BUYS A MINE AT 90

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18955, 4 March 1936, Page 15

BUYS A MINE AT 90

HARD WORK-LONG LIFE

MELBOURNE, Fob. 23. A man of 90 has bought a coalmine. He is Mr. Tom Curphey, head of T. Curphev Proprietary, Limited, lime, cement' and builders' hardware merchants, of Richmond. Few" -who know Mr. Curphey suspect that he is 90 years old. He is deep-chested and robust and 'his activity and appearance are those of a man 25 years his junior. He has worked all his life at haru jobs. He knows life on a sailing ship, on the farm and as a boilermaker, and since he established his business in Richmond 50 years ago there has seldom been a. day when he has not lumped heavy bags of cement.

For 46 years coal has been running into his yard from the Jumbunna mine, in Gippsland, and to his kilns, and now, instead of taking things easy, he is going to engender newlife into the old mine. Business associates say that Mr., Curphey will do his job, too. Mr. Curphey says the secret of his long life is hard work, a glass of beer before lunch every day and in the cold weather the sailor's druik from Jamaica in fresh milk.