FISHING AND FISHERMEN.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1249, 6 February 1896, Page 27

FISHING AND FISHERMEN.

Communications for this" column should be addressed "Blue Dun," New Zealand Mail Office, Wellington. The Editor will be glad to receive accounts of catches, descriptions of fishing grounds, fishing' experiences and anecdotes generally. THE "FEESHIN' MEENESTER." " Ev'n ministers they hae been ken'd, In holy rapture, A rousing -vvhid at times to vend An' nail't \vi' scripture." The Rev. Dr. Marshall, of Scots Church writes •' Wooroera " in the Australasian, is a great admirer of Burns, and therefore I have I thought it wise to commence this paragraph with the above quotation. The doctor is away in New Zealand trout fishing, and ho has sent an account of his doings to a friend in Melbourne, who, with a simple faith in the doctor's accuracy winch I cannot but admire, has ventured to publish it. Here is an extract : — li Although the weather was by no means favourable for piscatorial operations I had 12 trout to my rod— a total weight of about 20lb. The first fish I caught was°nearly 31b weight, and the last 41b, and they ran with the gameness of salmon. I am out for the most part hard at it, wading and casting from dawn to dark." Burn s " holy rapture " never comprehended a more ecstatic condition of mind than that which is experienced on landing a fine trout, and I ask how is it possible for any man under such conditions at such a moment to keep his judgment calm and his nerves under such control that he can exactly estimate the weight of the beauty ? There is one section of Scots Chuich congregation which wants to have the fish weighed, for they say that there is no sin more common than that of telling fibs about fish, and their minister must not even lie under such a suspicion. But I say that such a course would be most unfair to Dr. Marshall, who has been careful to U3e the qualifying expressions "about'' and " nearl3 r ," and I incline to the view expressed by one of the elders in the following lines :

When tho meenester stans wi' his goon an' lii.s bans, An' turns up his een an' spreads oot his bans, Wi' an air o' devotion pervadin' each feature, He seems such a wyse-like, superior creature, That we puir fowk wha sit In the pews at his fit Feel we live in a different warl' fiae the preacher.

But when he's awa', recreation to seek, An' he turns up his trews an' he wades in the creek, An' when —after hookin' a beauty—he loses His feesh and his temper, the language he uses Is the same we a'own to Bern' whiles somewhat prone to ; And we feel that oor fa'in' away has excuses. When nicht time has come an' the feeshing is o'er, An' ilka twa pun troot increases tae fowr, It gars my hert warm —as I tak my bit sneesbin'— Tae see that he hasn't forgot his addeetion. The Auld Adam comes oot In the weight o' they troot; Oor meenester's nocbt but a man when he's feeshin'.