AFRICAN PIGMY.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 January 1922, Page 12

AFRICAN PIGMY.

HAPPY ON THE EAST COAST. Te Waihau, on the East Coast, was evidently an old whaling station, for boiling-down pots and furnaces are still to be seen among the African box-thorn which has taken possession of the higher beach line, and it. has an old-world air about it even now ; (writes a special cor-jT-spondent of the Auckland Herald). By the picket fence in front of the accommodation house I saw a quaint little figure with an ordinary man's coat reaching below his knees. A negro, as one could see by his color and features. I asked him what part of Africa In? came from, and what tribe he belonged to. “Sir.” he said, “I am one of the Pio-my people. My father and mother ami myself, wlten a baby, were taken to England by a gentleman named Stanley. We were shown upon the stage, and people cyamined ns. Aly fathei’ was only 3ft 6in. high, and my mother was still smaller. Later G- ■--.-moil took possession of us, and we nt to America | and to Australia. My father shot with 1 bows and arrows and danced native ! dances. Then we came to Now Zealand. | and my father and mother died, and 1 i had very hard t imes because I could nc!t . speak English, but people were kind, and I had plentiful food sometimes. Then f went to .race meetings and shows and other gatherings and shot at marks With inv father’s how and arrows. I earned a little nionov that way. but after a while the police stopped mo because they thought my arrows might hurt someone. Then I learned gardening, and if I eoiilo get an aero of land somewhere near a town I could make money and b? quite hanpy.” Andrew, as helis called, js a good gardener: 1 saw his vegetables in the bin enclosure near the drafting yards. “How is it.” I asked him, "that your people being so small, you arc so big?” He drew himself up to his full height of about 4ft and replied: "Sir. it is the good food of New Zealand that has made me what I am.”