KING COUNTRY SKETCHES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 89, 16 April 1927, Page 31

KING COUNTRY SKETCHES.

MICK BURKE. OBVIOUSLY IRISH. (By N. A. WINTER.) Xo. X. Mick Burke was an Irishman—not the stage Irishman, or even the Rudyard Kipling Irishman, but a genuine son of that Old Land which only her children know, and which even they so often fail, lamentably, to pourtray. He had the imagination and the shrewdness of his race, a touch of tender sentiment combined (strange to say) with considerable business ability His native wit had not been sharpened—or shall I sav blunted —by "education. During thirty years residence in New Zealand he had not shed one of his superstitions, or modified one tone of his rich Conneniava brogue. Of large frame and great physical strength he was a notable person to look at, but his face had something of the simplicity of an overgrown child. His humour was mostly unconscious and many of bis sayings which are still quoted in the' King Country betray that confusion of thought, or rather of expression which is commonly known as an "Irish bull."

Mick had once been a navvy on the Main Trunk line, and his proudest possession was a gold medal which he won at a shovelling match at Raurimu. He ■used a shovel nearly as big as a wheelbarrow, and won by a huge margin.

In the clays of which I write he lived at Taumarunui and kept an accommodation house called the Temperance Hotel —a title which did not by any means indicate Mr. Burke's attitude to the liquor question. He belonged, in fact, to that great sect whose patron saint is Johnnie Walker. His indulgence in strong drink was confined to his visits to Auckland, which syrchrohised with the race meeting held in a well-known suburb of that city. At those times his days were spent at Ellerslie, and his nights in a succession of hotels reaching from the Albert to the Waiteinata. The Ambassadors had not yet been built. Memory Still Green. He returned to Taumarunui like a deflated balloon, sometimes looking very sorry for himself (when his luck on the tote had been poor), and at others smiling through his watery eyes (when he had '"landed some winners"). Mick is now, alas, no more. He has gone to "Tir na'n' Og," the Land of the Ever Young, and has left neither chick nor child behind him, but his memory is still green in Taumarunui. He has become a legend—in fact almost a myth. It is already hard to distinguish the authentic incidents and sayings from the accretions, for people are apt to try and father any absurdity on Mick Burke. My first acquaintance with him was when he came into my office to advertise a contract for fencing. He sat down and we talked of mermaids. "They are wiinmin down to here." said my visitor placing his thumb on the lowest button of his waistcoat, "and fish for the rest of the waay." One of Mick's difficulties in conducting his boardinghouse arose from the number of dishonest people who stayed with him and sneaked away without paying their board. He showed great pertinacity in following such people up and very often brought them before the magistrate. He always conducted his own eases and did it Tery well too. In reporting one of these I paid a compliment to his skill and said I thought he would have made a good lawyer. Burke was as pleased about this as if I had conferred on him the Order of St. Michael and St. George. He bought six copies of the paper to send to "some old friends in Cinnemara." As he said this he smiled from ear to ear, displaying a s-i't of false teeth so large and even that they always reminded me of the teeth of ;i horse.

'Cay as Ye Cum." When n race meeting wa.« organised in Taumarunr.i, a number of Auckland bookies fame and stayed with Mick and left without paying, which made oui man very sore as he could not trace them. Next year some of them came again and had the effrontery to entei the Temperance Hotel and greet the proprietor with a smile, saying, "Well, Mr Burke, we've come to stay with you, but well pay as we go." "No," said Mfck, grimly, '"Yell pay as ye cum!' Mick was, of course, a strong Home ruler and when some Irish delegates, ineluding a Mr. Hazeltan, an Irish M.P. came out to New Zealand to lecture anc ■were booked to speak at Te Kuiti our man arranged to go to hear them Some four or five others, including myself, also made the journey, and Mr. F. B Loughnan, the genial and witty S.M. ■who had been holding court in Taumaru nui joined us. We had to take a goodi train which did not run to time-tabh but which usually arrived in Te Kult at about eight o'clock. On that evening it was tantalisingly slow. Before w< had got to Ongarue, Burke began to get fidgety and by the time we had .reached Manga peehi it was evident to him and to us that at best we would hear not more than half the address. Burke ■was making "an alphabet of faces," all expressive of disgust. "I am afraid," Mr. Burke," said Loughnan, "that an Orangeman is in charge of this train." At long last we reached Te Kuiti and as we entered the hall the audience had just begun to sing "God Save the King." Thus our friend was regaled with the one item he could cheerfully have dispensed with, and his time and train fare and temper were all lost. However, the gods were good to us, for the membersof the Waitomo County Council invited US to their offices to meet the delegates and we had a glorious evening. Burke was in paradise. Mick Burke, after making money in the boardinghouse business, bought -a farm. It was his greatest error. He was never the same man afterwards. He found sheep more trying than boarders, and the work demanded qualities which Burke did not possess. He seldom now went on his visits to Auckland, but it was on his return from one of them that I met him looking more lugubrious than ever. I noticed when I spoke to him that he held his hand to his mouth. "Well, Mr. Burke, how did you get on at the races?" "Bad, bad," he mumbled. "I lost everything—l lost me teeth." "Oh, but you'll get them back, vou must have left them at the hotel."" '"Yes, I must have left them at sum hotel, good morrning." I saw he was not inclined to talk. A week afterwards I met him again, somewhat reconditioned, though still hardly his old self. His mouth was once more full of teeth which gleamed white when he smiled, but he put his hand to his ]aw every now and then as if to case •Jll ffee, ee you've got your teeth again, Mick." ° •JiT?!!' r ? ?ot a set - The y fit Pntty weu, though they're a bit tight. They're »ot me own. They're a set left by a &§SS& They'll do," ~" *