POSTMAN JOCK GRAHAM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2818, 18 March 1908, Page 55

POSTMAN JOCK GRAHAM.

Up to the year 1855 there were no postage stamps in use in Otago, but in th.it year they were first introduced, and superseded the former method of money prepayment. In the following year, John Graham, or "Jock" as he was usually called, agreed, says Dr Hocken, in his interesting book, to carry a weekly mail to and from the Molyneux for £150 per annum. As there were no public funds, this sum was raised by subscription from the settlers along the line of road, and out of it he engagtd to provide himself with two horses. Jock was quite a character — an excitable, restless Scotchman, brimful of energy, so that his somewhat perilous contract was entirely congenial. Bedecked in a scarlet coat and furnished with a loud resounding horn, he woke up the echoes and created a sensation wherever he went. The story is told of a settler who, returning by night from Half-Way Bush, and primed with more whisky than was good, stumbled into a newly-opened grave in the old York Place Cemetery. Not knowing where he was. and unable to get out, he fell into a profound sleep, which was not broken until the next morning, when Jock, passing by, loudly blew his horn. The sleeper, thus rudely roused, and discovering his sad surrounding, sprang up, exclaiming: " Hech, sirs! its the last trump. Whaurs James Macandrew? I'll oae wi' him."