102 NOT OUT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 2, 28 September 1943, Page 4

102 NOT OUT

Career Of Mr. W. A. Weekes Of Palmerston North

Dominion .Special Service. PALMERSTON N, September 27. Mr. W. A. Weekes, Maxwell*!, Line, Palmerston North, who wifs 102 on Sunday, lias had an interesting career. He caine to New Zealand in 1880 from Devonshire, England, as a member of a ship’s crew. Another man and he were so attracted by the possibilities ot settlement that they went into hiding till the ship sailed and did not come out till they had seen her go round Wellington heads. Mr. Weekes, because of these circumstances, took the name of George Bickle for some years and older Palmerston North people may remember his association with the late Mr. J. Hocben. in the partnership of Hocben and Bickle, which owned land at the Foxton end of Maxwell’s Line, till Mr. Weekes moved further down the line. Mr. Weekes worked on the first metalling of Maxwell's Line and in the first street formation work in Palmerston North. He and his partner had a sub-contract in the metalling of the railway line from Palmerston North to Longburn. At another period, when the tunnels in the Manawatu Gorge were being nut through, Mr. Weekes and the late Mrs. Weekes had two boarding-houses there for the accommodation of the men, who crossed the Manawatu River in a cage., Mr. and Mrs. Weekes had live sons and a daughter, Messrs. O. A. Weekes (Tiriraukaw.il, R. Weekes (Raurimu), F. Weekes (Patea). J. Weekes (Palmerston North), and L. Weekes (Palmerston North), and Miss E. M. Weekes (also Palmerston North). The late Mrs. Weekes was an outstanding horsewoman in her young days. Till two years ago Mr. Weekes enjoyed a walk about his property, but he then suffered a fall. Unfortunately Mr. Weekes. became blind about three years ago.