RANDOM SHOTS

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 147, 22 June 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

RANDOM SHOTS

BY "ZAMIEL"

oOme write, a neighbour's name to >"* j Borne -wriU-vain thought-for needtui

BomTwrlte to please the country clash, And raise a din. For me, an aim 1 never fash— I writ© for fun.

Auckland and the Rotorua district have fairly "taken the shine out" of the rest of the colony in the matter of the receptions to the Duke and Duchess of York, and one of the chief results of the Royal visit should be a splendid advertisement for our Thermal Springs district. It is a pity that the Royal visitors and their entourage did not see more of the Hot Spring -wonders, as, for example, the big- geyser at Rotomahana, or the queer Bights of Waiotapu Valley; in fact, their progress was too hurried; but what they did see should be sufficient to impress on their minds the more romantic features of our Maoriland. And they saw the district and the people, moreover, under especially favourable circumstances. The thousands of Maoris assembled turned out in their own picturesque costumes, and the occasion was, from an artistic point of view, a- splendid display. The native element should enter largely into the descriptions of New Zealand which will appear in the English press as the result of this tour, and the band of London journalists who spent a couple of days in the region of puias and ngawhas last week saw the country as neither G. A. Sala, Froude, nor any other globe-trotting tourist ever saw it. We may expect from a man like E. F. Knight a volume of colonial travel quite equal in merit and interest to "The Cruise of the Falcon" and •'Where Three Empires Meet."

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"That was given me by His Eoyal Highness the Duke of Cornwall and York" will no doubt be the great expression of those fortunate people who received souvenirs of the Royal visit. In connection with this matter an (instance occurred which proves how loyal some men are, and how peculiarly they show it. Unfortunately for Auckland this particularly loyal gentleman was a visitor, bo the honour , belongs to another part of the colony, which shall not be named. The story is as follows: After the Eoyal visitors had returned from Eotorua, and had g-one on board their yacht, thousands of people promenaded the wharf and waited about to hear the band on the Ophir. Amongst the number was a group of gentlemen, of wnom one was a visitor, who had also jxist returned from Eotorua. Upon being asked if he had seen Her Eoyal Highness, the gentlcmar, smiling contentedly, said: "Seen her? I should think I had. Why, at one station she had some tea, and came to the door of the carriage with the empty cup and saucer in her hand. Bedad, boys, I was alongside of her in a minute, and took the cup and saucer from her own Eoyal hands." He then began to fumible about the back of his coat tails, and presently drew forth a saucer, which he held up proudly as he remarked: "Here's the saucer, and I have the cup in my other pocket." No doubt the owner of the missing articles will be reconciled to his loss under such circumstances, for it is safe to assume that the precious pieces of delf will have a position of honour for ever in that loyal gentleman's home.

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Some peculiar sights we/c to be seen in the big camp at Rotorua. In one of the visiting tribes there was a onje-leg-ged Maori, who took part in all the dances with the best of his whole-limbed mates, and the spectators could not resist applauding his clever haka-ing, using his crutch as a •weapon and waving it around as dexterously as if he were a two-legged ■warrior instead of being "half a Maori and half a tree," to amend the Gaiety song.

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Some of the Southern papers published fearfully and wonderfully made accounts of the goings on at Rotorua in ■honour of Royalty. One scribe, with the aid of the telegraph operator and the printing-press, informed his readers that the Duke was presented with a handsome "pigskin" mat. Another described the view from Ohinemutu, looking across Lakei "Rotoiti" (he meant Rotorua) as a "brilliant menage"!. In another paper appeared a gem, for which, however, the sender was probably not entirely responsible, in which the "stately kahikateas," near Tarukenga, on the Mamaku range 5 were draped with moss and the todea superba, the Prince of Wales' feather, fern. This is surely a stretch of vivid imagination on the part of the scribe, seeing that the trees he saw were rimu, and that the "todca superba" does not as a rule drape trees, for the simple reason that it prefers to grow upon the ground. Another paper chronicled the remarkable fact that, after the Royalties had visited the Duchess Bath at Rotorua they reentered their vehicle and drove to "Te Awamutu"! Well, perhaps it is unfair to put all these little things down to .the credit of the much-worried journalist. The hurry-scurry of the telegraph and the linotypes will have to take the blame.

**<H"it«M"l"l"!

The feature of ilie -whole show at Rotorua last week which most impressed all the visitors, Royalties included, was the splendid generosity of the Maoris, who showered their roost valued treasures at the feet of the King's son. This was only in accordance with the old Maori custom of treating- distinguished guests with the .greatest liberality and openhandedaesa, and denying them nothing. At the same time many present w«fe sorry to see the wholesale manner in which the people despoiled j^ themselves of their clearest ancestral ■h relics, and threw them cm the pile in I

front of Royalty. One cannot but sympathise with the sentiments of a writer in a Southern paper recently deprecating' the manner in which some of the finest mementoes of old New Zealand are leaving the colony. However, this is no ordinary occasion, the visit of. the King's sou; and the lavishness of the giving will fix last Saturday's event on the Duke's memory for'all time. And in due course I suppose the Maoris will find that they are not forgotten, for in accordance with etiquette, the Duke will no doubt send out such return presents to the principal men and women of the tribes as will show the native people that their generosity is kept in kindly regard, and that their illustrious guest, the "great fish from the ocean," as they styled him in one of their songs, is not unobservant of the customs which govern the giving of presents amongst the Polynesian race, and indeed every other race.

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It is well for the peace of mind of some of the Auckland citizens that Royalty does not pay us a visit more frequently. Several gentlemen forgot their hats after the Mayor's reception last week, and their absent-minded-ness did not end here, for they neglected to call for them. The spell cast by Royalty must be indeed strong when it causes a man to go home late on a cold rainy night without his hat. liut perhaps the explanation is that the heads of these worthy citizens grew so large in the Royal presence that their hats were too small, and the owners are now perhaps waiting for their heads to assume their normal size.

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Some, of the incidents seen here during the large gathering of volunteers last week would have caused many Imperial officer.? of the old school to faint. Absolutely careless of tbeir dress, the country volunteers were, for the most part, as unlike the popular conception of a soldier as one could imagine. Glancing round the crowd of mounted men at the military gymkhana, one saw scarcely any upright soldierly figures, and the ill-fitting khaki intensified anything unmilitary in the way of carriage. But when the six foot of ugly khaki had thrown its legs over the back of a horse, one saw the soldier. Men, careless in saluting-, and chatting with their officers were to be seen about the field, and the old - fashioned martinet, while admitting reluctantly that our boys are good fighters, never admits that they are soldiers.