THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE FOR YOUNG READERS ONLY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 20, 2 November 1945, Page 6

THE "GOOD ENDEAVOUR" LEAGUE FOR YOUNG READERS ONLY

What what ho, ma hearties. Well, how are you all this week ? Quite recovered J'rom your. Labour Day exertions 1 hope. By the way, I notice that the trips to Whale Isl land iu the Harbour Board launch are becoming more numerous now that the line Aveather is beginning to and I've also noticed a number of visitors exploring the island. 1 often spend an hour or two watching them through my silver, plated twelve-extension roller-bearing telescope (with diamond eye piece), and noting their antics. Of course none of them have ever seen me. Oh no! My cave is tucked right away in what I consider i& the best spot on Whale Island, and nobody has ever stumbled on it yet—or is ever likely to. I thdnk the only one in Whakatanc' who knows exactly where it is is Captain Garev. Now and again he. drops in for a quiet •smoke and a chat, but he always comes by himself as he knows like all old sea_dogs, I'm not too keen on an over-abundance of company. By the way ? I don't .suppose you know that once upon a time Captain Carey and I were old shipmates. Yes, we were together for about twelve months when wc were both in the fo'c's'le. That was on the old schooner 'Njckalnutaisljnjck 7 Some name eh! She was built and named in Russia and by the beard of Neptune's foster father, she was slow as a wet week. With a good stiff following wind, she'd average about 150 yards a day. We were on the. Auckland-Wellington run. We used to take a cargo of cement down and bring back a load of feathers. The round trip took two years. We each did half a trip. The pay was not bad for those days. We were given half a crown a month and our keep. The cabin boy only got l'ourpence a month. We had three meals a day— sausage and mash for breakfast mash and sausage for t!inner and what was left over, we. had cold for tea. Altogether we didn't do badly judging by the standards of those days. But shiver my timbers here I am rambling on and on when I should be writing the rest of the page. Cheerio for this week. P.T.W