A SHORT CHAT WITH A RETIRED NEW ZEALAND JUDGE.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 242, 13 October 1888, Page 8

A SHORT CHAT WITH A RETIRED NEW ZEALAND JUDGE.

MR MUNRO Otf AUCKLAND IN

ENGLAND,

(FROM OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.)

Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of a short talk with Judge Munro, of Auck. land, who is now visiting the Old Country for the first time. He and his wife aro stopping at a large boarding-house in Kensington Gardens Square, Bayswater, and appear to be very comfortably situated..

After a few remarks on the weather, I asked : " This is your first visit to England, is it not, Mr Mu'nro?" An answer in the affirmative was followed by the question: "What do you think ot" London?" "I think it the worst-built city in the world," was the rather surprising answer, and he added, most feelingly: "It was certainly designed for the express purpose of confusing strangers ; at least, it might have been by tbe way it twists about," _ I explained that constant additions to a town like London 'were bound to have this effect, but be was not to be appeased. On inquiry I found that) the Judge had had a good deal.of trouble in finding my diggings, and an angry controversy with the cabman, to whom he had no doubt tendered his legal fare. These circumstances and the heat of the day would fully account for the somewhat prejudiced view he took of London. He say 3 everything is exactly as he thought it would be; there is nothing to surprise him, nothing to disappoint. Stay ! there was one thing he mentioned as being peculiar and novel to both himself and his wife. " What a. number of Avomen with moustaches you have in London, " he observed. "Have we?" I replied, "I never noticed that." " Yes," said the veteran ; " I see girl after girl pass in the streets with a perfectly astounding amount of hair on the upper lip." After this I thought it about time to leave town and try him on something else. " You have been North, have you not, Mr Monro?" "Yes, to both JEdinburgh and Glasgow," he answered. " We were very much disappointed with the scenery on the way up to Edinburgh , it all seemed so tame, and the same view almost all the way along. No," he continued, "you must come to New Zeciland for really good scenery ; there is nothing here." Both Mr and Mrs Munro confess themselves utterly charmed with the beauties of Edinburgh, though in answer to a question Mr Munro said that he was not a bit surprised, even there. "It was just as I expected," he said simply. From Edinburgh they, went to Glasgow, but the weather being foggy did not make the trip down the Clyde in either the Columbia or lona, as is usual with visitors to St. Mungo's city. He says that he considers the Exhibition of that city far superior to anything of the kind in London (and he is right), and .professes to have been keenly interested in the marine machinery. The town of Glasgow he dislikes, and finds its streets all at right angles to each other, almost as confusing as London. 1 asked him if he had looked up his family, who have, by-the-by, one of the oldest and finest castles in Scotland. He said no, buc that his children were so anxious that he should do so .while at Home that he was almost determined to do it, but dreaded the worry and bother of tho proceeding, all hia family papers, etc., having^ been destroyed by fire in the colonies many years ago. On being questioned as to whether he and his wife were going to "do "France and the Continent, he said he was not sure, but only wished he had come through Italy and France via Brisbane on his way to England. Here Mrs Munro came into the matter, and said " they were, going to do the Continent, and that properly." Mr M. said he was "very doubtful." but Mrs M. only smiled in a placid way. Mr Munro told some very good shark stories to a friend who was inquiring about such things. Mrs Munro says they are both much amused at the way the country folks stare about and stand at street corners with their mouths open waiting for chances to get across. If they do not visit the Continent they will return to Auckland about November..but I expect Mrs Munro will carry the dny, and you will, in that case, riot see th >m. till late in the spring of next yearOta spring I mean.