FIFTY YEARS WED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22935, 13 January 1938, Page 16

FIFTY YEARS WED

MOUNT ALBERT COUPLE - MR. AND MRS. J. E. SALT MEMORIES 1 - OF EARLY DAYS Fifty years of happy married life were reviewed yesterday by Mr. and 3\lrs. J. E. Salt, of Prospect Terrace, Mount Albert, whose' golden wedding anniversary falls on January 23. A celebration which is to be held on Saturday night will bo attended by the best man, Mr. George Fletcher, of Winchester Street, City, and tbo bridesmaid, formerly Miss Harriet Mills, now Mrs. H. Turner, of Tauranga. Mr. Salt rfrrived in Auckland from Pakiri, six miles from Leigh, with his brido, to bo married on a Wednesday 50 years ago next week. When be made application for a licence lie was told lie would have to wait until the Monday beforo tho ceremony could be performed. On the Monday he was to commence work at Mercury Bay. He waited in Auckland and was married on tho Monday, leaving the same night for Mercury Bay. Next day he found he had lost his job—a disappointing beginning to his married life. > Some time later ho returned to Pakiri, where in 1890 he bought three sections aggregating about 120 acres. Tho land was covered with virgin bush so thick in parts that there was scarcely room to swing an axe. The young couple commenced to hew out a home for themselves. Gradually the little clearing grew in area, and Mr. Salt later pit-sawed the timber for tho home, which still stands on tho farm he occupied until 1919. The totara weatherboards he sawed in his spare time, and even the roof shingles he split himself. Cattle and sheep were put on the farm as 'the' grasslands increased, but there were no dairy factories to which cream could be sent. Mr. Salt sold his home-made butter to the local storekeeper for 4d and 5d a pound. Eggs brought from 4d to 5d a dozen, but no cash payments were made. Tho money was taken out in supplies. When ho retired in 1919 and came to live in Auckland, Mr. Salt soon found that idleness oppressed him. He took up gardening, an occupation which he followed until two years ago. A year older than her husband, Mrs. Salt is the eldest daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs, John Wyatt, and was born at Omaha, about six miles from Pakiri, where her parents took up land shortly after their arrival in New Zealand in 1863.