Pen and Pencil at the City Council Picnic.

Free Lance, Volume VIII, Issue 399, 22 February 1908, Page 7

Pen and Pencil at the City Council Picnic.

WffEN the staff at the City Council office make up theox minds to do a thing that thing is as .good as done. Moreover you can. Jay Lombard-street to a china orange that at wall be done thoroughly, too. They have- got the name for thoroughness down there, and, whether it is sanding ■out a, notice to ratepayers, receipting a bill, ordering water carts about town when the weather is going to weep, or what not, they are goers for thoroughness. It is in the atmosphere at the Town Hall, and, furthermore, the employees carry it about with them. • • • Now take, for instance, the picnic they had at Day's Bay the other afternoon. There was a picnic if you like! The municipal staff were out for the occasion, and strained every nerve and fibre to make the afternoon a real sporting go. Some of the staff went ■across the harbour m the morning. The very ferry-boat seemed to have caught the spirit of the occasion, and looked her best, and cut the run out in her best time with the Council officials on board And well she might. These men might have had things altered had matters been otherwise. The captaan might have pulled up without his master mariner's certificate. • • • The saving element was the fact that the City Council officials had pressing matters on hand that- Friday. There was Secretary Mcßean, for example. One could see from his very eye that he had a heap of business on hand that day. He paced the vessel's deck fitfully, as thauga he was perfectly disgusted with her twenty-two* knots an hour crawl, wanted to get at the other side of the water in three strides

And when he did land at Day's Bay he became the man of the moment at once. Whose green hat was in everybody's eye? Why, iScßean's! Whose ample calves, encased in smart golf stockings, flashed all over the greenswaxd, and in and out of the refreshment rooms ? Mcßean's ! With tight-ly-buttoned coat smoking cigarettes by the packet, his arms akimbo and swinging as vigorously as his stride, the secretary walked and walked, hooted and hollered, called up his reserves, and sent out his battalions of understrappers. This was Waterloo, and he was the Iron Duke of the occasion. And when the day was done, Wellington Mcßean had scored a vieEverybody didn't take the game as seriously as Mcßean. Paterson, the assistant engimeer. was there. Some people only saw his hat, but Paterson was under 'that hat So were his blue

and white striped shurt and his peculiar pants. Those pants were lake the grand old Duke of York, of whom history (Green's English, pp. 808, sec. iy., sub-sec. A.) relates that on ome occasion he was neither up nor down. P&tersoitt's pants were three-quartered, but it didn't interfere with the assist-ant-engineer's appetite, nor his pleasure, throughout the day. With his pipe in his mouth he looked om at the races, aaid in the event for the ladies' braces or bracelet (we're really not sure which, owing to what may possibly have been a misprint in the programme 1 Paterson cheered wildly and well. But he did look a holidaymaker fit to engineer anything. Va-nous honours and pleasures, of course, befell various gentlemen. A man is like water, in that he always finds his level. The Chief Clerk, Mr. Tait now, could no moire find his Paradise amongst the members of a tug-of-war team than he could find

pleasure in punching the breath out of Mt. Mav'or with fourteen-ounce gloves on, under Marquis of Queensberry rules. His is a veiry different aitmospheire of sighing zephyrs and gentle ladies' smiles. Not for him the tournament when the tarts a<re to be -handed around. His pathway that Friday lay among the fair, and he did nobly. When the Muse goit hold of pooor, blind Jo<hn Mil ton. one day, she moved him to write that "they also serve who only ■stand and wait. M-r. Tait did more. He walked and waited. He carried tray after tray, tart after tart, cup

after cup, bcrEh serving and waiting, and always with that native grace and charm that belongs to the xoyaJ house of Tait. He came, lie saw, he conrquered. And then he partook of the dainties himself. • • ■ There was a gentleman named Brown.. "John Brown?" Don't interrupt please ! Can't say whether ho was John. Brown, or Tom Brown. We were introduced by a gentleman, who said, "Mr. Brown." It couldn't have been John Brown, because John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, and his soul goes marching on. We are prepared to aver that this Brown, was ac the Council picnic, body and soul. Every bit of him was in it, and no, one in Wellington can, open, a ginger-beer bottle beside him. Why?

Don't know why. Only, Mr. Brown said so. He opened 'em that day by the dozen. He's been to picnics innumerable but he's been head bottleopened at each and aJI of them. He said so. Opening bottles is a. gift. Some men have burst their hands opening bottles — ginger-beer bottles. Mr. Brown never has. He said so. He is devoted to this art, and some day he believes it will make him famous. He said so. Another gentleman upon whom the caies of the day sat lightly was Mr. Thomas. He is in the office of the Town Clerk, but he knows the value of a holiday, and whenj the cry "To the bush, boys ! To the bush !" went Forth, Mr. Thomas donned his hardhitter and went forth also And

there is something natty and jaunty about Mr. Thomas. As he stood there, talking to. a group of mothers, who fondled their babes in arms, his face and figure were an inspiration. His hands were behind his back, his hat was stuck lightly on the back of his head and he leaned forward m a manner that might have appeared patronising but for his undoubted smile. Mt. Thomas made a day of it, a,nd went home to his house justified and burned like to the oclour of a hawthorn berry. • • • Nearby the chute, where black swa.ns and pale young ladies disported themselves, in the shade of the old spreading tree, Mr. Justice Prendergast flung himself down at mid-day to* cool himself. He looked happy and patriarchal. Had he looked unhappy oins anight have likened him to. Eli;jali, who flung himself do>wn under a juniper tree. Gould never understand why

