The Nelson Encampment

Feilding Star, Volume X, Issue 127, 2 May 1889, Page 3

The Nelson Encampment

{Continued from last issue.) OFF DUTY.

On Saturday night passes for Nelson were granted to nearly all men not ou duty and Sleepy Hollow was properly wakened up for an hour or two by the boys. They were sometimes noisy, and not always polite in their remarks on civilians passing by, of either ses, but r.o great harm was done, while the pie shops and sellers of sweets did a roaring trade. For some unexplained reason the train which was to leave at 10 p.m. was put off until eleven p.m. without Colonel Pitt having been consulted of even informed thereof, consequently when the men did get back to camp it was plain that several of them were full of " fun, beer, and other comestibles." The officers on duty liad a big contract on hand to get all the men to bed, and it was within an hour of gunfire, 5.30 a.m., before the camp was quiet. JACK ASHORE. Some navals took possession of a trap belonging to an old lady who had a sort of refreshment stall, and galloped " poor old Peter" most unmercifully round the race course. An attempt was made to arrest the offenders but without success. However, in looking out for them some men who had arrived late were duly run in, which partially squared the account, but as they escaped from the guard tent in the morning they also escaped their reward. AWFUE DISRESPECT. On Sunday night, or early on Monday morning some cheerful idiots cut down a tent where there were three sergeants, and made a similar attempt on the tent of a batch of officers, but the first blow on the ' tent ropes awakened the senior officer, who discharged such a Volley of scathing anathemas at them that they fled in abject terror, and disappeared like rabbits in their holes, sadder if not wiser men. TOO CHEAP. The same officer, who, by the way, is most deservedly popular and highly respected by the men of his corps, by way of a change indulged in " a small glass of ale," the price of which was only threepence at the canteen. When the landlord handed him over the change he looked at it and said in tones more of sorrow than anger, " Have I lived to see this ! Beer threepence a glass! My gracious! Take that blasted coin out of my sight ere I die, and never do it again to me. Oh dear ! Oh dear!"* Ultimately by the well directed attention of a few sympathetic friends he was pacified, and a gonial smile Again iuuminated his cheerful countenance. • A VICTIM OF LOVE, Everybody has heard ofthe charms of the Nelson girls, who (bar Feilding) are the 1 handsomest in the world. " One of ■ours" succumbed, on the very first day of his landing, and was more helplessly in love than any victim of the " delicious passion" the writer has even seen. As a •soldier he was not worth his salt. He oould drink a little' or a lot, it was all the same to him. In trying to light his pipe he destroyed seven boxes of matches, and -of food he seldom eat except during meal lames and then not more than a grown up person. He heard he was " next for ■duty" incidentally one day, and he fled like a stricken lamb to the lady of his love for consolation, but whether he got it or no this deponent sayeth not. Anyway when the steamer was leaving the wharf on the return trip, he was seen wiping away a tear from his manly eye in an audible manner. It is said, however, that ■on the way down iv the train from Wanganui tbis gay Lothario kept his hand in iy flirting -with " a widow wiman" with four hild^en^-^-one in arms — 30 he may havejgot better after all. " Love is the soul of an Irishman," and may his shadow never grow less, for, barring his devotion to ths, liar sex, which is not an unpardonable Tim, he .is a good fellow and has the makings of a good officer in him. THE .NEW MEMBER. The recently'elected M.H.R. for Nelson was present on the field in uniform, with the staff of Colonel Pitt. What he was there for, and what he wanted to do, nobody seemed to know. He was neither a field officer, adjutant, : aide-de-camp, nor anything else half so useful. Where there was such a deficiency of officers he should have " come down on the lovely grass " and taken his share of the duty. OLD WEST COASTERS. It is surprising what, a lot of these veterans are to be met with wherever there is a .crowd. Ah! Those old days in Hokitika country from '65, what fine men trampled the sand in Revell street then. The world will never see their like again because the same combination of circumstances that brought them together can never recur. When the rush to the West Coast commenced gold digging in Otago was played out, while things had gone so bad in Victoria that New Zealand became a land of promise, and faithfully that promise was kept, for the miners who came were bountifully rewarded for their toil. The finest men, the boldest spirits flocked to that new and savage coast, all the more terrible because unexplored and unknown — but simply because the writer saw Ben Osborn On the wharf in Nelson is no reason why a history of the West Coast should be thrust on the reader. All he wants to say is that twenty years ago West Coast as were the finest men in the world — and they are not rubbed ont yet. THE NELSON GIRLS. There is no doubt the " consensus of colonial opinion" is in favor of the Nelson girls, and the man has not yet shown himself who is game to say they do not average well, but the w.-iter is bonnd to say that half a dozen girls c^uld ba sent from this district beautiful enough to take the palm from ten times their number of Nelson's fairest flowers. This is a hold assertion but the writer will stick to it if he dies for it. THE NIGHT ALARM. There wasn't any. TKE LATE REGISTRAR. Owing to the Oreti being kept dodging outside the Wanganui bar for an hour or two the Volunteers for Taranaki way missed the afternoon train. One gallant felow in command of a company was observed to be unusually sad, and on being invited to accept consolation said, " Well, the fact is I'm the registrar and have to marry a couple to-morrow and as I can't be there in time the Lord knows what may happen." No news of any ructions have come to hand so " all's well that ends well" and never mind the risks.

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