Cheerful Memories

Chronicle (Levin), 22 January 1949, Page 2

Cheerful Memories

, (Contributed) To attain the age of 88 in exceilent health and spirits is the good fortune of Mr. Edwin J. Hill, . a former Wellingtonian • _ ■ Mr. Hill's recollections of . . the Capital City .run back to the^days of his youth, when he says good. things to eat had a stiong appeal. It was customary for the, first Wellington Operatic Society to have a supper on the.stage after tne final performance. "Hume, the Wilns Street grocer, used to donate a cooked ham, and also British beer and stout. Harry Palmer, a restourant proprietor, with his usual eenerosity would supply oysters m shell for the whole company. Palmer's was known all ovii tne Dominion for its wondeiful shihing meals. You would see the business neople, gentlemeri from their cmb on the Terrace," and Government cierks all warming themselves by a good fire waiting for their lnea, to be cooked. And what a meal. A large oval plate of flounder or sole, and if one fish wasn't enough to fill the plate half of another v/as ad'ded All meats were beautifully cooked and tender. Palmer told me he used half a ton of dnppmg a m"It is not generally known that Harry Palmer financed the nist league football team to England. When his son Jack, now at Otaki, enlisted in World War 1, Palmer himself enliste'd as a cook to be near him. In later years he retired to Petone and Otaki as mine hosc of an hotel. He died .in Sydney a few mont'hs ago."