the ancient prophet didn't sort himself out a decent-sized tree while he was at at. But Mr .Justice Prendergast was up to the business. He- had the light tree and a good seat, and he soon had his hat off and was tucking into some fruit. The bag was om the ground between his feet. He is fond of fruit as anyone might see, and he had his picnic on his own*, with little sea views and ocean breezes in between the bites. But how came he. to a City Council picnic 9 ♦ ♦ » The City Valuer, Mr. Ames, was at the picnic. He kept unfailing watch and ward over his little one. One began to understand, by watching Mr. Ames, the force of the text, "A little child should lead them." Here was the city man of set intentions and firmlyrooted ideas a man whose keen ya-luations applied alike to property and time. Yet on this day at the Bay he was clay in the hands of the potter. The little babe in. arms was

the patter, aaid on the .rapidly-revolv-ing wheel of the baby's liies and dislikes Mr. Ames was plastic. And with it all we venture the suggestion that he was perfectly happy. Balancing the little one on the raid whicn surrounded the water-chute, whilst the Lttie mite chuckled and jumped with glee the valuer just looked a picture of adoration, and one instinctively asked himself what valuation Mr. Ames placed on the child. • • • Dick Worth, the messenger, was on the spot whenever wanted. Dick was born to be wanted, and he has filled the bill ever since. There aren't many "more-wanted" men in the Empire'Qity than Dick Wirth. And on the day of the picnic he was there like Solomon — in all his glory. Some people look lightly on the city messenger, but we can never understand

why. There is something attractive about Dick. Intelligence beams from his very glasses. Even at I>ay's Bay, as we contemplated his attitude, wflhich a Napoleon might copy with advantage, we -nere struck with the impresslveoiess of the man. His face seemed to be a study in surprises. His eyes were sort of skat-opened, whilst his nose was on half-ooci: with a semi-dis-daan. and all the while his whiskers seemed to be throwing out argumentative branches or arms as though they were in conflict with everybody and everything, and saying : "I don't believe you'" But wiifch it all Dick was cool and wary, and equal to any emergency — even the luncheon. • • • One gentleman who. was full of surprises was the City Solicitor O'Shea. His arms were full of life, now struggling, now chuckling, and again crying. But such natural cihild life. And the

O'Shea was a study in admiration. With his well-filled, if ample, pipe, going full strength, he trotted up and down with his burden, looking just the man. The weather was warm, but it is safe to. say that the O'Shea didn't feel it. There's a ' state of mind-conitentment that takes no know ledge of its environments, and Mr. O'Shea had found it at the Day's Bay bush, with Nature's labyrinth around him, and Nature's little child in his arms. • ♦ » Jimmy Doyle — Inspector James Doyle — the man who> I/ripped up our ciitdaens for using unmetered water, was the busiest man on the ground. You can't keep this man still ; it's mo use trying. His joints are knit together on the perpetual motion plan., aaiid if Jimmy Doyle ever sits down, it is only preparatory to rising on/ has feet again. And he's a man, of parts. too. We have seen him in aßsfhades and experiences of life. As- a deanisemi private detective, watching Out water interests, who. is more efficient than Jimmy Doyle? Yet here to-day was the inspector marking ont th<» running tracks with such ease ' and grace that one would have declared

him to be a professional wlhite-washer or bill-sticker. One might evem^ 'have gone further, and suggested that his fore-fathers or five-fathers before him had followed the same a<rt. He did it so well — as to the maainer born. And when >he pulled up he had not so much as turned a hair, but he had turned his hat from black to white with his prodigality and limewash. Town Clerk Palmer, photograph©*, by special appointment to the mothers at the City Council picnic, did great work. His face was the sum total of happiness. Look at it in. our picture cleverly caught by our artist. There's such expression in it — so .much light and shade. And it all came out in. nis

pictures. He was the beloved of all on this festal Say, was Mr. Palmer. Not a mother 'there who. didn't seek after him. Not a child that didn't make eyes at him whilst they watched for the little bird to fly out of his queer little box on legs. Mr. Palmer' had quite a field day, and gave entertainment to the many. • • • And one of the many was His Worship the Mayor, the Hon. T. W. Hislop, in the quaintest, funniest, little straw hat that ever you did see. And v

he laughed at Mr. Palmer until it was a guinea to a gooseberry that the button on the lower chest compartment of .his ooat would leave foor parts unknown by reason of the strain upoitt it. TTip Worship came late, and left early, but he crowded a lot of merriment into the time which he did sp&nd there.

When Eve left the Garden, of Edem she didn't look into, the murimr to see if her haar-pad was showing througjh; neither did she take a nether gnjp o* her Paris gown. There is no record of Ada-m toting a portmanteau for her, ax>d no sartorial history attached to theix goiing. It is considered by the clergy and laity now-a-days to be infra dig Tor a lady to leave in this way, but a Taxanaki health officer recently toJd a young lady who was living in an infected house that she might leave, but must take no' clothes! She consequently didn't leave.