How the Major was "Drawn."

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXVII, Issue 1362, 28 May 1895, Page 3

How the Major was "Drawn."

An amusing experience which befell the Chairman of the Tariff Commission (Major Steward) at Picton has leaked out, which I (Wellington correspondent Wairarapa Daily) hasten to put on record. Major Steward, as everyone knows, is very sore that he was not made a knight upon the expiration of his term of office as speaker, and he never loses an opportunity of airing his grievances in this connection. While at Picton recently, the Tariff Commissioners were asked to inspect the establishment of an old gentleman who has acquired quite a local reputation as a manufacturer of home-made wines. The Commissioners duly turned up at the time appointed and carefully sampled all the various wines, pronouncing high encomiums upon them. Someone proposed a vote of thanks to the wine decoctor, and the proprietor himself, not feeling equal to the task of replying, deputed his assistant to do so. The assistant bashfully got upon his legs, and said how pleased his employer and himself were to have such a distinguished gathering gracing their humble home. Warming up to his subject, the gooseberry wine was no doubt beginning to take effect, he continued, turning to Major Steward, " We have ofteu heard of you, Sir, and your doings in Parliament over there in Wellington, and how you sat on them all when you were in the chair but we always thought as how they had made you a Knight." This was too much for the Major. He seized the opportunity, and for about half-an-hour explained the whole matter in d'-tail, and with much elaboration, until the whole company present, including the Commissioners themselves, begau to feel that a gross injustice had been perpetrated in defrauding the Major out of his much-coveted distinction. The Chairman has, ever since this little incident, been obsequiously addressed as " Sir Jukes."