Mr. George Allen , who occupied the Mayoral chair of the capital City some considerable time, has had an eventful and interesting career. Few "men have roughed it" as he did in the early days of colonisation, and yet at the age of eighty-one he has pulled through a severe illness, and regained a strength seldom met with in men of his age. The picture given herewith, is from a photograph taken ten years ago, is as true to life now as then, it will be recognised by thousands, as that of the genial old gentleman who still pops into town every day. Mr. Allen was born on 1st November, 1814, at Deal, in Kent. As boat builder, Mr. Allen, while quite a lad, spent most of his time at school in Calais. At Deal he was apprenticed to his father for a term of seven years. His father died at forty. His young son George decided to accept an engagement with the S. A. Company to build boats for the Colony. Meeting with no opportunity of securing a boat home, he worked his way to Sydney, where he obtained the carpentership of the "Orontes," homeward bound, he there met his widowed mother, and one who since then has been the beloved mother of his nine children. Mr. Allen came over in the brig "Adelaide" to this Colony. After visiting the Bay of Islands, the "Adelaide" called page 250 page 251in at what is now called the Auckland Harbour. Captain Jackson Barry was laying in Port Essington, in a man-of-war brig known as the "Butemont" at the same time, and in the same gale of wind Mr. Allen was in when he was cast away. It is strange how colonists meet after many years' absence.