AFTER LONG ABSENCE

Taranaki Daily News, 31 December 1926, Page 11

AFTER LONG ABSENCE

REUNION OF BROTHERS. Auckland, Dec. 28. Two brothers met in Auckland the other day after an absence of over 30 years, and they found each other so changed that neither knew the other. One was Mr. Roy, a farmer, who lives out at Weymouth, and the other was Captain Roy, of the steamer Mernoo, from Montreal, making her maiden voyage to this port. The family in the old days used to live in Parnell, and just over thirty years ago the son, who is now a captain, left to join an Australian shipping line. Fate and the exigencies of service combined to keep him in distant ports until the other day. The brothers had, of course, corresponded, and both had promised to cross the Tasman on a holiday, but one thing and another intervened, and the meeting never came off. When the farmer heard that his sailor brother was at last coming back to his biith place, he was very pleased, and, as soon as the steamer arrived, he went off to greet the stranger. “Stranger” was the right word, for thirty years had so changed both of them that they could have passed in the street and never guessed they were related. Naturally, the meeting was a very cordial one, and while the vessel was

in port, the two brothers spent a happy time getting to know one another again.