“HIS LAST RIDE”

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3893, 23 April 1937, Page 6

“HIS LAST RIDE”

KING COUNTRY CHARACTER PASSES. (Our Resident Representative.) Thati eccentric character so well and familiarly known in all the towns of the northern King Country for the past 35 years, Jack Allen, died at the Taumarunui Hospital last Monday morning. A man of 86 years, Jack frequently boasted of his wonderful athletic achievements —on good foundation, too —as an axeman, shootist, billiardist, rider, deer-stalker, etc. He usually lived in the open air, and scorned to wear a hat, his mass of bushy grey hair being sufficient covering during all seasons of the year. Frequently he went bare-footed, and always stockingless and coatless. Although many would have the impression that Jack was “ a bit of a character,” this was not so, as he was a strictly honourable and energetic man.

In conversation with the writer at Otorohanga a month ago, Jack said he was born at Emu Plains, at the foot of the Blue Mountains (Sydney side), 86 years ago, and had hunted and trapped for a living all his life. He arrived in New Zealand 38 years ago, and came straight to the King Country. He stated then that he had no living relatives, and was on his way to Taumarunui. He was found, evidently ill, in the waiting room at the Taumarunui railway station, by Constable MacLcnnan, who conveyed him by taxi to the Taumarunui Hospital. The old man remarked to the constable: “This will be Jack’s last ride. I am done.”