Our Boys.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3224, 19 June 1879, Page 2

Our Boys.

A- Manawatu paper Vouiobes; for tbe accuracy of the fol*ow"»ig story of the pluck and endurance of one of Zea'a id'aTs youi g ideas :—'• A'well known residents? Marton some short-time since uenSi'rttiwSf Ins boys to England to school, but it wot^d appe?r that the. child's experiences *wS*i of sup 1 a patnre as s to make him; |dnj^!fol freedom aud^'His peloTe&'%6ffitil£fc ,tno Antipodes., Although buff just..£jjterjiijj' upon his teens, f( tbepl«ckyJ,Jri:tle!fepow determined to escape from' his bondage, and work his way back tbe sixteen thousand nvlesj- and with tbat ibtenti m started off to tramp ito cl>t>ndoi(^without :?a peD.ny in his pocke's. j Arrived at that Modern Babylon, he succeeded in ingraciaticg :s himself with the captain of a vessel trading to Melbourne, who in return for the child's services, as, ' Jemmy, Ducks' gave b?**j a passage to Wellington 1 in one ''of fk^ steamers. But even then, so near home 'and happiness, he found himself still a stranger, penniless, and without help until a certain captain of one of the Wanganui steamers .gave, him a lift to that town. Unfortunately for-thechild.'there 1 were no more vessels to accept services in lieu of passage—aSjthere .were .on^iv the rail and the read to choose wleWbjr to reach | home—and the little fellow, was rbeut ; girding up his' loins for hnothbt tramp of Übirty miles, when he stopped in front jof a sbop, the name of, whose, .proprietor 'was familiar to"tiiaJ upoi'ilio | spur of the moment, he entered and told his tale to tb.6 man—an, old friend of his'father—Wh6; cicoVtetf'JJim^tb^ae j station, placed him in a first-class carriage with a ticket for Marton, and ;wq hpurs IJater, in t^'da^esVW^irfht'WwSr*jlitlle wanderer was knocking at his jiather'B door. We need..ppt ..picture, the j wonder and surprise 4i6t the 1 astopish^d ipar«nts when the ch'ld of not thirteen, iwhom they fondly ljoa^ined, WAf,b^injf carefully trained up at xlome, presented himself with hands hardened with [manual toil, and clothei^bpgrjimed ao4 [greased, and smol-ed fby l ii?s nbV ji 6Ver |choice labour; or the painful epgeroess ■with which-they.Hst3ned. to the Ut^qmau, iprbu'd of 'his^eneVg^ aiuf Hi« ei|iloiti. Such is the sluff of which colonial pioneers are made,,,.and the,.xoat'srial which hew empires oui of the deiert and the waste."