Don't Worry'- Mr E.F. Jordan

Northern Advocate, 4 December 1947, Page 8

Don't Worry'Mr E.F. Jordan

Looking extremely lit, except for a limp that is the legacy of hard work in the bush, Mr E. F. Jordan, of 34 Kauika Road, Whangarei, celebrates his 66th birthday today. Mr Jordan was born in Australia in 1881 and worked on farms and in the bush in South Gippsland, Victoria, until he left for the Boer War in 1902. He travelled to South Africa on the troopship Drayton Grange. Conditions on the ship were shocking, he said. Men just could not live under worse conditions. The x water was stagnant and the whole ship was jammed tight with troops. The Drayton Grange was later wrecked on the Barrier Reef. Soon after his arrival in South Africa, where he served in the 6th Battalion, Australian Commonwealth Horse, he became ill with pneumonia and dysentery. WORST ENEMY “Sickness and disease were the troops' worst enemy," said Mr Jordan, “fresh bread and condensed milk being considered luxuries." One particularly enjoyable meal consisted of bully beef and two biscuits. Sometimes there was an interval of three months between pay days, so the troops could not purchase any extras. When he was fit to travel Mr Jordan went to the port of embarkation in an open iron coal truck. He arrived in New Zealand in 1903 and worked in the bush in the Northern Wairoa and the King Country. For 26 years Mr Jordan farmed in the Puhipuhi district until 1944, when he retired. During this period he broke m rough bush land and made a farm of it. “It was a hard life, but a good one," said Mr Jordan. He attributed his excellent health to the fact that he had worked under a roof for only three months of his life. SOUND PHILOSOPHY In 1912 Mr Jordan married a Nelson girl and has three sons, all of whom served in the recent war, living in Whangarei. The veteran is not worried by the price of tobacco or hotel hours, as he only smokes when he has a" cold to stop the cough, and he has never tasted beer in his life. Mr Jordan has a sound philosophy, which he seems to have carried out with remarkable success. His advice is’ “Don't Worry." Perhaps this explains his claim that lie has never lost a night’s sleep. Mr Jordan still takes a keen interest in local affairs, although he has retired from active work. From his garden, which he keeps in production all the year round, he can see the bush-clad Western Hills. "That's why I came here." he said. "I’ve been a bushman all my life and I like to be able to see the green hills." With such an outlook and philosophy Mr Jordan should enjoy many years ol' retirement from a busy life.