Near Tree Top

NZ Truth, Issue 1181, 19 July 1928, Page 6

Near Tree Top

WHEN you pass, through the portals of the : handsome Public Trust building m Christchurch you sort of leave the noisy, clamorous work-a-day world behind the swing doors. Here, indeed, is an atmosphere of dignified repose ... And if your business brings you into v contact with Fred Williams, the district accountant, you're still unconscious of any jarring note. .. , Fred is as calm and tranquil as the atmosphere m which he lives and •moves and has his official being. Twenty years have elapsed since he tripped down the gangway of a Home liner and set about becoming a 100 per cent. New Zealander. . '. What he lacks of that percentage isn't worth a hoot. Ascribe it, if you will, to his innate "Englishneas" — the softer semi-tones and inflections of speech. . ■ Soon after his arrival he basked m Napier's sunshine and kept the wolf at bay by attaining. to the P. and T. payroll. ' •■ ■■'• But the crushing top -weight of an oversize department was no good to F.W. Top much dead wood to lop off before the tree-top was reached. So he lit out for Wellington and consumed the midnight current, the while he crammed and swotted. Finally, with his accountancy "brief," he was admitted to that smaller department of probates and mortgages* _^ .