Golden Wedding.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 119, 23 May 1938, Page 13

Golden Wedding.

EARLY REMINISCENCES. MR. AND MRS. G. W. MAYES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) HAMILTON, Monday. Recollections of the Maori War, the capture of Te Kootj and the early Waikato are still fresh in the memory of Mr. G. W. Mayes, of Commerce Street, Frankton. Mr. and Mrs. Mayes are to-day celebrating the golden anniversary of their wedding, and a family gathering is being held at their home. In 1883 the Auckland Naval Artillery was sent to Opotiki to assist the police in the capture of Te Kooti, and Mr. Mayes was among the party. The notorious native leader was eventually run to earth in an orchard at Ohiwa and taken for trial to Auckland. There he was pardoned on condition he settled down and farmed the 600 acres presented to him by the Government. However, Mr. Mayes remembers incidents in the Maori War long before the capture of Te Kooti. He came to New Zealand from Geelong 73 years ago, his father being a member of the Fourth Waikatos, who were dispatched to Hamilton in 1804. For about five years he served his time as a coach- | builder and when he was 14 he carried I mails on horseback to Alexandria (now | Pirongia), Te Awamutu and Ohaupo. Rough tracks were the only means of access in those days. When about 19 Mr. Mayes left Hamilton for Auckland, where he obtained employment with the coachbuilding firm of Gee and Potter. He became a member of the city fire brigade and also linked up with the Naval Artillery. His marriage with Miss Alexandrina Mcßae took place in All Saints' Church, Ponsonby, in 1888, the ceremony having been performed by the late Archdeacon Calder. After living in Paeroa and Rotorua, the couple came to live in Hamilton and have been here seven years. Mr. Mayes was a capable Rugby player when the code was in its infancy in Auckland. He was selected for the trial matches in Auckland prior to the first match against the first English team to come to New Zealand. In the last trial game, when he would probably have been selected full-back, he broke his collarbone. Nearly 40 years ago he was playing wing three-quarter in the Hamilton representative side. Besides football, Mr. Mayes took an active part in cricket and in amateur theatricals. His wife was born in Rossshire, Scotland, in 18C3, and came to New Zealand with her parents in 1865, the late Mr. Murdoch Mcßae, her father, being a pioneer settler at Whangarei Heads. The old couple, who are receiving congratulations from a wide area to-day, have three sons and three daughters. They are Messrs. H. S. Mayes (Nelson), A. C. Mayes (Pukekohe), S. M. Mayes (Hamilton), and Mesdames G. Tremain, F. Cramp and C. Hall (Hamilton). There are nine grandchildren.