RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31076, 3 June 1966, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

MORE HASTE When a young man of our acquaintance proposed to drive to Picton, to leave his car there and to catch the afternoon ferry to Wellington, three friends decided the trip would be better with company. The four reached Blenheim with time to spare and tucked into a leisurely lunch. The leisureliness of it, coupled with a wrong turning, delayed their arrival at Picton, but at least the ferry was still there.

The driver stopped near it so that his passengers could take the luggage aboard, and then parked the car. But by the time

he had done this and had walked to the end of the linkspan, the gangway was withdrawn and the ferry was steaming away. There were a few yards of ferry still to pass and if it had been a film, our young man would have jumped; but it was not He just stood there, awed by the size of the gap, the speed of the ship and the weight of his coat.

His passengers were dismayed to see their host stranded. They had tried to no avail to delay the ship’s departure. Now there was nothing else they could do. So they hoped he could join them the next day and, as

young men will, they carried on as if he had been present. Their merrymaking ceased at Wellington, where they had to divide their host’s luggage and trudge heavily burdened through the streets and up the stairs to their destination. They opened the door and there, to their surprise, was the young man, who thanked them for their trouble with his luggage. He had parked his car further down the road, he explained—at Blenheim in fact, and had taken a plane which landed him at Wellington an hour before the ferry arrived.