TRAIN TALK.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 23 November 1927, Page 6

TRAIN TALK.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —The following interesting discourse took place recently in a railway train travelling from Hawera to Wanganui. 1 jotted down a few notes of the conversation, but must apologise to your Scottish readers for many inaccuracies of that dialect. The two conversing were a loquacious Scotsman and a representative of one of our large commercial firms. “How long lia\e you been in New Zealand?” “I ha’e been aboot two years the noo.” “Do you like the people and the country ” “I think the folk are real guid; the country, mon, is bonnie, but it’s nae easy to get a bit lan’. I ba’e been spieriu’ aboot a guid mony bit places, but, mon, the siller they want is ower much. Me and Jeanie and the weans dinna want but a. bit -fifty acres, but we winna work for parritch only. Keek oot the windy, man, an’ see the big meadows ayont wi’ only sheep and kye on them. Why dinna the -Government tali’ it frae the biens an’ ha’e biggins and weans and callants, minnies and queans, on it? Ob, fat lambs and bullocks oomc off it. Hoots! mon; in Scotland that wadna do. I ha’e been telt a Lancashire lad ca’d Seddon, bad he lived the noo, wad ha’e taken all the big holdins of guid lan’ and had it werkit. Are they cuttin’ up big qstates in Scotland? Aye, but ye canna get muckle o’ it. I heerd Welsh Geordie in Lonon cracking to the gaucie folk aboot the big places, but ma certes the -bludes dinna like it. Are there many from Scotland emigrating here wanting lan’ ? Hech, mon! dizzens. Ma brithers, ye ken, ha’e writ me to come oot, but I writ and telt them to bide a wee. Losh, man ! ye ha’e no winter here, an’ sma’ farms are what ye want. Ls na kebbuclc better than fat lammies an’ fat live. Yon Government shud ha’o claehans an’ cliimlas by the dizzen on yon an I line a few cronies wud like some mailins ayont.”—l ani, etc., SPERO MELTORA.

P.S. interpretations : Mailing, farms; kebbucli, cheese; biggins, houses; claehans, hamlets; gaucie, prosperous: weans, children; eallants, boys; Welsh Geordie, Lloyd George; biens, well-to-do people; queans, women.