NINETIETH BIRTHDAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20629, 30 July 1930, Page 12

NINETIETH BIRTHDAY.

MR. F. W. COURT'S CAREER. FOUNDER OF CITY FIRMS. THE REWARD OF COURAGE. The founder of two of Auckland's largest drapery firms, Mr. F. W. Court, will celebrate his 90th birthday to-day at his residence in Selwyn Street, Onehunga. From small beginnings lie has watched these two thriving concerns, the products of his own courage and enterprise, grow steadily with the years until they finally assumed huge proportions necessitating the erection of eight-storey buildings and tiie employment of hundreds of hands.

In his comfortable home yesterday Mr. Court recounted some of the outstanding incidents of his life. His is the story of the triumph of a sturdy mental outlook and habits of right-living over an early handicap of ill-health. One would never suppose, seeing him at work in his garden and in the evenings reading and talking round the fireside, without the least trace of deafness or poor sight, the usual accompaniments of advancing age, that 44 years ago he was so harrassed by persistent bad health that he had to abandon a flourishing business in England and seek a kindlier climate in New Zealand, and that five years later a continuance of the trouble forced him to retire from business altogether. Any stranger would put his age at 65 rather than 90. Boyhood and Early Manhood. Born in 1340, the son of Mr. William Court, a needle manufacturer of Feckenham, Worcestershire, Mr. Court was the eldest of three brothers, tho others being Mr. John Court, of Hamilton Road, Ponsonby, and the late Mr. George Court. His father put him into the grocery trade when he was a boy but, as he put it yesterday, "I thought more of eating the sugar in the shop than attending to my duties and it was thought best to try mo with drapery." So the boy was apprenticed to a draper in Walsall, Staffordshire, and after 62 years he entered one of the biggest wholesale and retail drapery stores in Birmingham, where he succeeded so well that he was able, with his savings, to join his brothers in a business of their own in that city. He stuck at his post for 14 years until his health, no longer able to stand the strain, made it advisable for him to emigrate.

Mr. Court arrived at Auckland in the Rimutaka in 1886 to find the town agog with excitement over tho calamity of the Tu raw era „ eruption. He discussed with his brother George, who had come out the previous year, the chances of establishing a business in Auckland. Everyone thought the idea unwise in view of the restrictions imposed by the banks and the strength of existing competition, but although times were economically bad, Mr. Court had the courage to launch not one business but two. Founding of the Court Shops. Within four months of his arrival from England Mr. Court had taken over a fairly large drapery shop opposite the Bank of New Zealand in Queen Street and had convorted three shops in a building that still stands on the corner of Karangahapo Road and Liverpool Street into a second drapery establishment. For five years he managed, the two shops and put them on a sound business footing and then, on account of his continued ill-health, ho was obliged to retire and hand them over to his two brothers. Both concerns flourished in spito of the slump in the nineties—monuments to his business sagacity and determination.

"Yes, I suppose 1 can well be proud of founding two such important businesses," lu; said yesterday. "Of course I knew they would succeed from the start, but I certainly did not dream of them growing as big as they did." Mr. Court married, 61 years ago, the daughter of Mr. Thomas Howell, a Birmingham brass founder. The marriage took place in Edgbaston Old Church, an aucient ivy-covered building in the suburbs of Birmingham. There are two sons, Mr. W. T. Court, of Onehunga, and Mr. G. A. Court, of Mangere, and one daughter, Mrs. E. B. Wright, of Selwvn Street, Onehunga. There are seven grandchildren and one great-grandch,- 1. Mr. and Mrs. Court celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding 14 months ago.