WHISKY TALKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 237, 6 October 1936, Page 8

WHISKY TALKS.

ROAMING THE SEAS. VOYAGE FOR MATURITY. COSMOPOLITAN SCOTCH. The voice lifted lugubriously .... • Whisky is the life of man, Whisky, Johnny; Oh ! Wh'eky in an old tin can, Whisky for Johnny. . . . The Man With the List to Port leaned his head against the hogshead and nodded sadly.' "Whisky," lie sighed, "whisky? You're right; Old Spirit of the Barrel ... you're right. .. " And he took up the refrain with raucous tone. "Pardon nie," answered the Spirit, "I am not old, but I am matured, I am mellowed, I am travelled, I am educated; I have seen the world . . . and while I have the buck of the ship in my kick, I have also the calm serenity and the immensity of the seas in my touch on the palate and the breadth of boundless vision in my warming comfort." "Tell me about it," said the Man With the List." Gaining Maturity. "I was distilled and nurtured at Leith, in Scotland," said the Spirit. . "Dear land of mist and heather, of caggy hills and moss-lined burns . . ." ana he sighed. "With many another hogshead I was destined for the enlivening of man in the social intercourse of life . . . and that meant at least a dreary three years within the walls of a warehouse; and then a sudden thrusting upon the world, and a brief vision of the sun before my destiny was fulfilled."His-, voice was reflective. "Then one 1 day the rumour came round that the course of our lives was to be changed, i We were to go out into the world, to travel in ships, to see many lands and many seas. In four months, they said, we would find maturity—lo,732 proof gallons of maturity; £55,000 worth of maturity; 61 butts, and 74 hogsheads of maturity. So we left our native Leith, and eventually found ourselves aboard the Royal Star, bound across the world. Since then $e Lave;'' tossed >upon the. main, and Ss Diogenes sought to find mature wisdom by a life of contemplation spent in a tub, so, have we with each roll of the sea gained a richer and more mellow view of life. Under Tropic Nights. "We have felt the placidity of days spent in the sun of the equator, and the storm of mounting, seas under an inkblack night. We have heard many tongues; and' gained the touch of the cosmopolitan "life. We* have added to the softness of our native Gaelic the guttural of Afrikaans, and the harder accent and richer vocabulary of Australia. We have known moments of peril as we were hoisted in the slings of commerce; the sudden swoop through the air on 1 those hoists has added to our spark." "Aboard the Wairanga we suffered the pitch and roll of your Tasman, and now here in Auckland half our journey is completed. To-day we again feel the hoists, and the clatter of the cranes; and we hear English in another tone as we are placed anew in another berth aboard the Tamaroa, bound home, through _ South: America's Panama.. It is a good" life,,and we go home t > fulfil our destiny. Our Voyage will hava cost our owners about £700 in harbour dues and the like; and there is our insurance, too. Still, in our matur : rity we wall save our owners three years'; interest oriN£ss,ooo in» fQijr months, »iyid we save them>.ioo, warehouse space, dur- i ing that Life is good, and tie mood of-contemplation is upon me." "But," said the Man With the List, : "how about the Customs certificate of ■ maturity . . . the three years you are supposed to spend in wood before . fellows, like me. can get at von." "My. dear fellow," was the answer, '■ and there was a touch of hauteur in ' the voice, ■''1 am matured. I am a world traveller. The proof is in fclie 1 spirit." 1