A CHEQUERED CAREER.

West Coast Times, Issue 7576, 18 December 1889, Page 4

A CHEQUERED CAREER.

[Wbiungton Post.l

. Among the- present occupants of tbe OW Men's Home in this city ia Signor Andrea Agorio, who will be remembered as for many^resrstrstorekeeper in Moles * worth Stree r , and who has had a very chequered caieer. He wa? born at Finale Borgo, near Genoa, and waa reared by Count Gecgeo Galesio, the celebrated Writer of Fomana, bis godfather being Giovani Andrea de Pascal. When 16 :year»-o^»»e he entered as steward in the Indian man-of «war Biroldo, Captain Deviri and accompanied the Viceroy Villamosa to Caglieri, the capital of Sardinia. On the second voyage he proceeded to Mar* seilles to bring back tne Kiajr of Naples, who had been on a visit to Charles X,, and while on this voyage he heard tbe news of the French having taken Algiers. After a varied experience iv California and Australia, he arrivedin New Zealand, when the Gabriel's Gully rush wi9 o<», reaching Dunedin by the Wonga Wonga, from Melbourne. There he met a Frenuhman who proved an old acquaintance whom he had knowu in Paii-t, Mr L. Court, at that time manager of the Provincial Hotel, and he recommended Agorio to the proprietor. At this time the first All England E'even were oo a tiait to the colony and playingat Dunediu; and an arrangement waa made by which Agorio took the contract for catering for the grandßtand and club. An arrangement was also made at tbe tame time with Madame Hubert, a wellknown keeper of a first class restaurant in Dunediu, by which Agorio undertook the catering for the establishment in the culinary department. Jt may be mentioned that Mr Yogel (now Sir Julius) waa then conducting a journal in Danedin and was a regular visitor at Madame Hubert's, where he often partook of supper after his day's toil, and many a ohat in French he and Agorio had ever a bottle of wine in the supper room. From Danedin Agorio went to Hokitika, taking up a section where now stands the Jewish Synagogue, on which he built two houses, one of which was let for 303 a week, the other one he occupied himself. Mr Moorhouse, M.ET.R , selected this site for the Jewish Synagogue, the Government paying Agorio £80 for it in compensation for the loss of the two houses, which were washed away by an encroachment of the ssa. He next bought a farm from Mr 3Los« such, about thrcesciuarter miles distant from the hospital, for £400 ca«h. It con« sisted of 24 acres — one aore planted as a vineyard, one acre of orchard, quarter acre for strawberries and quarter acre for !ispa r nguß find other vegetables. Twelve acrt-9 were ploughed a«d sown in potatoes, the produce of which in the flrec year wa3 3o c<ns. Here again, however, he was u»fortunit\ H's land was bounded on one side by th* river and on the ether by the pea, and through an earthqunke the s^a aga n encroached, and took away the best part of the land, no less than 35C0 feet being wa<hpd away. Henat tried his fotune at Ueeftoa, taking a situation &* wardamsn in tbe hospital in that fowo, and tbea came to Wellington, starting a business ia Bolton House, Moles wor:h Street, which he carried en for e ; ght years, during which time, although occasionally making bad debts, he never susd a person in Court, or was »ued hirmeif : then be shifted to Manners Stteet. At one time be held a number of ah ares ia valuable mining properties on the West Coast.