A RARA AVIS.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3276, 26 June 1917, Page 2

A RARA AVIS.

In these days when spectacles are becoming all too common among the younger generation, it is worthy ol 'mention (says the Press) when one happens across a hale old gentleman of 82 who can still read small type without hie glasses. And when one: discovers that he. whose natural sight is yet scarce dimmed, is absorbed in a. Roman history in the original Latin — well. then, the surprise becomes amazement! He is no old University scholar. His younger days were spent in Italy, in the States, on the roads and goldh'elds of Australia and New Zealand, working—hard, rough manual labour. And it is, perhaps, sate to assert that in those bygone years, the 'sixties and the early 'seventies, he tramped as many miles as any old colonist eytfr did in this new land. Now, having made a comfortable competence, he can sit before his wood fire .serene, cheerful, enjoy a pipe, and— read, with relish, ancient history in the Latin! His memory is wonderful-; ly fresh, and his narrative of his varied experiences will, some day, be worth reading.

LOCAL AND GENERAL