THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 96, 10 August 1945, Page 6

THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE

PETER the whaler _ c/WHALE ISLAND

FOR YOUNG READERS ONLY J for the Goodwill Cruise!

What ho, what ho ma hearties* Well another Friday has come f round and we are another week nearer to summer and delightful warm weather once again.. I think last week I was about to tell you of my trip with Barnacle Bill to the Antarctic. Actually we came rather a thmd when we arrived there. We went you know with the idea of trapping polar bears and seals in order to get enough skins to make Barnacle Bill's great aunt in New York a i'ur coat of polar bear skins, with a seal skin lining. No such luck. It was not till Ave arrived there that we dis--covered that polar bears do not live at the South Pole. I should have known too in fact we both should have known, as we have both been whaling in the Antarctic we went together at one time and neither of us has ever seen a polar bear in those waters. Anyway the result was that we decided the coat would have to be seal skin both outside and in. Most unfortunate but I doubt whether Barnacle Bill's great aunt will know the difference. But to get on with the story we turned the bows of the lugger southward, and sailed steadily towards the South Pole* It grew colder and colder with every mile we travelled till in the end we were all shivering violently McDougall included and Barnacle Bill decided it was time to open the clothes closet and distribute the long pink flannel underwear. Unfortunately there was not a full set for each ofl us, so Barnacle Bill picked out the best for himself and gave the rest to McDougall arid 1. We sailed on and on past Stewart Island at the bottom of New Zea,land. and finally we sighted the lec pack. It looked ver\* cold and indeed it was very cold. To make matters worse Barnacle Bill had the only hot water bottle on board seat night, 1 had to put .my feet on McDougall to keep warm. He complained a hit at first but he really didn't mind, as he was so cold anyway he didn't notice them. W r e reached the ice pack just as 12 o'clock mid-day struck and Barnacie Bill decided after he had thrown out the anchor that it was dinner time. There was only biscuits ana melted snow for McDougall and I, but Barnacle Bill was luckier for he had brought a thermos, flask full

of hot soup with him, an.d he appeared to enjoy it very much. It was not till afterwards that avc suddenly remembered there was plenty of coffee on board and we could have had hot coffee with our biscuits, Anyway having finished dinner Barnacle Bill proposed that we should go lor a short expedition overland to find if there was anything interesting to see ? and so we quickly knocked up a sledge out of a few boards which were lying around and piling some food and blankets on it, set out over thie frozen wastes of ice and snow with Barnacle Bill leading the way and McDougall and I pulling the sliedgc. AVcll. I had better get on with tht rest of the column or I will have no space, left. More of the story next week. Till tben I must say cheerio. P.T.W. LAST WEEK'S COMPETITION AVellj I received a whole swag of letters in answer to last week's name competition in fact I was fairly howled over with them, and 1 was only sorry that I have not 20 or 30 parrots in order to use all the names which were all very good and all very suitable. _J.lie' best names I think were sent in by Lois' Phillips ('The Bosun') Huia Watarawi ('Winston') Barbara Macdonald ('Popeye') Well I haven't quite decided what name to use. yet. I will have to think it over. Anyway I have plenty of suggestions to work on (and by the Avaj r there were several entries came in without names or addresses on. I may use one of these yct ) I don't know). Anyway I will let you know as soon as i have decided. Congratulations you ticket Avinners. P.T.W. NEXT WEEK'S COMPETITION Now then, here's a Avord finding competition. See how many different words you can make out of the letters in B A R N A C L E BILL. There ought to be quite a host. Righito, off you go and let's have your entries by mid-day on Wednesday (and don't forget to Avrite vour name on the bottom of your entry). By the way, names of boj r & or girls are not counted as Avords. Four free tickets await the senders of thp bigbest neatest list of words. P.T.W.