Thomas Roger Vincent ²

  General Notes:

He was about 9 years old when the family moved to the Northern Wairoa, and from a very early age he began working with timer around the district. ⁵

  Noted events in his life were:

• Occupation: timber logger, from 1890. ⁵ He owned a bullock team and cut timber at the back of Rehia and took the timber down a skid road he laid down to the Okahu Creek. From there he rafted it down the Mangonui and sold it to a mill at Aoroa for 3 shillings and 3 pence per100ft .
He also worked in kauri timber with a Mr C. Billins. Together they often managed 20,000ft of timber a day with a crosscut saw - no mean feat.
He also worked with George Ringrose of Toka Toka and cut 40 acres of kahikatea trees in a stand just north of Mititai.
The trees there stood so close together that there was hardly room to work the saw.
Many of the trunks measured 120ft to the first limb, and were cut down and burnt to fertilise the ground.

• Misc: Agreement, 26 Apr 1897. Mr Thomas Wells, contractor of Te Karaka Bush, agreed to let on sub-contract the milling of kauri timber to Messrs James Simpkin and Thomas Vincent.
10 pence per 100ft of kauri was agreed with Mr Wells retaining 3 shillings per thousand feet, should it be necessary to increase the number of crosscut saws on the job.
Messrs Simpkin and Vincent agreed they would receive only 85% of the monies due to them, with the balance being payable on completion of the work. This was provided that the jacks loaned by Mr Wells were returned to him in the same good condition as when they were borrowed.
The bullocks and their gear were the responsibility of the sub-contractors, as well as the closing of the dam at the conclusion of the contract.

• Occupation: Farmer, from 1910, Toka Toka, Northern Wairoa, Northland, New Zealand. ⁶ After his main bush days, Thomas bought land at Toka Toka, broke it into a farm and supplied cream to the Northern Wairoa Dairy Factory.

• Misc: Purchase, 1916. ⁷ He bought a Studebaker, one of the first cars in the district.
He took it home to Toka Toka across the paddocks as there was no road at the time.
He then bought a stone crusher, set it up near the cemetary at Toka Toka and 'metalled' a quarter of a mile from there to his gateway. This is the basis for the current main road by the river.

• Occupation: farmer: Whatoro, , , NZL. ⁷ He sold his farm at Toka Toka to his son and bought another at Whatoro.

• Probate, 1956, Whangarei, , Northland, New Zealand. ⁸

Thomas married Sarah Jane Weir, daughter of William Weir and Johanna Josephine Shanahan, on 29 Apr 1904 in Ruarangi, Northland, New Zealand.¹ (Sarah Jane Weir was born on 6 Jul 1869 in Northland, New Zealand,¹ died on 23 Dec 1945 in Dargaville, New Zealand ¹ and was buried on 24 Dec 1945 in Arapohue, Northern Wairoa, Northland, NZ ¹.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Religion: Seventh Day Adventist. ⁷ When a Seventh-Day Adventist church was established in the Northern Wairoa they became foundation members.

  Marriage Notes:

Thomas and Sarah were married from her brother's home.
The witnesses were Archibald Douglas Weir and Margaraet Maria Wier, her brother and sister.. ⁹