DEEDS OF KINDNESS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 91, 19 April 1933, Page 6

DEEDS OF KINDNESS.

While journeying from the Far North to the Far South of this land ono sees many scenes which are beautiful and many which seem ■strange if the traveller has not previously wandered far from home, but above all the beauty of land or sea the thought of remembered kind deeds shines brightly. One has many an opportunity for observing little kindnesses, which too often are forgotten.

Recently on the Main Trunk express a young passenger made his presence a real blessing to a number of his fellow passengers. The train was crowded with students on their way to university colleges and older passengers were in the minority. This youthful knight-errant was probably one of the most excited students on the train, for exactly six hours before its departure from Auckland he had received a telegram bearing the glad news that he had secured a bursary. To reach Duncdin in time to begin the session well he must leave by that evening's express. One can imagine the excitement in that home as his mother packed his cases and his sisters offered many helpful and some foolish suggestions regarding the journey and his life in a strange city. The only available seat when he went to "the booking office was one nearest the door, the most uncomfortable seat in the carriage. When the time of departure came he found that a woman was frantically searching for a seat at the last moment. Surely he was unusually excited, or was it an impulse of chivalry that inade him offer his seat before discovering her destination? Luckily for tho young "medical," she left the train at Frankton. At Te Awamutu, when several passengers alighted, others came in. A young mother with a three-year-old child took tho small seat opposite the youth, and further along the carriage three women were cramped together on one seat. Tho Main Trunk journey is quite endurable if one has a comfortable seat or a sleeping berth, but to be travelling three in a seat means that all three are uncomfortable. For a time tho student gave up his seat to one of the women, and as the train rushed through the darkness the three women were comfortable, if he was not. When the lady went back to her friends he resumed his seat, hut he did not long remain inactive. The young mother opposite him began to look very weary, and the sleeping child seemed to rest more heavily in her arms. The youth leaned across and insisted on taking the child on his knee, wrapping the babycarefully in his own rug. The mother dozed off and soon slept. Some hours later a very cramped young man gave back the child to his mother and got out to stretch his legs in a brisk walk along the platform at Taihape, in the cold hour that brings the darkness before dawn. At the next stop for refreshments he asked various passengers if they would like tea and brought steaming cups to those who wanted it. Some •time later, when the train drew into Wellington station and discharged its load of weary passengers, the student followed his chivalrous deeds of the night by helping his neighbours with their luggage. Our young people are no more self-centred and self-concerned than our elders were in tho past. —B.A.K.