DIAMOND WEDDING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20028, 18 August 1928, Page 12

DIAMOND WEDDING.

MR. AND MRS. (5. BARRY. LINK WITH THE EARLY DAYS. FIFTY YEARS IN GREY LYNN* On August 19, 1868, Mr, and Mrs. Garrett Barry, of Wellpark Avenue, ,Grey Lynn, were married in the Presbyterian manse, Pitt Street, by the late Rev. James Hill, and to-morrow they will celebrate the diamond jubilee of the event. They have spent all their married life in Auckland, residing for the first nine years in Newmarket, and for 51 years in Wellpark Avenue.

Mr. Barry, was born at Queenstown, Ireland, 85 years ago, and at the age of 22 came to tho Dominion in the ship Alliquess, which arrived at Auckland on Christmas Eve, 1865. Soon after arrival he obtained employment us a slaughterman at a small slaughterhouse at Newmarket, situated where the railway station now stands. When the municipal abattoirs were opened at Western Springs. Mr. Barry joined as a slaughterman, and had the honour of killing; the first bullock. Recently, Mr. Barry broke a leg, and returned to his home from the hospital only last week. He is now in indifferent health.

Mrs. Barry has had an interesting career. She was born at Matakana 80 years ago, and is the daughter of the late Mr. James Boswell, a well-known AyoMand stonemason in the early days. At the age of nine she went with her parents to live at Kawau Island, and on returning to Auckland the family settled in High Street. She remembers the dis astrous fire which almost wiped out the street.

"Grey Lynn was considered to be in the country when we settled here," Mrs. Barry stated. "Our house was the second in Wellpark Avenue, and the hills around were covered with tea-tree and gorse There were no roads andl no shops, and I had to walk about four miles by a bush track to Newton to obtain supplies. Of course, there was no* such place as Newton then, but there were a few shops and houses there."

When Mrs. Barry lived in High Street their house was almost on the waterfront, the foreshore reaching to Shortland Street. She recalled that she often gathered shellfish, and played on the sand nearby. When they were living at Newmarket the district was served by one bus, which ran from the town via Symonds Street and Khyber Pass. Sirs. Barry is unusually active for one of her age. Every corning she is up at five o'clock, and sometimes goes for a walk. She has subscribed to the Herald for over 50 years. Owing to Mr. Barry's illness the diamond wedding will be celebrated very quietly. Thei'e are eight children, Mrs. J. Ryan, Hastings, Mrs. R. Gillespie, and Mrs. D. E. Hutchison, of Auckland, and Messrs. James, Robert, Garrett, John, and D. Barry, of Auckland. There are o3 grandchildren, and 31 great-grand-children, the eldest of the great-grand-children being 22.