MR. THOS. BALLINGER'S KIP HOME. Chasing the Kitty Round the World.

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 73, 23 November 1901, Page 20

MR. THOS. BALLINGER'S KIP HOME. Chasing the Kitty Round the World.

MR IHOMA*> BALLING KR the \\i ll - known plumber, of Wellington, whose leputation as a bow him champion is co-exten-bi\e witli tin.' lenown ot biotheis Will and Vrthiu as Uiampion nfle shots, got back to tin Kmpne City b\ the Monow,n last week aitel a considerable amount ot glube-tiottmg He went to the Old Countix as one ot the New Zealand bowling Team, ami since he ietiuned his cionie^ ha\ c kept him busih emp^ed fighting his battles o cr again Mi Ballmgei left Poit Nicholson b\ the We&tiaha on Maich 30- a lovely Satuida\ night .md In the same token lie swears that Captain Kd win must ha\e fixed up th< weather right along his route for it w a«. of the best <,uahK from <-tait to finish ♦ * * The New Zeahmders, who comprised Mev,is Paul (New PK mouth). Berime ("WanganuD' Dingle and C'leik (Auckland) Smii«' (Haweia), Roskruge Reich Ballmgei (Wellington) and Captain Mai shall phm-1 matches at S\dm^ (d) Melbourne d) and Hobart (2) winning all but one iff S\dneA and one in Hobart The e%es of the New Zwdanders opened when tl^M -aw '2() 000 cases of apples slnnped b^ one steamer at -Hobart tor the Fnshsh .nn.kot and learnt that tins brought up the season s Home expo t of apples to 190 000 cases A one { ut li the Australian bowlers the\ took pa we foi the Old Countr bv the Orient liner Omrah on board whifh they had a real lolly time At Adelaide the bowler had a mayoral re-ep-t,nn m the Town Hall and at Fiemantle (West Australia^ tl^ initiated the benighted inhabitants into the m^tone= of ki^ine the kitty * * * Life on the Omiah was \ aned bv am amount ot good sport, and bv the weekh publication of a In eh papei called the ' Sea Urchin " edited bv the Re^ A Gillies ia Presbvtonan missionary)' and lllustiated with capital caitoons b\ Hanv Rountree, a \ouns; Auckland artist who is aJreach winning recognition for hi- talents at Home In this frohc&ome little paper Mi 11 1 appears pictuied as Our Colonel " and one of its two advertisements relates to Mi Louis Blumlell \mdor theheading Lost Stole i orStra\ed" advertises for a cushion promising to ask no ouestions if it i< leplacecl on his chair TT^ had a f.ricv clress ball on hoard and tlie Titlun" immortalizes the fart that Mr Paul nrmeared thereat

a.s d 'M m \i,teiv of t lie Nile ' that Louis Blundull took up the unaccustomed role of an Egyptian Jugglei" (attei tins, lu i ought to be in great lequest foi local shows) and that Mi Thoina.s Balhngei buist upon the ship in all the dazzling glor\ of the hill dres unitoim of the Wellington Bowling Club At Colombo (Ceylon) the fnsk\ bow In> tusked about on nckshaws and at Naples the\ explored the cit\ and made an excursion to Pompeii on loute to which the\ weie gieath tickled with tht Itaha-i method of doing a milk luund The people their lea\e no o[K l iiing for 'the cow with the non tail " Each milk \ endoi dines round his cow and coat to his ciustomeis' doois, and milks the required supplies into the \c"-^els which the the good dames pro\ide At Marseilles Messrs Bilhnger Bennie, and thiee other New Zealandeis left the ship and ]oumeved o\erland to Pans Thioughout a whole dn\ *- Mght-seemg at Marseilles they did not hear a single English woid spoken outride their own rompain and it therefore surprised them not a little unon diepniner into a cafe at night foi a cup of coffee to hear a lad\ obsei \ c to a ceiitleman (apparenth lier husband) 'I would \ei\ much like to <-cc the New Wales howlers who came over in the Omiah At Paxife, Mi. Ballmgei had another suipiibt 1 He had just seen Ins luggage safeh deposited in, his room at the Hotel de Peteifebomg, and wa.s ahghting from the olevatoi when ho bumped up against Hanmgan, who skipped the S\dne\ bow lei s against Ballmgofs team in the memorable contest for Stew ait Dawson's clocks up at Auckland two \eais ago Halloa, old man exclaimed the spnghth Hanmgan, touching those clocks bieak it to me genth do the\ keep good time?" Mi Ballmgei aimed in London on Saturda\ 24th Ma\ and \ erv soon aftei wards the New Zealand team decided to line off f1 om the Australians and run their own show Although the bow lei s numbered fort\ -three all told the Australians weie determined theie should onh be a M\teen-man pla\ing team and it was gra\el\ proposed the sixteen should be selected b\ the nnmitive old piocess of diawius fiom a hat Tins did not suit the New Zealandeis, who had gone Home to win and more than that the fact wa.s borne m upon them that New Zealand's ulentit\ would be lost and that the-^ would all be lumped together as Ai!=tialians " There weie a vanet-\ of other reasons The upshot was that the Austiahans started their campaign in England and that the New Zealanders (forming two rinks one skinned b\ Paul and the

orliei b^ Bailmgei) went stiaight into Scotland, so <i^, not t-o clahh with tlieni In the laud of cakes ajul barlev-bree" the\ placed sixteen matches winning six and 10-sing ten BaJhngei's lecoid, howe\ei, desencs to be separately stated His team consisted of Reich, Roskiuge Cloik (Auckland) and himself, and they won eight matches, lost se\en, and tied in one The New Zealandnis went over to Belfast a.nd io&t a match there b\ a nairow margin And the\ had a glonous night in the pawhon with the Ulstei bn\s- winding up with Auld Lang S\nc' on the gieen at midnight the bowlei^ standing m a cncle 100 strong with their aims lound each e^hei New Zealand was sent back to its hotel on an lush jaunting-cai and is now willing to dedaie it is iust as jolly a con\e\ance as the nckshaw at ( olombo ♦ • * Tn England the-\ pla\ed onh four matches — Biomle-s (Kent) two in London, and one m Southampton lodine; enh T one out of the four although a bit nonplussed bv the English rule that touchers do not count, and that chiivmg the lack into the ditch makes a dead head Mr BaJhnger went acro«s to New York and his trip up the Hudson, hi^ visits to Niagara. Boston, and Buffalo where lie the Pan-American Exposition at which a fortnight later President McKinley was assassinated would make excellent reading if we had the snace for it He caught the Omrah again for his return to the Antipodes and at Sydney took passage, by the Monow ai for Wellington only to find on svttme to Svdne\ Heads that Brother W H wa^ a fellow -nascen?er. returning from the unw-finnor of tho New Wa'<- RiftV A"-o^iation