“Opai” Asher Knows Carlaw Park— He’s Been Right Under the Ground !

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 725, 26 July 1929, Page 7

“Opai” Asher Knows Carlaw Park — He’s Been Right Under the Ground !

f PH E big drain which runs right under Carlaw Park from the lower * Domain end. and comes out just outside the gates on the Parnell side, has been working overtime this week. A lot of people don’t know the drain is there, and quite a lot more don’t know that “Opai” Asher, the present groundsman, once went rig ht through the drain from one end to the other. Time was when the big drain got blocked, and constituted itself a problem to the League heads. “Opai” volunteered to clear it. Armed with an electric torch, and with a rope round his waist, “Opai” set out to crawl through the drain. He found the obstruction all right, and being unable to shift it, decided to seek the open air again. But, before he did so, he had to have his little joke. Untying the rope round his waist. Opai” Asher” he went right through the drain to the other end. Walking back to the Domain, he found a little group of alarmed officials on the point of undertaking rescue measures, thinking that he had been overcome by foul air in the drain. Incidentally, that blockaqe in the drain took some shifting. “Opai” narrates that they got old Dobbin on to it with a long rope attached, but the rope broke, and finally the big chunk of concrete and masonry had to be sawn before it was got out.