VIVID GLIMPSES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 110, 11 May 1943, Page 5

VIVID GLIMPSES

MEMORIES OF EARLY DAYS WELLS IN OLD AUCKLAND Seventy-eight years ago when, under full canvas, the Empress came beating up past Ranguoto, there was on board a little nine-year-old girl. To-day that little girl is Mrs. S. M. Reynolds, of Karaka Street, and she is now 87 years of age.' Each year Mrs. Reynolds celebrates her arrival in New Zealand at a gathering of relations, and again to-morrow it will be her big day. Mrs. Reynolds arrived with her mother and four brothers and sisters. The journey took 98 days in spite of being becalmed in the tropics for 12 days, and the trip was considered a fast one. In those days passengers were landed from the ship in watermen's boats. For a few weeks the travellers, who had come out to join Mr. Reynolds, lived in Victoria Street.

"Until we could get better accommodation we had to cook in the back yard," said Mrs. Reynolds. She paid a tribute to the early settlers. "Our toothers were Britons to come out on such a journey," she said. The present water shortage pales into insignificance when Mrs. Reynolds tells of conditions in early Auckland. When she went with her husband to live in Karaka Street 63 years ago, they had to sink a 50ft well to get water. It was the only well around about, and what few houses were there at the time got water from it. They had a bucket a day. She said she never wasted water; she knew what it was to have it. On the ship coming out each child was allowed half a pint a day, and that, too, made an impression on her.

Mrs. Reynolds is a keen and lively conversationalist and has a wonderful memory, taking listeners back over 78 years clearly and accurately. She attributes her health to simple living and walking as an exercise. She does all her own housework and pays regular visits to numerous relations in all suburbs, including across the harbour. "No," she said, "I don't really get tired. Oh, well, not very, but I can't walk up hills like I used

to." Mrs. Reynolds gave a glimpse of old Auckland when she told of their home in Victoria Street. From there they could see across -the road the aptly named Cottage of Content. It was a one-storeyed wooden building with' a verandah in front. The roof was supported by poles which came down to the flooring, and on this verandah were forms where the men used to sit and have their pints,"But they didn't take much in those days, and everything was very friendly." The weather then, she said, was more like what we have had lately. You could almost map the seasons out. Always fond of gardening, Mrs. Reynolds to-day keeps her plots trim and neat.