PROVISIONS SHORT.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1913, Page 6

PROVISIONS SHORT.

HUNGRY SAILORS AT WELLINGTON.

DIFFICULT SITUATION RETRIEVED.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent.)

- WELLINGTON, Wednesday. The story of how a number of Wellington citizens turned a threatened a fiasco into a happy success to-day will be instructive to those who are yet to have the pleasure of entertaining the New. Zealand's sailors. T'hrce hundred of them left their floaiting home. this morning for a shore lunch and athletic competitions. They .marched merrily to music as far as the Town Hall, and then the animated proceedings sagged. Lunch was not ready. AJ.tcr a wait outside the Jack Tars wcTe invited into the Town Hall gallery to be treated to a musical programme by the city organist. They would alao see the empty tables below. It was. enjoyable in one way, but very unsatisfactory to the lu6ty men revelling in their shore-going freedom. They did not know that behind .the scenes a mild panic was in progress. , ... . it had been discovered by me-mbers of the JEntertainment Committee that the caterer was behindhand with his cooking, and. a .r%pid stocktaking of his resources suggested to the amateur helpera that there would not be enough provender to go round. This -discovery was no sooner made than energetic committeemen, -town councillors, legislators, oxlegislators, prospective ones, and other influential personages scattered through tie city generally in motor cars searching for boiled hams and similar succulent things. One councillor ajid. ex-member triumphantly drove back at high speed with five hams. It ,was generally a fine collection for hungry sailors. Then .their entertainers, who included a large number of ladies, set >to work with great crithueiaem to do the waiting, and the lunch in .the end turned out to be a glad function. The hall had beeri Splendidly decorated for the citizens' ball of the night before. The "ladies had set. out the tables prettily, and tliere was no stint of eatables or drinkabies.