VARIED MEMORIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23112, 10 August 1938, Page 15

VARIED MEMORIES

LATE MR* W. L. LUXFORD

AUCKLANDER'S DEATH THE LATE MR. W. L. LUXFORD ADVANCED AGE REACHED .■Recollections of old-time voyages, the British statesman John Bright and Pope Pius IX. were among those recounted in his lifetime by Mr. William Lewis Luxford, whose death has occurred at the age of 84 years at his home at 31 Dedwood Terrace, Ponsonby. Born in Wellington, Mr. Luxford at the age of 11 went to England and later attended school at Jersey. Ho travelled extensively on the Continent and toured Trance, Switzerland, Italy and Germany. In 1869 he returned to New Zealand and for several years was engaged in farming and sawmilling ventures in the Wellington district. He visited England again in 1877 and finally returned a few years later to settle at Palmerston North, where he was a member of the borough council for-ten years. For a period after his retirement ho lived at Hamilton, later at Mount Albert, and for several years before his death in Dedwood Terrace, Ponsonby. Mr. Luxford made his first voyage to England in the barque Ballarat. "It took us 30 days to reach Cape Horn," he said when once describing the experience. "We sailed among icebergs in bitterly cold, miserable weather. The water poured into the ship and my bunk was wet all the time."

When Mr. Luxford reached England he went for a tour through Wales. When staying at Caernaervon he was stopped at the steps of his hotel one morning by a man who said: "Hello, my boy. What part of the world do vou come from? You did not get those freckles in England." When the lad told him he said: "New Zealand? That is the place 'where they have cold missionary without any gravy. I suppose you have come Home to go to school. Mind they teach you to eat your meals without any missionary." He shook hands with the boy and went inside. Mr. Luxford subsequently learned that the man to whom he had been talking was John Bright. _ When travelling in Italy with his uncle they visited St. Peter's, Rome. "A procession came from the direcj tion of the altar,'/ said Mr. Luxford when relating the incident, "and when it reached us a man whom we took to be a priest came across hands with us. After we had left a verger said, 'That was His Holiness. wished to welcome you to Rome.' " Mr. Luxford leaves fours sons and two daughters. The sons are Mr. J. H. Luxford, who is present relieving magistrate in Auckland, and Messrs. F. W., H. B. and T. G. Luxford. The daughters are Mrs. J. H. Cubitt and Miss K. Luxford, of Auckland.