NINETIETH BIRTHDAY

Taranaki Daily News, 6 October 1931, Page 5

NINETIETH BIRTHDAY

A FREEMAN OF LONDON. ... EIGHTY YEARS IN DOMINION. By hirth a freeman of /the city of London, and a. resident of, New. Zealand for 80 years, Mr. George Gee,; of “Gas* tiebar,’’ Khyber Pass, Auckland, on .Sunday celebrated his 90th birthday, .when he/wa»;thp recipient.of congratulatory messages from friends and relatives in many parts of' the Dominion and Eng-, •land. Throughout the day Mr. Gee received a number of visitors at his home 4 says the New Zealand Herald. The freedom of London was conferred on Mr. Gee’s father in 1841, and aa Mr. Gee was'' the first son’’born after that the freedom of the city descended to him on the death of his father. Mr* Gee came to New Zealand with his parcuts on the ship Sir George Pollock,, which reached Lyttelton in 18b 1. Enter* ing bubiac&s at Christchurch, he resided there for'some years, and subsequently lived .at Timaru arid Dunedin, _ before; coming to Auckland in 1881. With the. exception of five years spent at Tati* ranga, Mr. Gee since' then has rcfiided continuously in Auckland. He retired from active life about 30 years' ago. • Mk 'Gee married hi'l662 Miss Elizabeth Ann Wood, of Castlebar Lodg& Ealing, who came to New Zealand on th& same ship. There aro five children* 18 grandchildren and three great-grand* children. Mr. Gee preserves his faculties in a wonderful manner. On Sunday he attended the early communion ser* vice at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, of which he i« a regular member,