AN EXPENSIVE PRESENT.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3537, 27 April 1880, Page 2

AN EXPENSIVE PRESENT.

Mr Wendall, wine manufacturer, of ■Auckland, has received an expensive present. Some of the officers of the German warship Bismarck, are natives of the district in which Mr Wendall was born, and between them a friendship has existed since the first visit of the man of-war. In memory of the Fatherland one of the officers of the Bismarck made Mr Wendall a present of a box of cigars, containing about fifty fragrant weeds—and another officer presented fifty more. Mr Wendall is not habitually a emqker, but he promised to indulge ocpasionally in one of these cigars, and as he watched the smoke wreathing upwards in fantastic shapes to recall in his mind's eye the old familiar scenes of yore in the vine clad valley of Germany, us weli as ihe trim figure of H.I.M.S. Bismarck. He accepted the cigars gratefully and bore them ashore. But Mr Wendall is a law-abiding man, and he reflected that it was necessary to inform the Customs officials of the fact of his having landed the cigars, in order to avoid tae pains and penalties of smuggling. The official to whom Mr Wendall communicated the facts, smjled pleasantly, and forthwith went to business. He weighed the cipais, found they amounted to exactly l^-lbs, and held out his open palm fo» $s. Mr Wendall describes his sensations very much in tue words of the person'who said, " You might a' knocked me down with a feather." " Save me from my friends !" was his first exclamation, when he recovered breath. We believe the cigara have been politely returned to the officers, with an explanation of the circumstances.—Auckland Star.