RIVAL METHUSELAH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 August 1924, Page 13

RIVAL METHUSELAH.

WAR HERO’S PARENTS. AGED 106 AND 104. If Methuselah came back he would find rivals in the family of Alex. J. Howard, of New Zealand, world w 7 ar veteran, who is now in San Francisco en route to his home (says the. Auckland Star’s San Francisco correspondend). For Howard’s father and mother of Christchurch, Canterbury, New 7 Zealand, are 106 and 104 years old. And according to “young” Howard, who is 59 years old, but looks years younger, his parents have bright prospects of living quite a. few years longer. . That’s because liis father is a retired physician and has always carefully cared* for his own health and that of his family of twenty-five children—born to the couple during their 90 years of married life. Howard said yesterday that in his younger days everyone rose at 6 a.m., dressed and went downstairs and received their morning “shot” of w'hiskv; then there was prayer, followed by oatmeal mush. Sixteen of the children were boys and nine girls. There are five of Howard’s sisters alive in New Zealand. ranging from 48 to 80, but only two of the “boys” are living, including Alex. The sons died “with their boots on” —three in the Boer war: two in the Japanese w 7 ar with Russia; one in the Indian uprising, and the rest in the recent world w 7 ar. Alex. Howard, who has served 21 years with Scottish troops in the British army, sustained more than thirty wounds in the w'orld war, causing him blindness for a vear.