A WAR-TIME STORY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 219, 13 September 1923, Page 8

A WAR-TIME STORY.

ADVENTURE OF A MAORT. I , Hero is a charming story of the war. as told mc by one of the principal actors j in it (says a writer in the Patea j "Press'). He was a full-blooded Maori, | well educated, and speaking beautiful j I English, having been educated at To i Ante College. When war broke out he ! was one of the first to offer his services I and was given a commission in the Maori ' contingent. After seeing service at I 1 Gallipoli, he went to the Western front. | where he contracted fever, and was for . 1 a time in hospital. When convalescent ' he went up to London one day and , noticed a very beautiful girl, faultlessly j I dressed, who gazzed at *im with interest. ; Iso much so that he was tempted to raise i ■ his hiind to the salute, whereupon she ] i smiled. With t hat devil-may-care and ; I captivating manner so characteristic of . the colonials he went up to her. and, i j bowing, said. "May I take you for a drive'; , ' She replied instantly, "Yes,! you may, if you will allow mc to be , hostess." and she. thereupon hailed a taxi j and pave the driver instructions, which I the "digger" did not catch. After a : while ho found they were speeding away into the country, and he asked her where they weie going. "Home," she said, and a minute later. "Here we are," as the | I car s|ied through a magnificent gateway, j The "digger" nearly fell through the hot j ! torn of the car when lie saw before him a i ! magnificent castle, centuries old. He was taken up to the house and the taxi I dismissed. The rest of the day he was I treated like a king, his hostess taking i him all over the place. After an elaborate ! dinner and further sight-seeing, a chauf- ■, I feur brought round a splendid Rolls- ' Koyce ear in which his hostess drove him ! back to his diggings, remarking on the I way that she had had the happiest day I !of her life, and was proud to entertain I I one who had come from the extreme end ' iof the earth to fight for her and hers. ] She was the daughter of an Earl and a ! member of on- of the oldest branches of ! Britain's nobility.