A PIONEER OF '40.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1317, 21 December 1911, Page 4

A PIONEER OF '40.

CHAT WITH A NONAGENAEIAN, "] will be 05 years old next month— heigh-ho!" , Tlie speaker was Mi'- Toiue, vho>o long, silkv white lmiv and sparse white beard, b-n'vo him quite apa ™™> al " ! " pect as he sut 111 tho dim light of 8 Chamber of Commerce yesterday, readmg —without spectacles—an insurance pap l, immediately below his own portrait. Mr. Taiue is an interesting, r,s well ns an impressive, personality. Ho has all over Australasia, Olid is novel 1».I « than when travelling, to th.it no llas ken in ve v closs touch even up to tho irelnt with the advance the co om<* havo made since ho arrhod in uelnng ! {on 7- vears . On purprifio liciuff expressed U?;it U« was still able to read without glasses, lie replied that he could still get on without them as far as reading was coilcorned, l.ut hod to have a pair of goggles -for tho dust. His only trouble was that his eyes became watery it he read too long, and he had consulted oculists to scG if thiit could be remedied, llio.v had pulled his eyes uisido out, anrt tlia onlv satisfaction they gave wns to inform him that: his eyes were wnriuc. I knew that, of course, added the cheerful old pioneer, "so it was simply mont'y thrown away." , Mr Taiue said ho had not heeu so well lately. He was suffering from fits of weakness. Only the other day ho was .crossing tho Kclburno tramway truck at Salamanca Tioiul, whon his legs refused duly, and he had to be assisted on to the' I'M" by two kindly-disposed people. "li it h.id not been for that," said tho patriarch, "1 would have been away from hero once more—l would bo in Italy. I never feel better than when 1 nut in (lie (European) winter in Nice. The air there is so' bright, clear, and bracing that i( renews one's youth." In tho courso of conversation, Mr. Taiue stated that bad only been undi'i" tho inllncnco of liquor once in his life. "Let mo see, that must have been' ttlwut 18.'t5—yes, about four years lieforo we sailed for Xew Zealand. In Ihoso day* (hero were great wine cellars connected with the London Docks, and it was considered a great sight fo go down these ivlliu-s, and see Hie great bulls of wine maturing there among u maze ol' cobwebs. 1 and two other young fellows got: n loiter from u person who had wine maturing ill tho cellars, and tho man who showed us round carried a gimlet, and hero and there he would bore a hole in a cask or butt, and allow us to taste the wind. Well, wo woro nil right so long as we were ill the cellar, but when we got out into tho clear air wo found our leers ceing all ways. We were nblo to walk, but, b!o. c > nie. tlieie nvii no denying that wc were under the mllucnoo.'-