AN OCTOGENARIAN.

Motueka Star, Volume I, Issue 35, 10 December 1901, Page 4

AN OCTOGENARIAN.

A few remarks about the ] Career: of- 1 a worthy townsman of MotfiekaJCMrS Thomas Goodman, who celebrates his eightieth birthday on Thursday next, may be of interest to our readers. Mr Goodman, by reason of his long residence in Motueka, is well-known and highly respected by old and young members of the community ; he is always cheerful, obliging and full of anecdotes relating to the early history of Nelson, with which provincial district he has been associated for 58 years. The subject of this notice was born in Nottingham on the 12th December, 1821, and after leaving school was apprenticed to the baking and confectionery business, which occupation he he followed till health began to suffer. Having heard favorable accounts of New Zealand, he decided to emigrate, setting sail from London for Nelson on the 18th of November 1842, just after he had obtained his majority. The passage occupied four and a half months, a reasonable time to take in those days, and the good ship came to an anchor in Nelson haven on the 31st March 1843. Upon landing he at once started to work for the New Zealand Company and after assisting in colonising operations for them for about twelve months Mr Goodman entered the service of the late Mr Ross,. first as driver, then as baker, remaining with him for seventeen years. Upon the retirement from business of Mr Ross, who afterwards settled at Stoke, Mr Goodman in conjunction- '• with Mr Charles King, took over theconcern which they managed successfully for four years, when Mr Goodman retired from the partnership and became baker for Mr Israel Johns, with whom he worked till January,. 1867, when he crossed over to Motueka to start in business on his own account.-- With the exception of short visits to Marlborough, Collingwood,and Auckland Mr Goodman has not been away fiom the district ; he has not even crossed over to Wellington. J In conversation with Mr Goodman,, we find he has a vivid recollection of the Wairau massacre, which took place on the 17th June, 1843, and the precautions taken by the settlers in Nelson to protect themselves from attacks by the natives, who cherished no* friendly feelings towards them. He also went through all the hardships experienced in Nelson by the early pioneers, when potatoes, newly planted,, were dug up and eaten on account of the shortness of food ; when workmen were idle and eagerly accepted employment from the large landholders in the Waimeas and elsewhere, who offered them the princely wage of one shilling and sixpence per day to clear their holdings of flax, manuka, etc., and get it ready for the plough. He, likewise, remembers the arrival in Nelson of the first steamers, the White Swan and Queen, which traded in New Zealand waters, the first mentioned being wrecked on the East Coast. The doings of the Kelly gang on the West Coast, the subsequent murder on the Maungatapu in 1866 of Kempthorne, Dudley and party, also of poor old Jimmy Battle, their arrest, trial, and the execution of Burgess, Kelly, and Levy, aie still green in his memory. The services of Mr Goodman as caterer, etc., for public and private functions in Nelson having been always in demand, he was thereby brought in contact with the leading citizens of the days that are gone, and he has many pleasans remembrances of those who have passed into the Silent Land. During his sojourn in New Zealand Mr Goodman has enjoyed the best of health, one slight attack of rheumatism which visited him some five years ago being the only illness he has had. He

never lost a day's work, and at the present time rises between four and iive a.m. to attend, to his business, which he successfully conducts. Mr Goodimn has reared a family of nine children, now settled, in.different parts of the Colony,, and has fifty graud-ehil-dsen, and fifteen .great-grand-children. To-day fa& is thepicture ofl'healtb,.with few of the signs of old age ; he Las " troops, of friends" who,, we feel sure, wil join with, us in. the wish tnat he raiy be spared to enjoy rnany more years with the residents of Motueka.