Home Pulled Down About Their Ears!

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 88, 5 July 1927, Page 16

Home Pulled Down About Their Ears!

OLD MEN’S SURPRISE OLDEST OF CITY’S HOUSES fpHE tinkle on the iron of the roof woke the old man yesterday morning. At first he thought it was rain, but then there was a wrench, a slither, and a crash 1 He rushed outside and found two calm-browed demolishers methodically pulling the roof off 58 Federal Street, where he and his three mates had been baching for months. The other three men had gone out to work or to look for it, but they came back later and dived into the cottage to get their belongings. “It’s a fair son of a gun when you have your home pulled down about your head!” said one of them. He had been there for 12 years. They admitted that they had known for some time that the place was to come down, but they said they had not been told the exact date. This was their grievance, but they made no strenuous effort to support it. “We warned them about six months ago that they would have to get out,” said the manager of the Auckland Motor Co., which owns the property. “It is a wonder to me the place has not been condemned by the City Council long ago. It must be one of the oldest houses in the city.” LOOKING FOR A HOME

None of the inmates knew where they could go. They set about collecting their few belongings and packing them in swags. “it’ll be no use here now when the rain comes,” they said philosophically. The inside of the place had an ancient smell and was very grubby.

The bachelors had slept on couches and rough wooden benches and their bed-coverings had been sacks and overcoats. The walls were covered with the mural decoration of newspaper and magazine clippings and photographs. There seemed to be two chairs in the place.

The man who had been aroused by the fall of the corrugated iron had given up work. He was 70 years old and he had been at sea for 27 years. The cottage, almost the last of what had been a row of similar dwellings, must have been put up well over 50 years ago, though its roof was covered with iron. The place was sandwiched between two modern concrete buildings and its place will be taken by an entrance to the Auckland Motor Company’s garage. It was once the residence of “Skipper” Bowden, who 15 years ago had a fleet of hansom cabs and four-wheelers, which parked on the site of the Town Ha.ll.