DIAMOND WEDDING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 May 1938, Page 6

DIAMOND WEDDING

MR AND MRS J. PICKETT PIONEER WAIRARAPA SETTLERS Mr and Mrs J. Pickett, Lincoln Road, Masterton, celebrated their diamond wedding today. Married in the old Catholic Church in Carterton on May 6, 1878, both Mr and Mrs Pickett have led a particularly active life, but neither of them has ever had a day’s serious illness.

Mr Pickett, who is the oldest surviving bullock driver in the district, was born in the East Coast of the Wairarapa, and is the son of the first white man to settle at Whakataki. Now 82 years of age, Mr Pickett has vivid recollections of Masterton, when Queen Street was a narrow track through heavy bush, and when he used to yoke up a team of bullocks on the site of the present Post Office. Until two years ago, Mr Pickett was actively engaged in fencing, bullock driving and timber splitting and even now he claims that he is not on the retired list.

Mrs Pickett is also remarkably active and alert, and this week she celebrated her diamond wedding by taking a flight in one of the Wairarapa Aero Club’s machines. She described the experience as “lovely.” Mr Pickett has not yet become airminded. Of a family of twelve, Mr and Mrs Pickett have three sons living, all being in the vicinity of 50 years of age.