AN OLD IDENTITY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 186, 4 May 1933, Page 8

AN OLD IDENTITY

First time in a Court “This is the first time I have ever had to come into a court in my life,’ said Mr. John Pickett, an old identity of the Wairarapa', to a “Dominion” representative in the Supreme Court yesterday. He had been called as a witness in a trial which concluded yesterday. Mr. Pickett was born at Waikaraka, on the East Coast, on January 8, 1857. He was taken away from there as a baby in arms and has only been there once since, and that was 55 years ago. He has led an industrious life in the timber trade, mostly splitting, fencing and carting. He and his wife will celebrate the 55th anniversary of their wedding to-morrow. They have had a family of 12 children. “That is what kept ’my nose to the grindstone,” he added. Only three sons are now living. Mrs. Pickett is three years older than her husband, and has celebrated her eightieth birthday. Both are in good health. Mr. Pickett recalled how, when he was very young, the river overflowed alarmingly at Castlepoint, where his father was tending sheep. “My mother carried me in her arms. We had two little wild pigs in a small stye. My father cut their throats, and then picked up my two sisters and a blanket or two. We all went up the hill and stopped there under a tutu bush for three days with only blankets for covering.” When summing up to the jury in the case in which Mr. Pickett had given evidence as to the identity of certain posts and a strainer totara post, Mr. Justice Blair paid a tribute to the way in which Mr. Pickett had explained how he was able to identify them. He had identifier! posts which he had shown came from the same log, and had said he could show the stump of the tree from which the strainer post came and the marks which would prove if. He did so, and, said hi.« Honour, “this old gentleman has shown that advancing years have not dimmed his recollection. It. was a remarkable performance.”