons surviving, 13 grandchildren and four great-grand-children.