BRIDEGROOM OF NINETYONE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22631, 24 July 1935, Page 7

BRIDEGROOM OF NINETYONE

WEDDING AT ASHBURTON FIFTY-YEAR-OLD ROMANCE (Special to Daily .Times) ASHBURTON, July 23* Ninety-one years of age, a friend of “Johnny” Jones, a pupil of Sir Robert Stout, a close friend of Sir Julius Vogel, and the first man to beat a drum in a musical organisation in Dunedin, Mr William Howell was married here to-day to Mrs Christina Lawson, aged 73 years. The old couple knew each other in Dunedin -over 50 years ago, but their ways parted and they did not come together again till about seven years ago, when they met in Ashburton, where Mr Howell had been residing for some years before that. They were married by the Rev. G, B. Hinton (Methodist minister), who was assisted by the Rev, Ronald S. Watson (Presbyterian minister). Mr Howell is a remarkably active man -and possesses a retentive memory. In conversation with a representative of the Daily Times, he recounted many tales of Dunedin in its early days, as far back as 1857, W'hen he arrived there, a lad of 13.

Mrs Lawson has been a widow for a great many years, her husband and two sons (their ages 10 and 13) having been drowned in a wreck near Auckland in the early part of this century, “ With my father and mother, we landed at Auckland in 1857,” said Mr Howell, “ and after remaining there only three months went to Dunedin, where my father, George Howell, set up the first brick kiln. He afterwards took John Lougworth as partner. The kiln was in Filleul street. Dunedin was g tiny place then. “I well remember going down to the shore in Rattray street on Sunday afternoons and picking up cockles for tea. It was about there that there was a long Maori pa. right on the beach, at a spot where the new Post Office is now being erected.” Mr Howell attended Halliwell’s School;' in York place, soon after he landed at Dunedin, and in the evenings he used to sell water. He made a four-wheeled trolley and attached to it a large cask with a tap. This he filled from a pump in Filleul street, and went from house to house, selling the water at sixpence a bucketful. He made as much as 10s an evening in this way. /He had a more or less regular clientele, and picked only those who could pay sixpence. “ One poor old lady, a Mrs Turner, took in washing,” he said, “ and as she was struggling along I let her have the water for twopence a -bucket.” i

The old man has happy recollections of the first band formed in Dunedin. This was when he was just a youth, after he had left school, where he had been taught by Sir Robert Stout, i He collected sufficient funds to purchase a number of large tin whistles, and 15 members were enrolled. Most of them were young, but they all *wore beards, and the band became known as the “ Beardies’ Band.” A man named Jack Sinclair bought a triangle, and the band was ready, save for a drum. With one or two others Mr Howell went to the music shop conducted in Princes street by Mr West, and they persuaded him to let the band have a drum, payment to be made later. The tune tackled was, “We Won’t Go Home Till Morning,” and having mastered it, the band assembled in the main street one day and started 6ff for "Johnny” Jones’s house, which was built of fern trees. On arrival on the lawn the band, by this time' reaching the fiftieth repetition of its one and only tune, played right merrily, and out of the house came “Johnny” Jones,-to be met by his son Alfred, who had come all tluj way from Waikouaiti to take part in the inaugural march of the band.

“Well, boys, you’re doing fine,” said “Johnny” Jones, “Play a tune.” So the band played its sole offering once, again. Thereupon Mr Howell stepped out from the ranks and told the olcl whaler that, the band had called for a donation toward the cost of the drum. The position was explained, and Jones said: “Tell West that I will call in and pay_ for the drum. How, play your tune again.” _ And , the band did, by this time having a large number of people as an audience. Before they left Mr Jones gave each member half a crown as pocket money.

