AN EYE-WITNESS OF HISTORY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue XLVI, 24 January 1911, Page 6

AN EYE-WITNESS OF HISTORY.

A VETERAN SCIENTIST

Ninety-two years old and still doing- work that some men retire from at (35 or 7<X is the wonderful record of Mr T. S. Reed, whose attendance at the Australasian' Science. Con-g-res was recorded in our cables some days ago. As the hard-working secretary of the South Australian Geological .Society he still enjoys life. He reads small rwhit without glasses, and writes a firm hand. Yet 45 years ago, when he arrived in South Australia, he was a consumptive. "But when I felt the north wind" Mr Reed said to a Sydney interviewer, "laden with the fragrance of eucalyptus shoats, and the resinous piny breezes. I knew I should be well and healthy again." He has no specific for longevity. He doet not fast, nor is he a vegetarian. His father lived to see &0 years, and his grandfather also lived to a great age. so with him it musf be .partly hereditary. It must be almost uncanny to talk with a man who has seer. Stephenson and his immortal "'Rocket"—the pioneer of the great railway svstems of the world; who remembers the days' when votes were worth two guineas, and the abduction of doubtful voters a not uncoramoi. occurrence To havel ived under six occurrence, commencing with George 111., is a record few can show. -A.: Reed has a most vivid recollection of the first cavalry charge in the Bristol riots. "I saw the whole thing." he says.. "The first cut sliced ofi the top'of a woman's bonnet, which shot •through' the air like an oystershell on edge. The second cut a man's nose clean off; I can see the sword flash, and his *righiened bleeding face, eyen now." He remembers the days of 'the bodysnatchers, when a man, worthless ir life, was valued at two guineas ut Urab, and when the relati"e s watched the graves of their dead, with lanterns and pistols. In 1837. at Bristol, Mr Reed attended a meeting of the British Association for the Ad vancenient of Science, then in itsinfancy. A # t a conversazione there 11 heard Tom Moore speak. Charles Dickens wa s familiar ,to him in person, and he knew Sergeant Bompas, whom the great a-ufhor portrayed as "Sergeant Buzfuz." Mr Reed broke off an interview with. €ydiie3' pressmen to finish an articlr for an, Adelaide paper. For lvim old age has both honour and toil.