FIVE SCORE AND TEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14789, 19 September 1911, Page 7

FIVE SCORE AND TEN.

A CENTENARIAN'S DEATH. HENRY BURLING, OP WAIKANAE. [BT rFLKJBAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.] Wellington, Monday. Henrx BtrßirNQ, of Waikanae, a centenarian, died on Sunday afternoon at the residence of his son. The deceased suffered for about five weeks from bronchitis and a paralytic stroke. He had reached the unusual ago of 110 years. He remembered incidents of the battle of Waterloo, and was a married man when the city of Wellington was founded. He is survived by 13 children. King George V. could have had few older subjects than Henry Burling, who was born at Stratford-Avon in 1800, and came to New Zealand 70 years ago. For many years he carried mails between Wellington and Palmerston, and sometimes forded the Manawatu River in flood, when it was half a mile wide. Mr. Burling has lived under six British monarchs. He was born a month before Napoleon defeated the Austrians at Marengo, and in his early days he was told of such historic happenings aa the defeat of the French at Aboukir, the bombardment of Copenhagen by Nelson, and the great British victory at Trafalgar in 1805. He was just beginning to understand things when the Russians and Austrians were defeated by Napoleon at Aueterlitz. He was a boy of 10 when Wellington repulsed Masseur at Buasco and Fuentes-de-Onoro. Burling heard of the Iron Duke storming Ciudad Kourigo and taking Badajoz. When he was 12 Marmont.was defeated at Salamanca, and the burning of Moscow took place, and Burling was a youth of 15 when Napoleon's star fell at Waterloo. Mr. Burling has actually got a son who has witnessed two visits of Halley'B comet. Mr. Burling established a world's record last year when he kicked off for Waikanae in a football match. A footballer at 109