EPSOM’S OLDEST

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 105, 25 July 1927, Page 14

EPSOM’S OLDEST

MR. J. EDGERLEY’S LIFE FOUGHT IN NATIVE WARS The oldest living resident of Epsom, Mr. John Edgerley, will celebrate his 81st birthday tomorrow. His father came to this country in the early days to collect botanical specimens and later he returned with his wife. The father died when John was small and the boy had to take his mother to town to do the shopping. They used to take a short cut through the Domain, thick with manuka, to Shortland Street. Queen Street was still a creek boarded up at the sides, and with only a few shops and warehouses along the banks.

The Maori War broke out when Mr. Edgerley was 16 and the lad was among the first to join the Remuera Volunteers. The end of the war brought in a period of depression and Mr. Edgerley, finding that there was nothing for him to do as a builder, went to Fiji with two friends. They obtained a contract for a building on the Rewa River and for some time built missionaries’ houses. Mr. Edgerley then took over the management of a cotton plantation and found himself mixed in the war between the wild hill tribes and the Christianised plainsmen. He had some narrow escapes in those years.

Mr. Edgerley returned to New Zealand in the 80’s, and set up in his trade again. He still lives at Epsom.