PLATINUM WEDDING

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32322, 13 June 1970, Page 2

PLATINUM WEDDING

Housework shared is one of the happy memories of the St Albans j couple, Mr and Mrs J. S. I Genge, who will celebrate their platinum wedding i tomorrow. Mrs Genge. tormerly Miss Alice Moscrop, and Mr Genge. were married in (Oamaru in 1905 at her parent’s home. The Rev. Lewis Hudson conducted the ceremoney. ( They travelled by train to Timaru for their honeymoon but later Mr Genge was to feature as one of the first long-distance taxi drivers in New Zealand. One of Mr Genge’s first cars was a 1912 Ford, which he drove to Kurow a week after he bought it and this experience encouraged him to start a taxi service. Two months later he bought a five-seater saloon( in which he drove passengers! to Mount Cook and Queens-( town—“no mean feat with* roads as they were in those; days." On a similar trip, in 1916,. taxi-ing- English visitors. Mri

Genge was arrested by thel Queenstown police for contravening the rule of the Skip-] pers Road. • The rule was that motor-; ised vehicles were allowed oh; the road only between five in i the evening and eight in the) morning. This rule protected: the passage of horse-drawn |

carriages on the single-lane road. However, Mr Genge drove his car on the road during the day and when be arrived back at “the pub with no I beer” in Skippers Gorge the | police were waiting. I The Magistrate dismissed the case and the road was

subsequently opened to motor traffic at all hours. “My favourite car was the first Super Six Hudson in Oamaru in which 1 drove more than 200.000 miles," said Mr Genge He recalled famous people he had driven and these included Edward VIII, when he was the Prince of Wales, Grade Fields and Lord Jellico. Mrs Genge said that when her telephone used to ring late at night with the message that her husband was onee more stranded somewhere her two children would chant, “Poor old mother with a heavy heart Waited anxiously at home." Mr Genge was instrumental in forming the Oamaru Motor Association and earlier had helped the local traffic inspector in conducting tests

for driving licences. He said he “came a thud" when he turned down a Parliamentary Minister for a licence. Mr Genge retired in 1945 and they moved to Christchurch. Now 90, his hobbies include driving. growing apple trees and he now has four trees each with three different apples. Clock and watch repair was also a pastime for many years. Mrs Genge’s life-time hobby : has been crochet. They; have one daughter, Mrs A. V Maclean of Christchurch, i three grand-children, and I nine great grand-children. ; They received congratulations from the Queen, the 1

Chief Justice. Sir Richard Wild, the acting Prime Minister, Mr J. R. Marshall and the member of Parliament for Papanui, Mr H. J. Walker. The photograph shows Mr and Mrs Genge at their home yesterday.