WARD ISLAND ROMANCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 358, 4 May 1912, Page 5

WARD ISLAND ROMANCE.

SENSATIONAL STORY Of A STORMY SABBATH. PICNIC PARTY'S PRETTY PLIGHT. Lads and Lassies m a Lureh — Weather-bound on an Island — Spend the Sabbath m a Cave— An Awful Night of Wind I and Rain— Brave Boys become a Human Breakwind—How the Party Passed the Time— The Rescue— What the Girls say.

Six stalwart sons of Neptune Agreed to have some fun; i A yachting beano they arranged, And asked some girls to come.

The nltra-prv.dish section of windy Wellington turned up its bespectacled eyes m holy horror on Monday .morning last when it read m its morning paper the sensational story of a Saobath yachting party ' of young men • ami women being marooned on Ward Island for the best .part of Sunday and till midnight. The staff of one daily displayed grea£ energy to glean something sensational, and. m the absence of tru^y tragic titlings, the reporters imagined a "mystery," and. interviewed tire captain of the Cobar, the police, II arbor Board, and a lot of otber ■■oafSr-i^l folk who knew | vj.acMffig -ijscat'ii-. 'ih?u- t rir-.; v^s 1 o i '•;: e-j.i. \hi2 ;.i.v v'it;\ iie^c?, >yi ;l:r \r-.' '\\is-m i-o the. pav-^J uvcierf- the h.*.jr | r<i.i.s&i-&' t-s*Ai- li U lli A TAGHTIN'G MISHAP! ' PARTY STRANDED ON WAKD " ' ISDAND ! : .That m itself, perhaps, is only

At the yacht's side we see them meet : With hampers, fruit, and milk, ' i The gents a- wearing their short pants, The ladies not m silk.

what may be expected m presentday competitive journalism, but when the paper specially mentioned ] that two of the women were "bai*maids," its dirty innuendo was , ap- ' parent to those built that way, and ,m consequence the unhappy girls have been subjected to not a little insult by hoodlums who learned from the paper their identity and place of employment. That was 1 over the odds. ; The history of the little romance i« so common-place that "Truth" would not waste its space m the telling were it not that so many garbled accounts have been circula.lexl around town, and "Truth"' : wishes to put things right. The ! 'Skipper of the Ethel, the trim little

A while S'|Urt!l irame and play ft I m>j" well ; The boats were soon adrift. : iWn see them on Wan) Island, To where they had to shift.

! craft which reluctantly left the j party on the island, called on i -'Truth" during the week, with the • polite request "that we should "cut it out." presumably a nautical or ! tailoring phrase, meaning suppres-'si-crn. To "Truth" a request to ! suppress is as a red-rug- to a hull, ' and before the young man left our i .sanctum he supplied us with a few j missing links m the following narj rative. The sketches speak for themselves. i'ltvlf-a-do^en good-heart ad amateur sailormcn had arranged to treat a quartette of prepossessing young ladies to a yachting picnic last Sunday,

Our artist here depicts the boys Extending an "invite" To go a- sailing for the day — They said nought of the night.

and, though, the weather was not too inviting m the early morn for such an excursion, it cleared . up later, ami a jolly little party of picnickers' set sail by the yacht Ethel about ten o'clock, all bent on having a line old. time away *on the solitudes of Ward Island, which, it might be mentioned for the information of land-lubbers, is an uninviting spec of terra iirma m the harbor between Somes Island and Day's Bay. Though restricted m area, it is a favorite rendezvous of boating parties, and many- ladies deem it j.olly fun to tap the light fantastic top on the littl? bald spot qrs the ! a>p 01 S.'fjoo. TViO'.-xh Ibr u".*: v ( •-.■?■,:-■ ' o-jpr v _ Jili'!.ft did i-Vif; K-'ujd ' '*".h;.-u lc;j ■ ."iio ■:{?(•«> ci ir . i.b .; \}a> \ y p";isii?'.i if;.oif ::-!.Sfc.ftti' - i-i>ft'::Ki;! i ;-;. I;»i'Obini: i.tlrti:' •!,>>• . tt-UoLliyC aboii 1 .- oiii o'oLs»c.c. Luiy | landed, per dinghy, and boiled" t'io billy and had lunch. ICverythin^ Wcis going merrily as v nutrriairc'bell, ,and the four damsels' wove ilo- | ing their beat to divide; vh.-.ir iiUcn- ;

The Ethel set her sails quite gay, Bight merry souls aboard, Across the harbor they made, way To the islanu known as Ward.

tions among their six admiring •swains, wiien SUDDENLY THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENED. A gust of wind arose, and m a trice it had freshened into a squall, which quickly put whitg horses on the water- and alarmed the skipper and his gallant crew, who decided to board the yacht, whioh was lying a little distance from the island. The skipper and one of the men went on m tlhc dinghy to the Ethel to prepare her for the return of the party to town, but the fury of the elements upset their intentions, and, after reaching the yacht, the dinghy swamped. With the 'dinghy, disabled, there was no option but to set sail for town for assistance to

rave-clwe'icM-: they became that liiiilu, ! And inlil sonic siories queer; Thv> runny thinsr tlu-y now tell us Js t.liat tiitw was no 'beer!

gel the other picnickers oft .the islaivil. and. conseijucnLly, the four weather-bound couples were left alone m their glory. The rain and wind showed no j.-ity for the, Sa-hbath-breakers, and quenched 'their lire m quick limu. The girls SOUGHT SHELTER TX- A CAVJ3 which proA'ed too small to accommodate the whok party, so tin- lads formed themselves into a human breakwind at the mouth of the cave to protect the weaker sex from the 'elements. Tmagi.ne the picture, dear reader. Pour half-clad .spommvn.s of humanity, each wearinpr nougrJH but the usual yachting costume of a pair of short knickers