OLD PETONE IDENTITY

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 137, 6 March 1931, Page 5

OLD PETONE IDENTITY

"Blind Billy’s” History AUTHENTIC INFORMATION Years ago there was a character in Petone known to all as “Blind Billy. ’ Who he was very few people seemed to know. Through the efforts and courtesy of the Mayor of Petone (Mr. D. McKenzie), not only is it possible to obtain an authentic history of the old man, but his photograph, sent, it is understood, from Canada. “Old Blind Billy,” said Mr. McKenzie to a “Dominion” reporter, “was an Irish Protestant, Mr. William Burton. Although in New Zealand on remittance, he was a gentleman in the true sense of the. word. It was even thought he was from a titled family. “The possessor of a university education, he came to this country when quite a young man. He could speak several languages fluently, he w.as musical, and he was a good singer. His blindness was caused from the powder and shot from a gun, which exploded, going into his eyes when he was out shooting cats. “He lived in an old tin hut on the edge of the Koro Koro Stream and the

sea beach. There he would do his cooking and his washing. As there was no chimney in it, the hut was nearly always full, of smoke and grime. His fireplace was an oil drum, and he would cook the fish he caught in an old tin. His bed. was under an old canoe placed upside down. He would crawl into this with his dog and there the two would sleep. “Old Blind Billy was the subject of some extraordinary fishing stories. There is no doubt whatever he was a> wonderful fisherman. . . . “He was of a very happy disposition and was very friendly with Mr. and Mrs. George King and their family, one of the oldest families in the Petone district He had a faithful little dog called Nellie. Wherever Blind Billy went, Nellie went, too, and watched her master very closely. Whenever the old man was out on business he would walk with head erect, tapping his walkingstick on the side of the roadway until it came in touch with the railway line. When he got near the fence over which he was wont to go, Nellie would pull his walking-stick, this being the sign to her master to stop and get over the fence. .. - r “Despite his blindness,” said Mr. McKenzie, “Blind Billy used to do his own patching and mending of his clothes. The needle he would - thread with his tongue in a way and at a speed that amazed everybody who saw him perform the feat. .. . “. I "Another of his accomplishments was to walk to Lower Hutt, where he bought his groceries from Mr. Thomas Burt, one of the very early storekeepers there. There were no shops in Petone then. He was also a good axeman. Before delivering the blow he would feel the place on the log or piece of wood where he was to strike. “Blind Billy died at an old age in the Home of Compassion.”