FROM BULLOCK DRAY TO MOTOR-CAR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1031, 21 January 1911, Page 23

FROM BULLOCK DRAY TO MOTOR-CAR.

•JOHN BIRD,"""A VETJ3RAN-OF "183-1.-Mr. John Bird, wlio is. to judge the bullock-driving competitions at the C'entral A. and' P. 'Association's first annual show at Waipukurau, will supply nn interesting personal link between the very early days and the present era. Mr. Bird arrived in Wellington in 183-1, when only four years of ago; he started on a bullock dray when quite a lad, and kept at it until an old nian, when he retired to his farm a few niiles 9Ut,of Waipukurau. He .was. the first man' in Wellington to drive adance party to a social function, and this was, at a time when bullock .driys Were viewed' with almost as much rcspcct as motor-cars are now. Another of Mr. Bird's exploits was "to drive parties out from Wellington for the nay-making at Kilbirnie, :aud - then to bring them back in the evening, landing each passenger at his or -her door. At some of these "late nights" Mr. Bird would not get home till almost eleven o'clock, so that it would appear that Wellington resident:; sixty odd . years ago ivero as -keen votaries of pleasure as they are now. Mr. Jones remembers the big earthquake in Wellington very well. It began at 8 o'clock at night, and lasted .three days, with the result that the first races at Burnham'Water had to. bo postponed for three weeks. The old settler is a typical man of the plains, with a I)ig flowing grey beard, surrounding ii strong humorous-looking face, and , a short thick-set figure that tells its own talo .of strength. A man of iron constitution, he has endured innumerable hardships,'but apparently is a good life for another twenty years. He is looking, forward with interest, to the bullockdriving competitions, at which ho is to judge, and he lias laid it down that all swear words used as.a term of endearment to. the obstreperous bullocks must be spoken under the breath.