JOINS THE FLEET

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 45, 21 August 1925, Page 8

JOINS THE FLEET

AN AUCKLAND DOG MAKES GOOD.

(BI TELEORAPH.—SPECIAL TO 188 POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. An amusing incident occurred the other day when a party of 500 American sailors were about to start on their journey to Rotorua. The central figure was a dog, and he is going to be the reminder for many a laugh among our visitors when New Zealand is left behind them. While the train was waiting at the station the men were attracted by a dog which gratefully responded to their friendly overtures, and was quite willing to become an extra passenger at the invitation of some of the sailors. The regulations, however, are rigid, and the guard was obliged to veto the proposal. But the dog evidently got a "Tiunch" about the situation, and cocking his head knowingly, wagged his- tail, and cheerfully rested on his haunches. The whistle blew, and off went the train, and tho dog,. allowing it a reasonable handicap, trotted off in pursuit. The Americans thought they had seen the last of the dog, but then they didn't know about tho Eomuera hill. Slowly and more slowly worked the driving-rod of the panting engine as it hauled 500 Jackies up the hill. The load was beginning to tell, and the dog running light and with a good lope soon drew up alongside and hnrkrrl greetings to his highly tickled friends on board. The chance was too

good to be missed; and one of the sailors hopping .off landed the doggie triumphantly on the car, and the extra passenger made the journey to llotorua without further trouble from authority. He was jealously guarded during the 6tay .^t the thermal township, and returned with his friends to Auckland. It is not many dogs which can count among their scalps the beating of a train, and he has now been elevated to the rank of mascot on the battleship that captured him.