OLD IDENTIANA.

Otago Witness, Issue 1900, 3 July 1890, Page 36

OLD IDENTIANA.

MR JOHN JONES. Mr John Jones, or " Johnny Jones," as he was universally called, was one of the very oldest and one of the leading inhabitants of Dunedin. He was not one of those original Free Kirk •' Identiana," but rather a representative of the oppesitq faction of the Church of England, then so much in the minority. Mr Jones was an older colonist than our friends of the Free Kirk. He hailed from Sydney, where he was one of the " forty thieves." Do not imagine that the fraternity had any conneotion with any caves or robbers' dens of any kind ; it was the nickname of a confederation of Sydney merchants, who combined to raise the price of some article or another by monopoly. Mr Jones was a worthy, honourable merchant, and a great advantage to the early Bottlers, but he had some very peculiar ways of hiß own, as most enterprising men have. Mr Jones had established a fine farm and sheep run at Waikouaiti, known to this day as Cherry Farm, and it was a great advantage to the early settlers to be able to purohase stock from him even at very high prices. He had also a brig, the Thomas and Henry, which traded with Sydney regularly, and being at that time the only vessel that had anything approaching to regular communication with any of the other colonies, it was a very great advantage to the settlers. Mr Jones was always willing to assist the colonists — of course upon terms advantageous to both parties. There never was any shuffling or underhand work in his dealings ; he came straight to the point. His prises were high, but he always kept to the letter of his agreement, and there often was a kind of generosity about him too. I am particular in all this because difference in religious matters often oaused him to be spoken of in a way that was unjust, and although he had faults and failings, like all of us, he was not half a bad fellow, and had all the good points of a regular John Bull. His advice was always good, and as far as I ever knew was sincere, although of course it so far favoured himself that he did not recommend people to deal with the great rival hou3e of Macandrew, Reynolds, and Co. To beginners in sheep farming he would advise, if they had means and intended to run several cargoes of stock, to go to the Australian market for them— "There is the Thonw and Henry for you at a reasonable charge." But if they had only the means to purchase a comparatively small flock, then he advised them not to risk importing. "A bad voyage," he would justly observe, "may ruin you." And he was right too, as the experience of poor Mr Fisher proved, when all his money was floating about the west coast in the form of drowned sheep, and he had to go a-shep-herding for Mr John Hyde Harris. His advice then was for "young men to buy young sheep," and he was always willing to part with them (at about £2 10s per head). Personally Mr Jones was a rather short man, with broad square shoulders, a healthy coloured face, and a good-tempered but resolute bearing; athoroughman of business. He never was seen by mortal man without a black Bilk belltopper, and a very dark blue or black surtout coat, and he generally Bported a short white clay pipe, during the cutting up of the tobacco for which he used to give his Bagest advice, just in the same way as Mr Reynolds used to do when he was , rolling up those eternal cigarettes, that were" never out of his mouth £and are not, I am informefl, to this day] even when he discoursed politics with Mr Outten "on the; 'bridge," the subject of which was sure to be brought into next week's Witness. At the time I am speaking of the wholesale trade was entirely done by two houses —Mr Jones, and Messrs Macandrew and Reynolds. These two also represented the " English " and the " Scotch," or rather Free Kirk factions. The only difference was that Macandrew's people went in hot for politics, and imported from the Old Country in the regular ships, whilst Mr Jones never bothered his bead about politics, minded his own business, and did most of his importing from Sydney in his own brig, the consequence being that be was the more prosperous of the two. To his faction belonged the Crown Lands Commissioner (Mr Mantell), the Maitlands, Mr Pillans, Mr John Hyde Harris, Dr Williams, Dr Manning, Mr Rich (of Wairuna), Mr Holinshead, and a good many more that I have not forgotten. But as I have a good deal to say of Mr Jones' adventuras, I shall not begin them till next issue. Old Otago. i