OLD COLONISTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3760, 14 March 1907, Page 2

OLD COLONISTS.

TO THE EWTOE. Sir, —I noticed in one of our local papers that someone in Foxton had been engaged in collecting very interesting facts of the longivity of residents in your district. It may be also interesting to your readers to learn that New Plymouth can show a pretty good account of aged persons now living. I may mention the following : Mr John Veale, aged 95. This gentleman is to be seen almost daily walking about the streets. Mr Nicholas Golding, aged 89. He is as lively as the proverbial cricket, and devotes most of his time to his garden. Mr Edward Okey, aged 80. He is senior partner in the firm of Okey, Son and Arnold, ironmongers and painters. Until this last month or so he could be seen with paint pot in hand and ladder on shoulder going to work painting. He still takes an interest in the business. I saw him the other day with apron on in the shop amongst paint pots. , We have also Mr Robert Hughes, in his 86th year, who has been a solicitor’s clerk for upwards of 22 years, and is still one. He does engrossing without the aid of glasses, his sight being remarkably good, and in fact he has never used glasses. Then we have Mr Thomas Colson, aged 82, a very old settler. No one would take this gentleman to be the age he ; is on seeing him walk so lively about the town. I could go on adding to the list of aged persons in New Plymouth, but I think the few noted will give a good impression of the healthy portion of New Zealand we are located in.—Yours, etc., R.H. New Plymouth, March nth. [We thank our correspondent for the interesting particulars of New Plymouth’s grand old men. We are sure the “old identities ’ ’ in this district will read the details with pleasure. Our wish is that they may all be spared to see a century out without physical suffering. God bless the grand old pioneers, whose steps are now feeble and whose hair has grown white with the frost of many winters. —Ed. H.]