PEARL WEDDING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20612, 30 July 1932, Page 2

PEARL WEDDING.

MR AND MRS WILLIAM j LILLY. j ] EARLY CANTERBURY MARRIAGE. | Mr and Mrs William Lilly, of 42 Hereford street, will celebrate their pearl wedding on Monday, when tliey will complete 65 years of married life, all of it spent in Canterbury. At the age of 90 years and 88 years respectively, Mr and Mrs Lilly still enjoy por feet health, and are looking forward keenly to a reunion at their home with members of a large family and old friends they have made during their long residence in tho province. Mr Lilly was born at Shire Newton, Monmouthshire, England, on July 4th, 1842. He early entered the engineering trade, and at the ago of 22 years determined to see something of the world. He came to New Zealand by the ship British Empire, in 1864, and had been in Christchurch only a short while, when he met Miss Fannie Oarlick at the old Methodist Sunday School in High street, one of tho earliest Sunday Schools in Christchurch. They were married in the present Durham street Methodist Church by the Rev. Thomas Buddie, on August Ist, 1867, this being only the third such ceremony performed in tho church. Mrs Lilly was a daughter of Mr Thomas Garlick, of Greenwich, one of the chief officials at the Royal Observatory. She was born on September 24th, 1844, and came to New Zealand with her parents in the Zealandia. which arrived in New Zealand in 1859. Her parents were then past middle age, and Mrs Lilly recalls that the new life proved particularly hard for them, although to her, young as she was, the novelty and interest far out-weighed the inconveniences and hardships that all had to faco. Neither Mr nor Mrs Lilly has since returned to England, and neither regrets that his lot has been cast in New Zealand, which has given them a comfortable and happy life, even though it has at times been a strenuous one. Mr Lilly has worked in different parts of Canterbury as an engineer, and was in the employ for considerable periods, of Andersons, Ltd. and P. and D. Duncan. There were seven children of the marriage, but two, including the only son, died in infancy. Tho remaining fivo daughters arc Mrs Douglas McClyinont, of Ross, Mrs James Stout, of Christchurch, Mrs R. 11. Biggar, of Ashburtou, and the Misses Maud and Elsie Lilly, of Christchurch. There are six grandchildren and four great-grand-children. Mr Lilly's chief delight is still in music. Ho was a member of the Christchurch Musical Union for 35 years, and believes that during that time he must have sung in at least 25 renditions of the "Messiah." In his younger days, swimming and walking were his chief sports, and there are few portions of the hilly country within reach of Christchurch over which ho has nvt tramped. He views with the greatest approval the present revival of tramping as a sport, regarding it as one of the surest means of health-building open to the youth of the present day. Mrs Lilly carries some very happy memories of tho early days in Christchurch, when a great proportion of the residents were known to one another, and socials were socials indeed. Tho City has grown up around her, for she saw the foundation stone of the Cathedral laid, and followed its construction almost stone by stone. Cashel street, one of the City's busiest shopping centres now, was in those days a gravel-pit, and the Bank of New Zealand was in a private residence. Chatting with a reporter, Mrs Lilly said that she had been much distressed at the condition of a number of people in tho cities in recent years. "The solution of poverty was a simple one in those days," she said. "For the occasional needy family there was always a joint of meat offering from someone more favourably placed, or a loaf of bread or two from someone else. But now—there are so many of them that one do§s not know what to do." !