THE RAROTONGA POLICE DEPARTMENT.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 723, 9 May 1914, Page 5

THE RAROTONGA POLICE DEPARTMENT.

There are many quaint stories current of the days of the Marter-Berkeley association. Business wasn't good, and after awhile the members'of the company were stranded in Wellington. It was then that Berkeley introduced Marter to the editor of the "New Zealand Times,'/ as "a marvel, my boy, a most brilliant young man from the 'Argus,' best catch you ever made." When Charlie Marter fell into newspaper life in that way he was innocent of journaLsm as a fish is innocent of trousers and dress-shirts. If tradition counts, it was an actor, too. who pitchforked Mr. Harry Taperell from a comp.'s case at Masterton into journalism is much the same way* Today Taperell is one of the most brilliant of all Australasian journalists, and Mr. Marter one of the safest, shrewdest, and most adroit sub-editors. By the way, as reference has been made to Berkeley, let it be said this 'is only a stage name. He was a clerk in the South Pacific office in Auckland before he took to the stage, and his name then was Charlie Robertson.

"You needn't say a word," he said. "It's your own fault. A taxi got in the way and I couldn't catch that car you got in to save my neck. I called to you to get off. but you didn't hear. I worried all the way to town. I know you d be mad because I didn't come inside." "Oh, no," said Mrs. Vere de Vere, "I'm not thinking about that. What I am worrying about is, what on earth did that' man think who paid my car fare?"