FACTS AND FANCIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 9869, 15 January 1918, Page 3

FACTS AND FANCIES

(To tho Editor, "N.Z. Times.”)

Sir,—ln answer to Hr Bodley of your 12th instant issue, where he contradicts facts and a statement by the highest authority in Wellington. I wish to straighten him un a bit (he surely needs it> by showing him a difference between fact and fancy. ■ Now, this is a fact; that a largo employer of labour, after observing during the best part of a hot day a party of men at work, closed his observations with the written remark. "They worked like Trojans." which I, take means persistently and hard. To prove that we did so. we have first tho written expression of the gentleman mentioned: we have mv testimony of long hours and very hard work regarding myself; and my testimony as to the manager's share. As your writer mentions the manager of the concern that I am speaking about, including him in the same category; now, the manager was the last to leave very late that night the Thorndon clearing shed, and the first on the spot the next morning ready to deliver the previous night’s milk before 5 o'clock to your writer, your writer assisting as much as possible. I know the manager worked like a Trojan which your writer flatly denies; he also flatly denies that anybody else worked like a Troian.

When tho words wore used in dcsoribing how we worked they were quite true and to the point, and Hr Bodley erred in resurrecting them. Another fact is that the- authority I have previously mentioned, who at a dis-

tanco Tras unobtrusively TFaLctunjr th© working of the concern, came over to me and after averring that as I knew so many people in Wellington, and that as the concern nas short-handed, questioned me as to where some men could be found—men .that would work with waistcoats olf, I happened to hare mine on at tho time. X quietly took this as a compliment. If your waiter wants more facts he may get impressive facts _ from any oi the chains that ho was writing about ns being like lost sheep. They would l:ke to interview him. ■ ...

Against these facts vour writer s impugnation stands for nothing. Perhaps your writer, while viewing the seeno of th© fiasco, peradventur© dropped his glasses into a can or vat of milk, which, if not sufficiently wiped before adjusting to the nose might cause the brain behind to jump to conclusions, and see things, iu which case the flight of imagination might b© very lofty indeed. The men with the milk cans # might seem like sheep; thq manager with his long white coat on might appear as their shepherd. Th© men flitting about the shed trying to interview th© manager could appear as gnomes from fairyland. An obscured vision with th© aid oi a tangled imagination could easily convert the reporters into specimens or the moa bird, especially if they waved their papers about to represent small wings, in© physical sight being clouded the could adjust to iteolf what it most desired to see; objects would shape themselves to tho mind’s dominating idea. Th© mental vision could thus bring forward from the back of th© brain some long-cherished notion or anticipation* or even string together a verse. , The vers© of versos, of course, would b© something after this style i Hike sheep they all are gone astray# Each blessed on© goes his own way. Nob a sign of a guiding hand— A disorganised, helpless band! So much for fancy, but the facts have ;t.-I am. etc.. H ASHWORTH. Wadcstown.