A GLADSTONE CENTENARIAN

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 136, 26 February 1918, Page 11

A GLADSTONE CENTENARIAN

INTERESTING CAREER, OF MR, ROBERTROWE. ' (Contributed by M. H. .Dixon.) To live to the age of 100 years is the lot of very few. Still more uncommon is it to find anyone at this age etioying life and taking a' keen interest in all that is happening in. the district in which, lie or she lives. But Mr. Rowe does more than this. It seems, improbable "that, anyone else at his age can have taken such an intelligent interest in"all that pertains to pubtic life as Mr. Rowo. does, his interests . extending . even to ..the respective claims, etc., of the candidates for the Wellington North seat in the House of Representatives. . With the exception .of a littlo deafness, Mr. Rowe has all his senses unimpaired, and declares himself.to bo the happiest man in New Zealand. . Born on February 19, 1818, in Somersetshire, Mr. Rowe is one of . eight sons whose father lived to the ripe old ago of 97 years. Another of the eight sons is Mr. John Rowe,, the Eketaliuua .octogenarian. 'Perhaps what strikes one as most remarkable about Mr. Rowe, of Gladstone, is the wealth of detail with, which he embellishes his account-of incidents associated with his life even so far back'as the year 1837, the year of Queen Victoria's coronation, and right on to present times. For example, the writer was given a description by Mr. Rowo of iris work on tho Somerset to Weymouth railway during 1846-47, particularly tho construction of a railway tunnel near Yeovil; then how, two years later, he was doing contract work on an 18-mile strotcli of railway leading to Poole, in Dorsetshire; similar work at the construction of the railway tunnel near St. Leonard's in tliG following.year, and again in 1859, taking contract- work for the malting o>" tlio tunnel near historic Battle, so called because near the scene of the Battle of Hastings.

After this Mr. Rowo carried through with success several, contracts in connection with the building, of brick barricades, etc., between Sydenham station and Forest Hill. Twenty million bricks were required by the various contractors-to complete the work, done hetween these two places during tho years 1852-53.

In 1850 Mr. Rowe joined a crowd of people who were listening; to an emigration agent relating the special attractions of New Zealand as the El Dorado of the nineteenth century,' with tho consequence that he and his wife arrived in this country in 1857, after a comparatively uneventful voyage of ninety days on the sailing vessel the Alma. Amoi\gst Mr. Rowe's earliest contracts in New Zealand wero tho making of a portion of the Makara. mad, the laying of Molesworth Street, Wellington, and hridgo building near To Auto and Wnipnkurau. Mr. Rowe was next employed in carrying .out contracts for the shipping of cattle at the sito of the Patent Slip, Evans Bay. Wellington, on behalf of a firm of which Captain Smith, Messrs. Tiilley, Luxford, and.others were tho capitalists. This was during tho time of the Otago gold-digging rush, and many of the cattle wont south, others going to Auckland. . Afterwards Mr. Rowe had charge of the Evans Bay Dairy for a few years, the dairy 'being owned at that.time by Mr. Vallauce. After leaving Wellington Mr. Rowe was proprietor . of tho Tauhcrenikau Hotel for seven years, and recalls the fact that there_ was a Tauberenikau military camp during tho Maori wars, but that it was nearer the lake than.the present, one. On leaving the hotel Mr. Rowe successfully, carried out bridge-building contracts in the Gladstone district, and had control of the Huranui-aurangi ferry, the Public Works Department of the Government supplying the -flat-bottomed boats for the ferry and also a large bel! to make known the time of crossing. When tho bridge was built the bell was, transferred to the Gladstone School, .and is still there.

. After carrying out improvements for a few years at Tupurupuru, Mr. Rowe made his homo with.lus second daughter, Mrs. P. Crewo, of Gladstone, and may usually be seen in fine weather taking a keen intorest in the outdoor work of Mr. and Mrs. Crewe and family. These are only a few of many details told to the writer by Mr. Rowe . with the vividness of memory of which a man half his .age might well be proud. Of Mr. Rowe's nine children five are still living, namely, Mrs. R. Ronall. of Kokotau: Mrs. P. Crewe, of Gladstone; Mrs. J. Henderson, of Gladstone; Mr. F. E. Rowe, of Waipukurau; and, Mrs. G. Logan, of Tamamu. •