THE LITTLE SHIPS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1217, 28 August 1911, Page 6

THE LITTLE SHIPS.

[To the Editor.] On the night of the arrival of New Zealand's Prime Minister the wharf offiwere massed, with the police, at his landing. Two small coastal steamers, the Blenheim and the Opawa, which left at 11 p.m., had to cast their own lines off, the wharf officials being busily engaged elsewhere: : Oh! the wharf-lamps glittered coldly And the wind was bitter-keen ."When the little ships were puttin' out to i sea, WitTi their side-lights shining boldly And their head-lights flashia' clean, And the smoke upou the south wind . blowin' free, The. Opawa's li'no was slackened, •The Opawa's engines turned And tho cold .wind mads a chilly deckhand cough, As the night her slim shape blackened, Oh! with horror deep wo learned There was no one there to see the "Pingpong" oft. 'Seems there wasn't no officials But was gathered and (arrayed With the bobbies, to control the crowd at ITo protect one whose initials And whose titles would, if laid End to end, reach down to Christchurch, pretty well. Bo the whole place was deserted, Unprotected, as it were— Oh! the horrid wind that searched tho empty wharf, 'As it moaned and howled and spurted Must have surely pitied her— The little boat with none to see her off. The "Ping-pong's" engines Tumbled, K deck-hand climbed ashore, And dragged each soakin' rope-bight off its pile, Hot ruffled skipper grumbled: "Oh, we ain't no man-o'-war, "All the same this ain't our regulation

style." But they spun heT helium over, And they" rang her engine bell— The little boats their, bitter cups must

quaff: '' , Around tliei deep-sea rover The rants of 'guardians swell, And there'.wasn't one to. sea the ringpong" off. -BILL 0' THE BARGES.