LOOKED AHEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 728, 30 July 1929, Page 11

LOOKED AHEAD

MR. F. W. COURT SAW CITY’S FUTURE PIONEER DRAPER IS 89 A pioneer businessman with an extensive knowledge of Auckland in its early days, Mr. F. W. Court, of Onehunga, is 89 years old today. DY his connection with the drapery business, Mr. Court has been able to watch the commercial life ot' Auckland flourish. Mr. Court reached New Zealand, he quickly investigated the possibilities of opening a drapery firm. He founded a business in Karangahape Road and soon had opened another shop in Queen Street. Mr. John Court joined his brother three years after his arrival in the Dominion, and Mr. F. W. Court shortly afterward retired. Now, the old Queen Street firm has grown to the modern establishment oil the corner of Queen Street and Victoria Street East. Worcestershire was the county in which Mr. Court was born in 1840. He became a drapery apprentice in Walsall, and, when he was 29 years old. founded a business in Birmingham. This was continued for 16 years, but Mr. Court was advised to go to the colonies on account of his health. He chose New Zealand, probably because his brother, Mr. George Court, had been in the new land for several months. But then, Mr. Court will explain that he may have sensed the possibilities of the country even as far back as the ’SO’s. Mr. Court can look back on years of progress in Auckland, the city of his adoption. As he says, times have changed. New Zealanders of the ’Bo’s bought solid, serviceable goods when they went shopping; now, modern New Zealanders are attracted by appearances. Throughout his business career Mr. Court adhered firmly to the principle of cash trading. It was only by that method that he considers he succeeded. Mr. and Airs. Court have nine sons and two daughters.