The Premier as a Bullockdriver.

Manawatu Herald, 24 March 1904, Page 3

The Premier as a Bullock­driver.

At- Owaka, on Saturday week, there was a rather amusing proceeding, A bullock team harnessed to a waggon had been drawn up on the roadside, and it was suggested to the Premier that he should take his seat on the load and be photographed. The humour of the situation appealed at once to the jolly Premier, and he climbed into position ; then was witnessed the spectacle of the Prime Minister of the colony, whose utterances are quoted and discussed throughout the Empire, and whose statesmanship is recognised amongst that of the leading statesmen of the world, seated on a vehicle which is associated with the silent and muddy backblocks of the New Zealand bush —the slow bullock-dray drawn by the patient bullock team. With his quick humour, the Premier seized the long-handled bullockwhip, and beckoning Messrs J. W. Thomson and T. Mackenzie, M.H.K’s to his side, *he jocularly exclaimed: “ The exhausted members under the lash.” The school children were drawn up around the waggon, and the unique group was duly focussed and “ snapped ” by the "Witness photographer. r lt was a scene replete with humour, and yet of much interest; for it evinced at once one great reason of the Premier’s popularity amongst the people, evidence of the breaking-in of the far-back bush settlements, and promise of a prosperous settlement. Needless to say, the crowd was delighted, and the event should become a historical reminiscence, Wyndhara Farmer.