A SWIM AT GISBORNE.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 401, 28 April 1902, Page 3

A SWIM AT GISBORNE.

A TRUE TALE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

(By One of “ The Great Unwashed.”)

A short timo ago, by one of thoso

chance coincidences which happen now

and again in this methodical world of ours, three old chums of mine, whom I had not

seen for some years, dropped in at Gisborne about the same time, with the intention of spending a few days in the progressive town of which the outside world have heard so much of late, and of which great things are expected. Now, these three friends of mine came from widely different parts of the colony. .Jack was an Aucklander, George had his habitation in “ The City of tho Plains,” while Sandy's cabin was in Dunedin. We had known each other well in the days “ when a man’s single.” Wo had ran, and swam, and played, and oven fought together in those halycon days; so you can imagine how glad we were to see each other again, and recall the past, brimful of cricket, football, and other adventures.

Now, it chanced that while my friends were in Gisborne the weather was at its hottest. Poor Sandy felt the heat intensely, after tho biting, eager air of the South, One afternoon, he interrupted Jack in the middle of an inspired description of a big football match we had all played in over ten years ago.

“ Look here,” said Sandy ; “ what sort of a town is this Gisborne, anyhow ? I havo not been able to get a decent bath since I came here. • There is a notico placarded in the bathroom of the house I am staying at: ‘Be sparing with tho water.’ Last evening, I was splashing about in a bucketful, vainly trying to reduce my tomporature, when a sweet voico came wafting up the stairs: 1 Tell that brute in tho bathroom ho must be careful with the water.’ Is thore nowhere in the town where a fellow can have a decent swim ? ” concluded poor Sandy, as he mopped his brow, and looked as limp as a bit of stranded seaweed.

I was naturally a bit nettled at this reflection on my native town, and spoke straight to Sandy: “ Swim,” I said; “ there is no better place for swimming in New Zealand than Gisborne. You come with me to-morrow morning, and I will show you a beach which knocks all your Brightons and St. Clair’s into a cocked hat.”

My offer was eagerly taken up by my threo friends. Both George and Jack remarked how scarce the water seemed to be here, and said they had not really felt clean since arriving ip Gisborne. True to my promise, in the grey light of the next morning, I proudly inarched my friends down through Victoria Township to the Waikanae beach- On our arrival there, none of my friends seemed as struck with the beauties of the place as I should have liked to have seen them. After gazing dubiously around for some moments, Jack said: “.Where shall we put our clothes'?” “Oh, stick them on this log here ; they’ll be all right,” I said. Well, we peeled off, and started off across the intervening stretch of desert between us and the Pacific. We were all fairly good swimmers, though I say it myself, and .it was not long before we were out beyond the breakers, sporting like dolphins. Suddenly, in a voice of horror, George yelled: “A shark! a shark!” I looked up, and, with abject terror, saw what X took to be the fin of a monster fish not more than thirty yards away from me. “ Kruger,” I murmured, as I turned on my side, and set off for shore with the new turbine stroke I have been developing lately. I swam as I never swam before or since. All the Nuttalls, Derbyshires, Cavills, or Lanes that ever wore born could not have kept Resile me as I churned the water into foam in my frenzied struggle to gain the shore and safety. The past flashed before, me like an endless liinematograpk picture. I thought of “ the good undone, the gifts misspent, the resolutions vain I thought of my little brothers, and wished I had been kinder |tq them.

“Without exactly knowing how I got there, I soon discovered myself like a stranded whale high and dry on the sand, without sufficient breath left in me tp murmur a prayer for deliverance. Shortly afterwards my three chums, like miniature oil launches, came ploughing ashore, and, directly thcjy recovered sufficient breath to speak, they set upon me in chorus and bitterly upbraided me for taking them to swim in such a dangerous place. Of course, I defended myself, and told them it was only a drift-log which had come down the Waimata'river which had scared them. r Sandy looked quite hurt at this, and s>vore he had seen a shark, and declared it was thirty feet long if it was an inch. "Nonsense, man,” I said; “ there is only one shark in these waters. His name is ‘ Kruger,’ but he lives at 1 The Island,’ miles from here.” ' I tried to persuade them to pome in again, secretly praying that they wouldn’t; but they assured me that none of them felt good enough to die just yet, and asked if there was no pl&C£ where & swim could be had near the town where there were no sharks. . , “ All right,” I said ; come and get your clothes, and I will take you down to the Bo win" shed. There is a fine river there,

and no sharks. » . Well, the quarfcotte lnrpled over the sands to the log on which we had left our clothes; but imagine our blank looks of petrified astonishment when not' a vestige of a garment was to be seeD. We gazed at eaeh°other helplessly. We looked long and anxiously up and down the shining sands of the beach, but not a shirt nor a sock could we see. , , ... What we did see, though, filled us with the utmost consternation. A small party, which included a number of ladies, were takipg a morniDg constitutional, and were bearing directly down upon us. A brief counsel of war was held. I suggested taking to the water again, but the three gave me such a combined look of reproach that 1 forebove to press the suggestion. “ Let’s take co’ver,” said Jack, who has a brother in South Africa, as he started oil inland, followed by the three of us. Lot a scrap of “ cover ” was to be had. however, but Jack crawled into a small hole, and we went with him. Here, huddled up like Cronie’s men at l’aardeburg, wo crouched from sight till the walking party had passed from sight. Never, if I live to -Methuselah s age, shall I forget the ten minutes we spent in that donga. The space was limited, and uono of us felt comfortable, or in the best of humors. My throe friends, most un-

justly I thought, blamed me tor twinging this trouble upon them. They were all eloquent. They cursed the town most fluently, and used strange, foreign words that I Had never heard in my life before. Jack was sarcastic, George ironical, while Sandy grew morose, aud wore such a pathetic look that I was afraid he had caught a chill. ' , __ %

“ It seems incredible,” said Jack, as ne flicked a grasshopper which was intently examining the mechanism of his ear on to the back of my neck, “ that at the_ be<nnuing of the Twentieth Century, in a town of the size and importance of Gisborne, that respectable men should be put to such insufferable indignities in order that they may take a bath. ’ (To be continued.)