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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

Mr. Robert Usher Harden

Mr. Robert Usher Harden, who is a retired settler, was born in Clontarf, County Dublin, Ireland, in 1844. After receiving a liberal education he entered the service of the National Bank, Wexford, in 1863, and served in their Dublin, Limerick, and other branches, then as accountant in the Dungarvan, Killarney, and Mitchelstown branches. In 1877 he was compelled to resign on acount of ill-health, having contracted congestion of the lungs in Sweden, where he had gone to seek a beneficial change. For four years he lived in the south of France and Italy. He was offered lucrative positions in Australian banks, but being in poor health was unable to accept them. His medical adviser in London urged him to give up all sedentary work and go to New Zealand, therefore he decided to try the climate (as he could not live in England or Ireland) and arrived in the Colony in 1879 per ship “Eastern Monarch” via Melbourne. For six months he visited his friends in the Waikato and ultimately decided to settle in Whangarel, where he purchased a farm of fifty acres a few miles out of the town, but after disposing of this property he built his present residence, “Brighton Villa,” where he has now settled down to a quiet life. Mr. Harden is of a naturally retiring disposition, and has on more than one occasion refused to accept public positions.