IN THE EARLY SIXTIES.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 November 1924, Page 8

IN THE EARLY SIXTIES.

WHIRLWIND IN AUCKLAND. A FLYING CONSTABLE. An interesting memory of the early days in Auckland was related by a caller at the Star office on Tuesday. It illustrates how high feeling ran against the Governor, Sir George Grey, who many years after was the idol of the people resident in the city. “Sir George,” said the visitor, ‘‘was hated because he had so severly handled the purchases of land from the Maoris by the early colonists. He cut down the areas very severely, and the old hands did not forget it. When I was a boy working in the city we had a shed alongside that was used as a storeroom. This had a big window fronting Shortland Street., A man near by offered the boys a penny to throw rotten oranges at the Governor when he walked past. One day Sir George was coming along, as usual, with a Maori at each side of him. Well, I earned ray penny that day, but the orange got one of the Maoris right on the ear. Sir George promptly went back to Government House and wrote a letter to our head. Mr. John Williamson, afterwards Superintendent of the Auckland Province. The result was that my father got a job boarding up the window from which his son threw that orange. You bet I did not tell dad how I got him that job. Fathers were handy with the strap when I was a boy. “I remember one day Mr. Williamson had .sent me a message to Parnell. It was the time a whirlwind came across the harbour from Birkenhead wav. The ship Ganges, which was just coming up the waters of the Waitemata, was fortunately out of its track. It went on to Parnell and cut a narrow swath by snapping off all the trees m. its course. You remember John King, who was afterwards registrar of electors in Auckland. 'Well, in those days he was a constable in Parnell. The whirlwind lifted him off his feet and carried him some distance. I ran hack to the office to tell Mr. Wiliiamson about it, and was promptly told to get out and deliver my message. I saw that he thought the cyclone story only a yarn. I started off again, and fortunately met Mr. King on his way to report the matter, so I said: ‘Here, you come with me.’ I took him into Mr. Williamson’s office, and the boss gave me lialf-a-crown. which wa.s a big sum to a boy in the early days of Auckland.”