Talks with Tom

Horowhenua Chronicle, 3 November 1915, Page 2

Talks with Tom

ML I—AH (JUT ills UitUliiEK. j I Written for The Chronicle;. it is immaterial wlusre luiu lives, bay he comes iiom Ohau • or itiverion —or some otiiei equally prospers us and populous locality. What "is'' ol moment is 'his abiiity"io interest his auditors, who liter he aiUiivsiOb them in in;, garden, among the clirysaiitiieiiitims unit the slugs, or m his place 01 busij liess. luin has travelled Australia, .New Zealand, England and the Canary Islands; he set loot on tne ' Conniioiig'-; but lie thinks New Zealand as jjood as the the next place, whether that place be tlie Falkland Islands or i'<jlti>ltlOtl lit. .But fi'lum'is brother liol t ds opposite views on the matter. ile visited Oliau lot Kiverton) some years ago, voyaging by nay of the Suez Canal and the Levin-to-Greatford railway. Tom took him across country to the lake (Tiifr lake, every true h.cal patriot calls it; but Tom's brother differed from the late Sir Walter Bailer's eulogistic opinion, in l'act he bluntly said thafc he would sooner put in half an hour on the artificial lake at Southsea than spend a day 011 our lake. AYliy the water wa.s muddy ; the boats were not 'what they hail been; there were no people about; and not even a chance to buy a bag oJ pea till tsl So Tom took liini on a ramble into the bush for a change; to show him the beauties ol natuie and to let liini experience the weird silences of the New Zealand woods. They viewed the kowliai trees aflame and lambent, according to their two Kinds; they gazed oil the giant ratas and saw tin' impenetrable areas of supplejacks and lawyer bushes; also twenty-seven other still-life attractions. Tom was feeling pleased, for his brother seemed impressed. Two minutes passed without a word being exchanged. Suddenly Tom's brother rubbed lus ears, and sejemeil perturbed. "Say. can you hear anything, Tom?" he asked. Tom strained his ears, vainly. • "Not: a sound," he replied. "That's a good job," said Tom's brother; "I was afraid I'd gone stone deal'!!" The silences o! the Xow Zealand bush did not seem natural to him: he thought the bush should be as full of sound and bustle a- Piccadilly. Tom vainly tried conversational ways of cheering up his brother. "The Suez Canal must have inte'rested you, with all the historic places, and the life and stir along it! What did you think of it?" "Oh. it wasn't bad,' said Tom's brothor. Finally Tom took "the great risk.. - ' and enquired what -was his brother's opinion of New Zealand as a whole. "Oh. it'd do all right for growing cabbages in." was the grudging reply: "hut, hang it. 1 could liny as many -is 1 wanted anv morning at Covent Oilrden!" Tom's brothor returned to London first boat. He yearned tor homje so much (according to Tom) that he went back to London to shave for three halfpence a chivvy in preference to wielding his blade in New Zealand at six pence a face. BELSHAZZ'AR RINKS.