The Kelburn Car.

Free Lance, Volume XVII, Issue 915, 25 January 1918, Page 9

The Kelburn Car.

(For the N.Z. Free Lance.) Ambition is a feature of the Kelburn cable-car, ■For though it fails to travel very fast' or very far, And though it starts from, undertt J ..§ r ? und > lf - 7 et contrives to rise Until it hobliobs with the sun and leans against the skies. Alternately it climbs through tunnelled , T7 .. runnel-ways and swingsWith acrobatic balance high on wooden tressellings. One moment all is darkness and the next is all ivglare, And that is annoying when you wish to read your Free Lance there; But then, of course, the man who tries to read aboard that car Is merely advertising that his wits have wandered far. And as you glide through 'gloom and glare and feel the tramcar quake, *ou hope the strins that pulls the thing will not decide to break. And as you rise you glimpse the skies, with here and there a view Of hills of brown,- a red-roofed townand harbour-waters blue; Two gum-trees and a rowan-tree • pohutukawa blooms; And backyard windows open into sun-' dry private rooms; A concrete wall; a college, and a far destructor-flue; His Excellency's washing; and the mountains in a queue; An island, and a prison-camp wherein the Germans hoeh; And billows breaking far away in spray upon a rock. And then, of course, there's quite a bright array of scenery About the very car itself. For instance, there you see The one-o'clocikers dinging on by tooth and nail and hair; And now and then, a specimen of the semi-millionaire y Some damozels of dainty grace; and brainy men galore; And sometimes you may chance to glimpse' a Free Lance editor, A literary lawyer, or librarian of fame; With one or other noted ones too numerous to name. And now I wish to whisper secrets. Look! and you will see Among them one who's like a. sun among the stars. ■ That's me. —Bartlett Adamson.