RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31501, 16 October 1967, Page 19

RANDOM REMINDER

FREELOADING

With the advent of summer, the hitch-hikers will be out in force again, and at this early stage we wish none of them the ill-fortune which a young New Zealander encountered in England some time ago. He was completing his training on Salisbury Plain and one night went to the local, some four miles from his camp. What with one thing and another, he maneged to miss the last transport available to camp, and had to set out on a long walk in the black-out. He started off in reasonably high spirits, but his army boots were new, and his feet kept reminding him of

it. Half-way home, he could not resist the temptation to sit oh the grass verge and divest himself of his uncomfortable footwear. It was very dark, and his judgment was perhaps not at its keenest, but he was quick enough to seize an opportunity of help which came in a most unexpected manner. As he sat there rubbing his feet he saw. a few yards away in the gloom, a Baby Austin car making slow progress along the road. He looked inside <snd was alarmed to discover that it was without a driver. But the Kiwi soldier was never one to lose a chance, so he climbed into the seat. The car, as silent as the night about

him, kept creeping forward, in the right direction, as if some guardian angel was directing the operation. But at the camp gates, there was no suggestion of an angel in the hairy hand which came in through the window and turned the wheel. And there was no hint of harps and purple clouds when from behind the car came the voice of a young captain, who was telling the corporal of the guard that he didn't think he could have pushed the lurid vehicle another yard. And let it be added that the quality of his oratory did not improve when his passenger was flushed from the car.