AN UNREHEAESED SCENE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 63, 15 March 1906, Page 4

AN UNREHEAESED SCENE.

At the Southampton Docks, the departing scene was an animated one, though hurried. The passengers on board the s.s. Now York lined the, bulwarks, and when the New- ZeWMiiders appeared heai»,fey>(}heersHvere raised. There was a 'minute's pause on the way from the train to the gangway for the inevitable photo--grapher to do his work. Meanwhile an' unrehearsed scene was being enacted on board. Some score of schoolboys from the Hartley Private College had received permission to go on board. Some half-a-dozen of these youngsters were Welsh, and each wore a leek or, rather, portions of one leek torn into as many pieces as there were boys to wear them—on their breasts, They greeted the New Zcalauders with the Welsh National Anthem, .and then among themselves began a kind of interrogation : — " What's the matter with tho New Zealanders? " —'•' They're all right/ sang the ohorus, « Who's all right ? "—Shouts, " The New Zcalanders are all right." " Did they beat Scotland ? " —" Yes ! " (emphatically.) " Did they bent Ireland ? " —" Yes \ " (forte,) " Did they boat England ■*"—" Yes ! " (fortissimo.) '■' Did — they — beat — Wales •*" — " N-o-o!" (in lcng-drawn yells.) Here would conic a bar or two of a Welsh patriotic refrain, and then once again the interlocutor with auburn locks would proceed, with slow and studied diction: — (( Who—has—the—best—footballers ?" —" W-a-1-e-s." '• Who — has — the — next — best ?'— " N-e-w Z-c-a-1-a-n-d." " Who — has — the — worst ?" — ••' E-n-g-1-a-n-d." There were cheers at the end of every sally, and more interrogations. " Who carried the leek ?"—" Gwyn Nicholls." " Who ate the leek ?"—" G-a-1----1-a-g-h-e-r." (i Who scored tho try ?"—" T-e-d-d-y M-o-r-g-a-n." " Who bottled Gallagher up ?"— " D-i-c-k-y 0-w-e-n." All this was given Avith the utmost good humour, and taken in a similar spirit. It was boys' hero worship, and no sooner were the New Zcalanders on board than they were surrounded by the boys, all anxious to get tho autograph of one or other of tho Itoani upon some picture of the New Zealanders published in the newspapers.