RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33819, 16 April 1975, Page 27

RANDOM REMINDER

TORTOISE, HARE, ETC.

Hitch-hiking, if not warmly regarded by some people, is a popular form of transport. And when a young Christchurch man decided to visit friends in Gpre, he thumbed his way successfully down the South Island. But while he was there, he fell ill. When he had recovered, he decided he should catch the Southerner, because of his delicate condition. All the way to Dunedin, he watched the cars flashing by, and he became firmly convinced that hitching was far faster than rail travel. He chatted amiably, however, with the elderly couple seated next to him — the man a retired railwayman.

But at Dunedin, he could stand it no longer. He was off the train at high speed, and he made for the road. But the cars were very few and he had to take a taxi to the city limits. Still the rides came infrequently; they were short. At Palmerston, he not only watched the Southerner go by: he even suffered the humiliation of having to respond to the cheery waving of the elderly couple beside his seat. He was depressed, already sore of foot, and he decided to reboard the train at Oamaru. A truck driver, a rather loquacious Dutchman, stopped for him. But soon' the conversation stopped too, for the passenger discovered that whenever

he spoke, the truck speed dropped to about 20 miles an hour. At Oamaru, he had difficulty in finding the station. But he was there, with two minutes to spare. There was much merriment among the other passengers when he got back to his seat. And the guard was mystified about the lack of punch holes in his ticket. So an explanation , had to be given. That made the guard amused too. The railway veteran next to him said solemnly: “You can’t beat the railways, son”. And he was right: they even refunded the part of the fare to compensate for the Dunedin-Oamaru section. He then didn’t really feel like mentioning the taxi fare.