THE MISSING LINEMAN-HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9180, 9 October 1888, Page 3

THE MISSING LINEMAN-HONOUR TO WHOM HONOUR IS DUE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —Having observed your Rotorua correspondent's account of the return of Mr. Bussey, who lost himself whilst inspecting the telegraph line near that township, permit me to supply a remarkable omission in Mr. Bussey's narrative, as related by your correspondent. On the evening of the Thursday previous to Mr. Bussey's return, I was staying with Mr. William Oakley, at his house at Galatea. At a quarter to ten o'clock a traveller arrived on horseback, and requested a shakedown, saying he had been lost on the plains. This was the missing lineman. He was, of course, welcomed. Whilst his horse, which was suffering from a bad saddle-gall, was being atttended to and fed by Mr. Oakley, Mrs. Oakley rose, lit the kitchen fire, and prepared a supper for the wanderer, who told us he had eaten nothing for two days. After breakfast on the following morning, Mr. Bussey, receiving from Mr. Oakley full directions as to his route, set out for Rotorua, refusing to take a supply of provisions for the road, as he thought himself certain to. reach his destination that afternoon. That Mr. Bussey, in his report to your correspondent, should have omitted all mention of ihe hospitality he met with at Galatea, is my reason for occupying your space. Mr. Bussey. on his arrival at Mr. Oakley's, was as "knocked up as they make 'em, and more so," and he would have required a great deal more than the remnant of a "tin of cocoa " to take him to Rotorua. Mr. Bussey, whilst at Mr. Oakley's, remarked that he had been fifteen years in New Zealand. Surely such a lengthened experience of the colonies would have taught him not to go fifty miles out of his way, and, if by any chance he did so, to "properly appreciate the hospitality so freely rendered when it was so absolutely necessary.--I am, etc. H. Moore. Whakatane, October 3, 1888.