A CANTERBURY CENTENARIAN

Evening Star, Issue 15138, 20 March 1913, Page 2

A CANTERBURY CENTENARIAN

incur w'., B ,’ ioTte i> who-celebrated his 100 th birthday on Tuesday at his homo in Lin wood, Christchurch, is not likely to have a rival in his claim to be the oldest printer m the world. He was a child ■nnen the battle of Waterloo was fought and saw the Coronation procession of Queen Victoria in the early years of his manhood, and ho was rn his 58th year when the first four ships entered Lyttelton and the pio, neer settlers gazed down from the hilltop on the promised land of the Canterbury J lams. History becomes strangely intimate when it is regarded through the eyes ot a centenarian His career brings us close to events which we have been accustomed to regard as belonging to the remote past, and gives ua a gauge to apply to all the social and material developments which have gono to the making of modern existence. A life-span which has covered the period from the .first railway locomotive to the aeroplane, from the “wooden wall ” to the Dreadnought, should give pause to anybody who is disposed to set bounds to human progress. In this connection, the ‘ Lyttelton Times ’ mentions that Mr Porter’s earliest memory is of himself standing between his father’s legs on the roadside, when two men galloped up and brought the news of the British success at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Saturday was the principal market day in Norwich, and it seldom passed without a prize fight with bare knuckles. Cock fights took place, bulls were frequently baited, and dog fighting was almost a national sport. About 1819 dandy horses (large, clumsy wooden bicycles) made their appearance. They were'poor things, however, and were soon dropped. George 111. died on January 29, 1820, and

was succeeded by his son,. George IV., who had been Regent for many years. In those days, said Mr Porter, ladies painted their faces much more generally than they do now. He remembers some great hangings that took place about that time, eight men being executed one morning at the same hour for various oifences. The laws were severe in those days, and death was the punishment for forgery, horse-stealing, sheep-stealing, burglary, and highway robbery. In one case he particularly remembered a man being sent to Botany Bay for seven years for stealing a pair of slippers.