BOGUS PATRIARCHS

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 October 1933, Page 14

BOGUS PATRIARCHS

- HOW LONG SHOULD WE LIVE? ‘ Given a “fair run,” a life unchecked by accident or disease, how Ion; ’ should the human machine last? ask the Sydney ‘‘Daily Telegraph.” The death is reported of the oldes man in Spain, Caesar Rego, a peasan of the village Monforo, at the age o 112. He leaves a son aged 83, wh<

still does the heaviest kind of labour Even Caesar Rego died before hi: time. A living being should live t( five times the age of full growth, a: ■ animals do. As man does not ceast growing till 25, everyone should liv, to 125. No properly authenticated case o: any person reaching this age is known Zaro Agha, the famous Turk, claimec to be 158 last March. His claim can not be proved, as there were no birth certificates or records when he was born. Old Parr, who died in 1635, was re puted to be 152 that year. Investiga tion proved he had added 50 years tc his real age. This old reprobate was found working on a farm, became a popular prodigy, came to London, and (real age, 102) “made whoopee” tc such an extent with wine and the ladies that he died in a few months’ time. The Countess of Desmond reputedly lived to 140. Investigation showed that the ages of two successive countcases had been added together. Drakenbefg, is alleged to have lived to 146, He married at 111, and became a widower at 130. Probably a father and son were taken to be the same man. And this is no doubt the explanation of Zaro Agha’s age. If Caesar Rego’s son bears the same name as his father, the son may be credited, on attaining his century, with 12.9 years of life. But (theoretically) we are all wound up to run for 125 years! As the average Australian “expectation of life” is 59 (for men) and 63 (for women), it looks as if some way or other we are all being cheated out of over 60 years of existence.