NINETY YEARS OLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 21, 26 January 1933, Page 10

NINETY YEARS OLD.

PIONEER HARDSHIPS.

NO LUCK ON GOLDFIELDS.

MB, JOSEPH SMITH, OF KAMO,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

WHANGAREI, this day.

To-day Mr. Joseph Smith, of Grant Street, Kamo, celebrates his 90th birthday. Few of his neighbours, seeing him tending his garden so energetically would guess that the cheerful old mar has outlived the allotted span by 2( years. . When a Press representative called a I the neat two-storeyed home on the hill Mr. Smith was busy chopping wood. H( preferred to stand while telling of diffi eulties overcome and goals accomplished against pioneering odds. Mr. Smith was born on January 2G 1843, in the village of Broadelyst, foui miles from Exeter. As a boy he was fired with an ambition to come to the colonies, and his early youth was dedicated to this ideal, so that by th< fruits of his own careful savings he was able to board the emigrant ship Hanover. The vessel arrived at Auck l land on September 10, 1862, and Mr Smith's first job was taking bread ir a wheelbarrow over tea-tree tracks tc Ponsonby. For this he received 1/ 3 day, and a week of it sufficed. Seeing an advertisement in a newspaper, Mr Smith was quick to seize a chance for better things, and he secured a position with- Mr. Tom Henry, at that time one of the largest landholders in the Northland. He remembers Bishop Selwyn stopping at the Bell Vue Estate on his way to open Christ's Church a< Whangarei, and also recollects that Sir George Grey was a fairly frequent visitor to the estate. Stampede to the Thames. When the gold rush broke out, Mr. Smith joined in the stampede to the Thames, where he pegged a claim in Madman's Gully, up the Monataiari. Tlu attempt to "get rich quick" ended in disappointment. "I lost most of what I had earned by hard labour," he said when recounting his experiences. After two luckless years at Thames, Mr. Smith returned to the Whangarei district to engage in digging of a different kind—for gum at Rowdyt'own. Ruatangata, The site of Mr. Phil Going's present farm was the scene of a tiny village, which apparently was aptly named. "It was a great place for waiiliro," said Mr. Smith. But the bare living which could be made from gum did not appeal to a man whose chief ambition was to own his own piece of land, and Mr. Smith worked for a time on a farm at Ruatangata before taking a position with Mr. Edouarde Cafler, in Whangarei. Mr. Cafler's property extended to Central Park, and his stockyard was located where the Bank of New Zealand now stands. What is now the principal business centre of the town was a tenacre sheep paddock. Butter at 5d a Pound. On August 4, 1874, Mr. Smith married Miss Manning, who had also come from Devonshire, and shortly afterwards bought a farm of his own at Ruatangata. He is very proud of the fact that he paid off the purchase price within a short time, despite the fact that butter sold for 5d a pound after being packed on horseback to Whangarei. Before Mr. Smith sold his farm in 1919 to retire to his present home in Kamo, the district where the property was situated had become known as Te Matarau. Mrs. Smith died 32 years ago. All the seven children of the marriage were born at Ruatangata. The eldest laughter died at the age of 15, and those who survive are: Miss 0. Smith, ivho lives with her father in Kamo; Miss Jessie Smith, Eos Angeles j Mrs. M. Fitze, 15, First Avenue, Kingsland; Mr. Fred Smith, Houto; Mr. Barton Smith, Hastings; and Mr. Stanley Smith, Coatesville.

- Mr. Smith admits that lie still relishes pastry and plum pudding. Fifty years ago he had the misfortune to lose the eight of one eye. The other still twinkles keenly, and the upper teeth, in a mouth which has never known a stopping or a false denture, are remarkably preserved. The fine old man is an early riser, and every Sunday attends both services at the Anglican Church.