UNIQUE COUPLE

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 7

UNIQUE COUPLE

MR AND MRS JOHN COOMSS SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS MARRIED CONGRATULATED BY THEIR MAJESTES It is a far cry back to June 5, 1849, when the sailing ship Mariner arrived in Otago Harbour and her hardy passengers stepped ashore on a sandy beach, ringed with flax and scrub. Among those early settlers was Andrew Boyes, his wife and family, one a tiny girl of barely three years of age. Yesterday that little girl, in the person of Mrs John Coombs, in her ninetythird year, with her husband, had the unique distinction of celebrating the sixty-eighth anniversary of her wedding* Hale and hearty, her eyes a-twinkle with the pleasure of the moment, Mrs Coombs has, no doubt, created history, for rarely can it be recorded the marriage of two people over such a lengthy period. Well may the Coombs be a proud and happy couple to-day, for among the great sheaf of cablegrams of congratulations from various parts of the world, is one from Buckingham Palace, from the King and Queen. It read: “ The King and Queen send you hearty congratulations and good wishes on the occasion of your diamond wedding celebrations. (Signed), Private Secretary.” Obviously their Majesties were in error as to* the precise number of years these two aged people _ had been married, for diamond wedding celebrations are held at the sixtieth year. The same error was made, too, by Lord and Lady Galway, and by the Prime Minister (Right Hon. M. J. Savage), all of whom sent congratulatory telegrams. The one from the Governor-General and his lady read: “ Lady Galway and I send you bur warmest congratulations and best wishes on the celebration day of the sixtieth anniversary of your marriage.—(Signed). Galway.” The Prime Minister wired :—“ I have been interested to hear that you are celebrating your diamond wedding day, and I desire to send you my heartiest congratulations and good wishes for the occasion. May you both enjoy many more years of good health and happiness. Kind regards.” Erect of carriage and greeting her guests at her home in Calder Avenue, North-east Valley, Mrs Coombs, remarkablv vivacious, entertained everyone. Alert and vigorous, she had a hearty handshake and smile for all. MARRIED BY DR BURNS. Mr and Mrs Coombs have been thrice blessed. They were married by the late Dr Burns at First Church (the last wedding at which” he officiated, by the way) on December 1, 1870. They had five children, two sons and three daughters, and all _ are living to-day. The two sons are in Sydney .but the daughters long since married with their own families, are still resident in Dunedin. And around the old couple of to-day have grown up an ever-widen-ing circle of grand children and great grandchildren. Apart from the two and a-half years of her baby life before she was carried ashore from the Mariner, Mrs Coombs, too, has the unique distinction of having Iflved the other 9(1 years of her full, rich life in the bay village, then town, and lastly, city of Dunedin. To-day ’ there is no greater living link with the past than Mrs John Coombs. She has seen the city grow from a few straggling huts along the waterfront, a tiny school on the beach where the Standard Insurance Company now stands and where she as a girl first • attended, to its present proud position. She can cast back in her mind to the days when her mother took the family into the immigration barracks on the beach, where those who sought a future well-being in this distant land cooked their frugal fare over big open fires. .Her mother often told her of the heartrending job it was trying to cook food in tiny pots over the hig fires. Then later they moved into a small hut in Manse street. They called it home, for home it was, although it was surrounded by flax, swamp, and bush. PAST RECOLLECTIONS. Mrs Coombs does not often journey to the city’s centre, hut when she does no doubt many vivid memories of the past are recalled to her. One of those bright memories is of the small wooden bridge that spanned the Toitu Creek (long since vanished) at a point where th© stream crossed Princes street near the Exchange. Adjacent to her home she used to play hereabouts with young Ken Bain, whose father carried on a small drapery store where Brown, Ewing’s emporium is to-day. Skylarking with Ken one day, he fell into the water, and she then scampered breathlessly up to the store to call for assistance. Tidal waters ran into the creek in those days at this particular point, But when the tide was out it was comparatively shallow. It was at the mouth of this stream that the passengers from the first ship landed. Who can span back oyer nearly a century of time as can this marvellous old lady ? Is it any wonder one stands in admiration at her mental alertness and bodily vigour! Mrs Coombs’s mother died in 1862, and when the diggings started, with th© consequent influx of all manner of people, Andrew Boyes took his family to Caversham. Here, too, the passage of the years, with their consequent advancement, caught up to them, and the land the father acquired was partly required for the railway, and the family again moved. VIVID MEMORIES. What of Mr Coombs and his origin? There is a plaque on the wall in the Coombs home which goes back to the first Coombs, a hardy yeoman in the middle of the seventeenth century. The lather of whom we speak came to New Zealand in the late 50’s of last century. settling in the North Island, but the Maori wars drove him south, and in 1862 John Coombs, the senior, with his family, one of whom was young John, and a brother, Mr R. Coombs, settled in Dunedin. The old Chingford Park home of the late Mr P. C. Neill was built by Mr K. Coombs with timber, mostly kauri, which he brought from the north in a schooner called the Clutha. That home was for Dr Buchanan, but was later acquired by the Neill family. Vital limn with the past, yes, but living memories to Mr Coombs to-day, whose associations with the Valley have been spread over the greater part of his life. And so we leave this fine old couple, in the evening of their lives, surrounded by a wide circle of relatives of a new generation. Retaining all the happy, pleasant memories of the past, they live not in it, but find their new interest in the interests and doings of those dear to them. Here, surely, is the secret of their perpetual youth. Surely, too, we will Wish them many happy days again this time next year!