AS OTHERS SEE US.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5157, 27 July 1927, Page 2

AS OTHERS SEE US.

CANADIAN FOOTBALLERS’ VIEWS. OUR GIRLS NOT SHY. . Excellent toebailers, the Canadian Soccer players were also jolly good fellows personally with a humour that.savours of the Yankee touch. “Say ! I’d like to take your little railway home with me and give it to some kid to play with,” said one of the maple leaf players when pressed for some opinions on the trip through New Zealand. “One of our chaps brought one like that for his son a.t Christmas-.” The cheerful visitor gave a humorous description of a railway ride. “Fenny little gauge and all winds and curves,” he said. New Zealand’s enterprising giris came in for comment from another husky Ca.nadian. “Take me back to Dunedin,” he sighed. “Regular reception committee of them met us there. Had us spotted in the papers before we came, and knew us by sight. I’ll say the New' Zealand girls are more friendly than Canadians-, to strangers anywa.y.” NICE OUTDOOR CLIMATE. Another from the country of big trees and wheat fields shot a goal through the Dominion’s climate. “It’s a nice outdoor affair,” he said, “but terrible inside —no heat. If you people put all your mutton into the hotels, of Greymouth there would be no need for freezing works. We slept there with our jerseys on. One chap h;i(l two football jerseys on, but still he was cold all night. “We played in mud and flood on the West Coast,” said another when asktyl about the defeat at Greymouth, “but we had snowballing at Otira. You can’t make snowballs from Canadian snow—it’s too hard. Yours is much better. My word, they do make a ‘wet’ Saturday night of it down the Coast,” he sighed reflectively. “Greymouth is> the only provincial place in New Zealand that has beaten us, and 650 of them came over by train to Christchurch, and a lot got left behind, to see the match and root for us. They did not want any other provincial team to share their glory.” The reference to root, the accepted American rendering of the New Zealand term of barrack, impressed the

pressman that the lads from the big Dominion feel the influence of speech from their Yankee neighbours. A slight nasal twang was noticeable inthe speech of one or two of the teamOne of them rose enthusiastically to the occasion when asked what struck him most about New Zealand 1 .

The horses and cows running about with overcoats on. and hotel girls bringing you tea in bed in the morning,” he replied.

“Say, I’d like to see them serving tea in bed in Calgary this day,” said he.

“I know I won’t be able to answer all the questions they will ask me about New Zealand when I get home.” s.'aid one, “but one thing I will tell them, and that is that it is not in Australia. Most of them in Canada still think it is.”