SHREWD MASCOT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22100, 4 May 1935, Page 10

SHREWD MASCOT

MUCH-EXPERIENCED CAT' i 44 BLACKIE" OF THE MATAf 1 KNOWN IN MANY PORTS When the Government stealer Matai berthed at Lyttelton the other morning the smallest, but by no mean* least important, member of the ere* ignored the work whichywaned for % othern, strolled down the gangway a n( ] j up thci wharf, and glanced patroni'singly j at the town, states the Christchurci Press. Deciding that neither it nor jj|| city on the other side of the hill i changed enough since his last visit to merit inspection, he wrinkkd his noso derisively in their general direction sauntered hack to the ship, curled in a sunny spot on the boar.-deck, and went to sleep. He is Blaokie, ship's cat, known to every lighthouse keeper in tlio country and to this men ancl. cats of every port. Into the seven years that Blackie liag been on the Tutanekai anil her suecessor., the Matai, he has cramfiiec! enough experience to fill more than nine ordinary lives, for he'iis a' cat of initiative and resource. Several times he has missed the boat. Oni;e he was not aboard ia Auckland at sailing time, and the ship had to go without him. There was mu::h lamentation at his loss. Some days later Hjjj Matai berthed at Wellington. Various people were waiting on the wharf, juiii so was the deserter. By inquiries ifc > r was found that he had been iin Welling- i ton three days before the sh; p, strolling about:, waiting for her. Presumably he had boarded a train. "Another time Blackie was stranded, in Lyttelton. Three weeks later the Matai was in Westport and the Breeze arrived. Blackie walked off the Breeze, along the wharf, and reported bad home for duty. High intelligence or great luck must have decided hi» choice of a ship to stow ay jay on, for he might easily have picked one thai; would not hnve met the Matai for years- The crew insist that it was intelligence. , i ,[ Sometimes when the Matai is in Wellington, her home port, for a longiiiih stay, Blackie feels the call of the sica surging through hin vein's. He boards the Wahine or the Rangatira, on both of which he is uell known, and travels south, returning next night after renewing old acquaintanceships jl; in Lyttelton. >