THE OLD WATERMAN.

Shannon News, 25 July 1924, Page 4

THE OLD WATERMAN.

liAST OF HIS I/INE. One of the old watermen for which the Auckland harbour was famous in the old days, was Interviewed by an Auckland '•Star" reporter, when he said he was about the last of his class. He was just on four-score years of age, and he was told he looked the picture .of health; people told him* too, that he m'ght live till a hundred—but God forbid that that should ever be, he added. The time was when he could meot on the waterfront and have a yarn with those of his own class, but most of them were now gone, and he was looked'upon Dy the newer generation as an old weatherbeaten sheil-back with old-fashioned ideas.

He had commenced his work on the harbour in the very early sixties, and had continued on right down till the end of the war, and he believed his boat was about the last to be hauled up for good. The waterman did not amass great wealth—there was not much chance for that. There was a good deal of competition amongst them, and they, as a rule, just earned enough to keep the pot boiling and keep their boats in.good repair. A tru e . waterman loved his boat like a true horseman loved his horse. He knew exactly what she could do when put to the pinch, and ther e were few "accidents indeed.

The' men who frequented the waterfront now were not the men he knew in the heyday of his manhood. He thought he would never like to leave the shores of the harbour, where he had spent the greater part of his life, but noAv he would like to get a home a little inland, where he could end his days. The city had a bustle about it now that was different from what it used to be; it took him all hia time to cross the street when there were so many swiftly-propelled vehicles about, and his legs were not so good as they were. In the country he could dream of the old days and think of things as they once were, when everyone knew his neighbour, and everyone helped one another. The old-timers were passing, and he, too, was feeling the burden of his years.