BOYHOOD FRIENDS MEET

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25088, 21 January 1947, Page 5

BOYHOOD FRIENDS MEET

"Could you tell me the way to the Mayor’s office, please?” asked a Salvation Army officer of a man at the entrance to the Christchurch .City Council Chambers yesterday afternoon. "Come with me up the stairs and I’ll show you,” said the man. Half-way up the stairs, the Salvation Army officer stopped and asked: “You are not Mr Andrews, are you?” It was the Mayor (Mr E, H. Andrews) acting as guide while he tried to make up his mind whether the visitor were Commissioner J. F, Lewis, whom he haa not seen for nearly 50 years. Both were right. Commissioner Lewis said he had asked if “Ernie Andrews” had given up school teaching yet, and had learned that the man with whom he had been a pupil teacher in the Ashburton district as a youth was now Mayor of Christchurch, so he had decided to call. Mr Andrews said he had noticed that Commissioner Lewis had been at Ashburton, and had half expected -a visit. They talked for a time over the last days of penny-farthing bicycles when they had begun to take a keen interest in cycling, and other memories of years ago.