A FULL LIFE

Lake County Mail, Issue 18, 24 September 1947, Page 3

A FULL LIFE

Memoirs of the late Mr S. S. Ahum

Memoirs printed below were written for the “ Mail ” by Mr S. S. Aburn, well-known resident of Queenstown, who passed away on Wednesday of last week. In this year of our Lord 1947 Otago is planning for the centennial celebrations in 1948. My thoughts go back over 70 years to the s.s. Mongol, which brought my ,parents, brothers and sisters, and myself to Dunedin. The trip was the first by steamship to Otago bringing free immigrants, and we were just 48 days, on the journey. Though but a lad of five, I can remember the tragedy that befell many families when their dear ones died at sea from an epidemic of scarlet fever. The captain turned the saloon into a hospital for the sufferers. This was not done without considerable trouble, for there were indignant protests on the part of many ladies who had nowhere else to sit. Some defied the captain’s orders and would not move. I still remember the funny sight as several able seamen carried them out one by one, by head and feet, thfeir long, billowing dresses floating round them. The captain’s word was law, and the saloon became a hospital, where one daily saw weeping mothers tending their little ones. Eigtheen children and adults died and were buried at sea. The first person to die was buried at mid-day. The engines were stopped and the body was wrapped in tarpaulin and covered with the Union Jack. I put my head through the rails, and saw it strike the water, i ’ ’ bounce once, and then sink. The others were quietly laid to rest at midnight, as fear was present in every heart as to who would be the next to take the dread disease and follow to a watery grave. Arrival at Dunedin I recount this memory, for the epidemic gravely affected our lives for some time after our arrival in Dunedin. We sighted land at 4 a.m. on February 13, 1874. All the passengers hurried up on deck and sang the wellknown Sankey hymn “We Are Out on the Ocean Sailing.” Anchor was dropped at Port Chalmers, and then a tender took us to Quarantine Island, where we stayed for two weeks. After landing, we stayed for two days at the Caversham Barracks, travelling there on the first passenger train on the south line. Then father moved to a house at the corner of Frederick and King streets. A little shop is still standing that was next door to us. After vainly trying to get a job as a dispenser, father reverted to his earlier trade and obtained a job at NorthEdst Valley as carpenter and joiner. We were happily settling dpwn, when, alas! a sore throat, fever, headache, and the unmistakable rash made their appearance, and he was carried off to hospital with scarlet fever. This was a dreadful Klow to mother. A stranger in a strange land, a sick husband, and five bairns to feed and tend. What was she to do? Father had landed with £26 in his pocket. Most of this had gone in food and furniture, but with the expectation of a steady job father had not worried. But now — hospital! The weary days lenghtened out to 17 weeks before he was allowed to leave. This was a great test of strength and character for my mother, thrown thus upon her own resources and with no one to help. In addition to all this, she had a new baby on the way. It soon became known that she was a clever needlewoman, and in this way, by toiling early and late, she was able to provide enough for each day’s need. However great our poverty, mother would not work on a Sunday. She believed in keeping the Lord’s Day as He had commanded, and had faith that God would supply all needs, both for herself and her family. Sewing All Night I well remember one Sunday night waking up and watching mother read the Bible. I slept in a truckle bed in a corner of the living room. It was

just before the clock struck 12 that I saw mother lose the Book and fall on her knees in prayer. After a while she rose from her knees and took out some sewing and sewed all night long, for she needed the money to Buy something for our breakfast, as there was no food in the house. The Lord of the Sabbath heard and answered her prayer in a wonderful way. The neighbour for whom she was sewing called at 5 a.m. for the work and with the money in her hand. It has always amazed me how she received the Divine message to come so early in the morning for work that could have Keen delivered some time later in the day. Divine guidance was a great factor in helping my father when he was an orphan laddie of 11. His mother had been left a widow, and after a while had married again. Two years later she died, and my father was doubly orphaned. His stepfather remarried, and, though I never remember father talking of his life during that time, it could not have been a happy one. The day came when he decided to find life and adventure for himself, though only 11 years old. He was then living at Enfield. Very early one morning he quietly stole out of the house, and for three long hours he walked on his way to London. Amazing Coincidence v At last he came to a baker’s shop, where the owner was just opening up. As he was gazing hungrily into the window, the man said, “ Have you had breakfast yet, boy?” My fathers face was the only answer needed. “In you go, boy. You shall have breakfast with me,” the man said. Father gladly went, and when his hunger had been appeased the man questioned him as to who he was and where he came from. Then it transpired the baker was talking to his dead sister’s only son. He was the only living relation father had in the whole world. He lived with his uncle and worked in the bakehouse for a few years, but then was apprenticed to a carpenter and joiner. At 18 the desire to see the world made him enlist in the army. For 18 months he served as a private, but he forewent this period of service and joined the R.A.M.0., or Hospital Corps as it was called in those days. There he remained for 14 years.

During this time he was trained as a dispenser. He also fell in love and married my mother, who was a trained dressmaker. I remember her telling us children how she had met Florence Nightingale at a time when she was in difficulty about the bottom of her dresses because they were getting so worn and dirty when on duty in the hospital. At her suggestion mother sewed a leather binding all round, which made her uniform more durable, and less likely to harbour the then unknown germs. Father worked as a carpenter for some time and then became a building contractor. This he did till he died in 1908 at the age of 71, leaving a family of 13, seven boys and six girls. One boy died at the age of four from hydatids. The seven boys were in turn apprenticed to the 1 uilding trade with father. Five boys and five girls are still living. Mother survived father until 1927, when she passed on at the age of 83. As the business prospered father built a house at Burnside which is still inhabited after 70 years. We lived there for over 20 years, and there I received the only schooling I had, which wgs something like Abraham Lincoln’s, just knowing how to read and write and do a few sums, all achieved in two years. My real schooling came in father’s office, where for nine years we made estimates for building projects. After serving my apprenticeship, I worked for private firms until 1908, when I became foreman of works at Seacliff. In, September, 1909, I left Seacliff and went to work for the Dunedin City Corporation at Waipori, where I erected the first duplication to the hydro electric power station to house No. 3 and No. 4 machines, also the school and half-a-dozen houses and the Lake Luna Dam.

(To be continued)