LONG LIFE ENDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 33, 9 February 1937, Page 10

LONG LIFE ENDS.

OVER THE CENTURY. MR. JOSEPH SIMCOCK. BORN IN VICTORIA'S REIGN. To be bom in the year Queen Victoria ascended the Throne and to have lived in the •reigns of five British Sovereigns was the unique record of Mr. Joseph Simcock, of Helenftville, whose death occurred this morning at the age of 100 years. He celebrated his 100 th birthday on December 1 last. Mr. Simcock war* one of the original settlers of the Kaukapakapa district, and spent the autumn of his life in Helensville. His brother, the late Mr. Charles Simeock, came to New Zealand in the Phoenix in ISfiO. Mr. Joseph Simcock wanted to come, too; but on the

advice of his father in Neston, Cheshire, England, he waited till he was 23 years old. He then booked a passage on the Northern Briton, and arrived in Auckland nearly 80 years ago. Those were the days when people who ;>aid their passage received a grant of 40 acres. Early Struggles. Mr. Simcock determined to join his brother at a place in the far backblocks known as Kaukapakapa. He travelled to Riverhead in a boat running to Mr. John Lamb's flour mill. From Riverhead Mr. Simcock tramped across to a j place which was afterwards to be Helensville, subsequently arriving at Kaukapakapa. Incidentally, some time later Mr. John McLeod arrived with his brothers and started a timber bill where the Grand Hotel is situated in Helensville. Mr. McLeod called the settlement Helensville after his wife, Helen McLeod. When he first arrived in Kaukapakapa Mr. Simcock remembered that he had to I sleep on the floor of a little wooden shack, as he had no mattress. His first home on hie Crown grant was made of ' split kauri, and was not very comfortable. He sold 550,000 square feet of j kauri off his holding. And on that holding he spent 59 year«. going to live in Helensville in 1919. Often he used to send butter to Sydney for a market by the sailing vessels leaving Helensville. Mr. Simcock could tell many and varied stories of happenings amongst the Maowe in the early days, his memory being remarkable. He had vivid recollections of incidents that occurred 80 and 90 years ago, and also remembers details of a murder by a Maori of the wife and child of Mr. Thompson, the mail carrier to Auckland. At a subsequent identification parade of over 100 Maoris, held at Helensville. one of the surviving children identified the guilty man, who was convicted and eventually executed. Up till the time of his death, Mr. Simcock, who was a great agriculturist, continued to attend to his garden and fri'it trees. He and his brother married two sisters, and the double weddins was held at Auckland on December 11, 1862.

MR. J. C. DRAFFIN. The death has occurred of Mr. John Charles Draffin at his home, Edwin Street, Mount Eden. Mr. Draffin was the eldest son of the late Mr. Samuel Draffin, and like his father, was an expert authority on gold mining. He was born at Hokitika, South Island, in 18Ge, and at an early age took up prospecting for gold. While a young man he shifted to Auckland with his parents, where he became closely associated with mine companies at the Thames, and later at Waitekauri. He later joined up with the Waihi Gold Mining Company, and remained with them for 14 years. After leaving Waihi he took up contracting, and was closely associated with Messrs. Rhodes and McClean in putting through the Waipa railway, later being in charge of operations at the Nihotupu dam with the same firm. When the Auckland City Council took over the completion of th? dam, Mr. Draffin continued with the council. On the completion of this work he went with the council to Westorn Springe, where he was in charge of the laying out of the park. In his young days Mr. Draffin was an athlete, beinjor a prominent boxer, rower, runner, and rifle shot. He was a member of the Waitemata Rowing Club, and on numerous occasions stroked his crew to victory. His wife died 15 months ago. There are four sons and six daughters. MR. T. E. MURRAY. At the age of 77 years Mr. Thomas Edgar Murray, son of the late Captain Joseph Murray, a well-known master mariner in the early days of Auckland, is dead. As a boy he joined the staff of Warnock Bros., and remained with the firm for 42 years. Later he was in the employ of A. B. Wright and Sdns, Ltd.