OLDEST JOCKEY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 156, 3 July 1937, Page 11

OLDEST JOCKEY.

ADVENTUROUS LIFE.

HORSES, GOLD AND GUM.

LOVED THE OPEN ROAD,

(By Telegraph.—Own Correfpondent.)

PALMERSTON NORTH, this day

Sunday is something more than the t Glorious Fourth of July for Mr. George Fraser, of AwapunL Home, Palinerston r North. It is his proud boast that lie is r the oldest jockey living in New Zealand. and to-morrow is his ninety-sixth birth- s day. Still in full possession of all his 1 faculties, Mr. Fraser can be relied on to provide an entertaining hjilf-hour for any visitor who is content to become j reminiscent with him, and a vivid, < colourful past it undoubtedly is. i A mere youth when he landed in New < Zealand with his parents. George Fraser spent some .years in the Nelson district, and it was there that he won his spurs. ( The names of the horses he rode have remained with him like those of contemporary friends. When he won his first race at Nelson in 1860, for Sir] Edward Stafford, one of the early], Premiers, but then Mr. Edward Stafford, Superintendent of Nelson Prox ince, it was on a mare called Opera. The race was a maiden event. "Racing was very different then," he <=aid, but there was no moralising in his comparison of the old and the new. 'It vou broke your arm, you paid for your own doctor; to-day it is all different. "Rode Against Archbishop." Racing was then in its infancy, and Mr. Henrv Redwood, who is still remembered as' the "father of New Zealand racing," was in NeW.n, a province which at the time produced more racehorses than anv other in New Zealand, and that mostlv 'from the Redwood and Stafford stable's. Mr. Fraser knew Mr. Ke-.-l wood, an I it is one of his claims that he rods against the pioneer's eon, a

youngster who later became Archbishop 11 Redwood, the revered head of the Roman | \ Catholic Church in New Zealand. This j I is, perhaps, difficult to reconcile with e the fact that the late Archbishop left it the Dominion when 12 years old and did , ' not return until he was in the prime of is life, but it is possible that as bove he! ] and Fraser handled horses together. Well-known Turf Men. , "Mr. Fraser attended a night school in Nelson where young Redwood was then a boafder, and it was there that he made the acquaintance of men who became famous characters on the New ; Zealand turf —George and Ted C'outts. I the elder Redwood, and others. Mason. 1 who rode Gloaming for Greenwood, he : met much later in the North Island. ' "I have often wished that I could have I met the Archbishop again after he rose to be head of the Church; I would have i split his sides laughing," chuckled Mr. Fraser. ' "I'll break your neck to-day, you : , young devil," was the encouragement 1 George Fraser received when he rode in his first cross country race. The onlv horse in the field of which he was afraid was Butcher Boy, which had been trained under his care and then sold to the man who threatened him. All he suffered was an arm injury when the hard-riding secretary of the club succeeded in unseating him at a jump. The Golden Quest. •I The jockey's was a slighted trade in i 1 those davs, and Mr. Fraser did not pur-, ' S ue it for more than a few years.j ' Resifnin" from his post with Stafford.j he trekked to the West Coast, as ono] ' of the tens of thousands who followed from many lands the lure of gold m tlw • biff, historic rush of '6->. Staking lusj » own claim, and working it.individually., f Mr Fraser remained on the r 'for'about three years, picking up, as he: " said enough to put him on his legs. 1 would like to be in at another rush, he said "I would go to-morrow. 1 Cattle dealing and droving next " claimed liis attention and he shifted I many a herd of cattle from Canterbury II up the Bealev and to Hokitika. a jn davs' trip'. When he left the Coast t there were few goldfiekls in the Grey dlflistrict where he was unknown. 1-1 '-(Jo north, young man." is an old eUhvan. and eventually Fraser decided a|to try his luck in the North Island. He

brought with him two stallions which j were to go on circuit in the Wairarapa, but through illness was compelled to engage another man. and barely cleared, expenses. The Manchester Block survey was a job which claimed his attention, and subsequently he worked for the] Lands and Survey Department, either "dodging Pompey" in Wellington or serving more strenuously with a gang widening the Gisborne-Opotiki Road. Went Gumdigging. Thus the adventurous, life went on. Tired of surveying, he took to shearing.j and worked liis way right up the East Coast. Arrived in Auckland, he resumed the sporting life, and was attached to several Auckland stables at various times. "Plenty of Aucklanders would I remember me," said Mr. Eraser. [ Gumdigging was a romantic calling then, and naturally he found his way to the Northern gumfields. where luck was as tickle as it was for those who sought gold in the South. Wearying at length of the roaming life, he made his way South to Feilding, and for many years held a position with Mr. Ernest Short, the well-known sheepbreeder, who was one of the first to give New Zealand flocks a good name overseas. For the past nine years Mr. Fraser has j lived at the Awapuni home. j The placid quiet of such a place must have been like a new world to a man for whom the essence of living was activity. "T""was one of those independent men; if a place didn't suit me. I | slung mv blucy and off T went," said [the clear-ey<;d old man. "Thirty years jago. when I was very ill. I. told the 'doctor he had either to make a good job 'of me or finish me off. He made a good job, and I told him I would make my i century. I reckon on keeping that proI mise if I can." 'I Ninety-six to-day, and a bachelor all 5 1 his life—that's Mr. George Fraser.