Among the players were David Little (a member of the Daily Tira'es ~etaff), who later became a cornetist of note in .(4: “Johnny” Atkinson and i° m Barrie. The band survived for only a brief period, being reorganised as a drum and fife band, and later becommg a brass band. Military training attracted young Howell, and when he mined the City Guards the instructor was George Wilson, a butcher. The Drum and Fife Band was in great demand when harbour excursions were organised, and Mr Howell beat the drum on several occasions ,when parties went to the Moeraki beach for picnics. -One tJ > ese excursions, in 1863, ended in disaster A vessel called the Favourite, with a w,. number of people on board, collided with the harbour steamer, Pride nL-f , larra ’ an ? the latter sank im-flrn«.aluyka-non?uth« paS6en S ers who were hemg the Rev T. H. Campbell, \, h 0 had been appointed principal of the Otago Boys High School, together with Ins wife, three children, and servants, who had all arrived on that day in Otago Their funeral service was conducted by Archdeacon Edwards, of St Luilf i, Cb p' fh ’ an 4 th ?, be] l there was tolled by George Howell. - After leaving school, Mr Howell worked l or his father, and delivered bricks all over the town, driving a grey horse in a heavy cart. This work was too strenuous for him, and he took a position with i butcher. It was while he was thus employed that he was the means of creating a short-lived sensation. At one house where he called he was given a large cat to get nd of, and he placed it in a ■<nck. which he threw across his shoulder Coin", down Rattray street he was accosted by a policeman, who demanded to know what was in the bag. As Howell would not. give any satisfactory* reply, the limb of the law determined to investigate. Howell took to his heels, and the chase was on, the policeman giving shrill blasts on his whistle as he ran. .Soon,-there were dozens in the chase, and Howell was captured in Frederick street. Having again refused to open the bag he was taken to the Police Station and placed in front of the sergeant who tried force to ascertain the con-’ tents of the sack. At last Howell opened the container, and the cat. half-mad from rright, leaped out on to the desk, upsetting a bottle of ink over a file of capers, and escaping through a window On one occasion. Mr Howell was called ?n the assistance of “Johnnv” Jones, who wished to go to Cherrv Farm Waikonaiti. where bis son Alfred had done -runething of which the old man dis’’proved. A horse and cart were oba furious drive commenced. Hie horse was in a lather of foam when the farm was reached, and Jones called to Alfred to come out. As soon as the ■mn appeared “Johnny” rushed at him. clutched him by the throat, threw him -e the ground, and beat him with a horse whip.

Mr Howell states that Sir James Mills "•ns shipping clerk for “Johnny” Jones at that time. He was well-acquainted with Bessie Jones, who married a man named Best, an employee at the Post Office. He speaks of Julius Vogel, of Stroude. the magistrate, of Caloott. the clerk of the court, and of William Logit, the, butcher, all of whom he knew intimately. and he tells of the time when “Johnny" Jones fought with his groom. Black Joe.” One morning Jones said to Joe, “I’ll give you £5 if you will let me have a round or two with vou to get up .an appetite for breakfast.*' Joe replied, “All right, boss. I accommodate yon.’ and the fight was on. Joe won and with the money he received from his employer he purchased a new suit of clothes.

Others whom Mr Howell claims as friends were the Rev. Isaac Harding, who was the first Methodist minister at the church on Bel! Tower Hill; the Rev. Mr Parsons, who came from South Australia to conduct the first Baptist Church in Dunedin: “Little” Brunton, another minister of religion; Farley, who owned the Vauxhall Gardens; Joe the bellringer: and Detective Farrell.

With Mies Connelly, Mr Howell collected the funds which enabled the first

Baptist services to be held. A tworoomed cottage was taken and the congregation eat around on boxes. He took up t)ie collection, one shilling a bead, when Robert Stout and the Rev. Mr Brunton lactured in Farleys' Hall in Princes street after church on Sunday evenings, and later when these two lectured to crowded houses in the Princes Theatre.

The gold search was in full swing when Mr Howell went to Hamilton, Maniototo, where he did a good deal of sluicing for gold. Some time after that, when he was married, he took a position as cook and steward on the Presbyterian missionary ship, Dayspring, and with his bride spent 12 months at the New Hebrides.