Like a Romance

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 482, 11 October 1928, Page 7

Like a Romance

Mr. J. H. Bradney’s Interesting Career EARLY DAYS OF ADVENTURE The life of Mr. J. H. Bradney, of Bradnev and Binns, reads like an adventurous romance. To-day he and Airs. Bradney are celebrating their golden wedding at their home, S Sherwood Terrace, Mount Eden. Mr. Bradney, now in his 76tli year, has led a wonderfully energetic * life, and has done practically everything from running away to sea to becoming a member of Parliament. At the age of six he came to New Zealand with his parents from Staffordshire, where he was born on April 2, 1853. At the age of 11 Mr. Bradney worked i on a farm for the sum of 4s a week, I with an increase of sixpence every j six months. However, Air. Bradney never received his increases, which at I the end of. three years had accumulated until he was able to buy his mother three small heifer calves. From then on Air. Bradney’s career j changed every few months. He was ! engaged as a butcher in a slaughter- , house for some time, then he went into j a bakery. It was here that he assisted j with a banquet for the Duke of Edinburgh. Then came the call of the sea, and j Air. Bradney ran away from home and. ; joined a small steamer, the Go-ahead, as a deckhand, but after sailing the New Zealand coast for some time he came back to the land and we next hear of him as a bushman at Coromandel. The lure of gold then called him to the Thames goldfields, but this life was not too remunerative, and he came back to Auckland to engage in rowing ferry boats between Northcote and Auckland. Then back to sea again. Air. Bradney served on the Lily,, the first steamer to enter the Kaipara service, and on her he traded to Australia, the United States and England. The knowledge he gained in this venture was of great value when he took the post of pilot on the Kaipara Bar some years afterwards. Later Air. Bradney drove a team of horses on the old Queen Street Wharf and then worked for the Auckland Harbour Board. Tiring of this he became a waterman, a dangerous career. Mr. Bradney and Mr. E. C. Binns went into partnership in 1884, and established the present firm. They built the launch Despatch for their first service on the harbour, and gradually built up a fleet of small vessels. For nine years of his amazing career Mr. Bradney was a member of the Auckland Harbour Board, and in 1911 he represented Auckland West in Parliament. He has been a member of the Mount Albert Borough Council and is the oldest member of the Auckland Choral Society. He was also a member of the old Amateur Opera Club and the Auckland Leidertafel. He still sings with the Municipal Choir. As a boy Mr. Bradney lived with hisparents at Chelsea, then called Duck Creek, and walked to Lake Takapuna every morning to attend school. The home in those days was a two-roomed ‘whare built of earthern sods and with wooden shutters for windows. The family had previously taken up land at Awhitu under the Government 40-acre system, but. this venture was not a success.