WAITAHUNA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 11

WAITAHUNA.

February 26.— The Waitahuna school's annual trip took place on Friday, 23rcl inst. The weather proved very fine, otherwise the trip would not have been so pleasant, a fine day being a most important factor on these occasions. The children on arriving in town were conducted to the Leviathjui for dinner, and thence in drags to the Ocean Beach. Permission having been obtained, the children were taken into the encampment, wheie evervtking visible received careful and "minute examination from pbout 63 pairs of .sharp eves, whose small owners took the fullest advantage of the liberty accorded them. After spending some time watching the contingent drill, the children were taken to the Hillside Workshops and the rope works, returning to Waitahuna in the evening train. having spent an enjoyable and iiiteresiing day.- We ware inlormcd previous to the trip that the committee had arranged ihai dinner should be served at the Lc-i-.,'haiv vi 11 o'clock sharp, the proprietor fixing his scale of charges at 9d for adults and (3:1 101 children. These arrangements were announced in the train going down, and the excursionists betook themselves to the Leviathan on arrival. Our reception and treatment here gave great dissatisfaction. The request that we should be shown to a waiting-room was superciliously refused, and no provision was made for taking charge of coats, umbrellas, etc., which had to be thrown on a chair in the vestibule or on the floor of a dusty disused bar. Dinner was to have been ready at 11 o'clock sharp, as time was golden, but it was not till a quarter to 12 exactly that the first course made its appearance. Country children are used to the best of food, uf tenor than not daintily prepared, and the average child requires a moie substantial dinner than soup and sago puddiiig. Are the committee satisfied wiUi the way the children were treated? I hope that if the children take another trip a more efficient committee will be in charge, for the managing committee last Friday evidently found the care of under 70 well-be-haved children too much for them, or else they exhibited utter indifference to the welfare of their wards for the time being. Surely the management of all public dining rooms know that' a supply of fish is essential at least on e\ cry Friday in the year ; but on this occasion there appears to have been a sudden scarcity of fish in Dunedin. The rights of Catholic children are apparently qitite beneath the lofty, cor si deration of the members of the committee. The contract entered into for dinner was, we were told, 9d, but the landlady charged Is when that unsatisfactory meal was over, and, displaying more determination than the secretary of the committee, she got it. If a shilling was the correct charge, why was it announced in the train that a contract had been entered into at 9d? The adults paid for themselves and the committee for the children. lam informed that a fresh contract was entered into for tea, adults 6d, but that when the few who were not too much disgusted in the morning went back behold they were charged Is. Whom are we

to censure? Is it tho committee? or. is thit the ordinary way of doiug business in town?