CHINESE CHURCH PICNIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 2757, 16 January 1907, Page 18

CHINESE CHURCH PICNIC.

A NEW CXBUM'S IMPRESSIONS. .Of the many picnio parties which left Dunedin ytation on Tuesday morning it i 3 leafe to say that none spent a. happier and more enjoyable day than did those of us who journeyed to East Taieri with the j Chinese of the Walker street Chinese ohurch. The weather was surely of New Zealand's summer best, and it was difficult for some of us, whose Christmas and New Year festivities have often been celebrated with frost and snow, to realise that here it was midsummer and 1 yet at the same time New Year's Day. Arrived at East Taieri, we were welcomed by our kind host and hostess, Rev. Mr and Mrs Kinmont, in the precincts of whose home our happy day was to be spent. It did not take us long to feel at home in cur Veautiful surroundings, and one and all settled down to make the most of the day while the sun shone. We soon discovered that to the Chinese mind the word '" picnic " seems to mean " a fea«t of fat things," for preparations were soon forthcoming whioh heralded something more of an open air banquet than any picnic fare of whioh we had ever partaken before. Even fo g'.een peas and potatoes, fresh from the soil, John had forgotten nothing, and when our gcod friend "See Wah " suspended j cooking operations, it was a morrv party ' which sat down to sample the good things spread by Mrs Lo Keong. Dinner was hardly o\er when the Rev. Wm. and Mr Paul Chan, each accompanied by his " beft-er-half," arriiod on the sopne, ha\ in? ilr,\en out from the ci^. "The ' more tho meiriei." and the=e friends were made warmly welcome. A div m the country, very evidently, k as welcome to a Chinaman as to anyone 01-c and to see him enioying a parne of fiickei or the giddy heights- of a "swing.' i« wo; th gosns: a long wav to see. From tho inn'st of the=e pastimes we were gat.he'<"l for the ciKtomarv photograph, and under the shade of an oak treo we ■ found w<> mustered o\er 60 a.ll told. 33 of our minibor beinj; C*h:ne«p friomls. including se\ernl whom no welcomed from the Dunedin Kapti-t Chinese Class. Rev Mr Don ; appeared in tho now capacity of photo- : graphor, and as he p'ii!o-o)>U calh explained j to tho-o of us who wpfo in tl'o haok row, j *h ir l)oc,iu=o w> could se-e the camera, it d-d not noo.-s-arilv follow that tho camora I could -o<> ii-, o'ii> fo't that ho re iik'ooJ was oi o i>m r i hi l< a«t who know In- wort. j Ft i- pni oftf>n that ono ha-t tho pleasure r>f < mjo-v my itim^'o and af T ernoon toa in a n'n.viiii; room with C'liun so ladies; \<-t t ha-t \\,<~ our iroi'<l foninif on 1 ue~./a\ afternoon, an I lator on when the whole company 1 t-d ' 1 ic i od in the pretty church to o.xpros* (mr gratitude to the (ii/er of overv pood and perfect gift ji wa-i a uniquo oxperionc > m sing.n? the ojj familiar livum*. to join with oif f nines* brothers who vmg t ! ■? =wnio thoughts of j>raise in their own I moMier-tongue. ' ! After many warm expressions of szratiI tude to our kind host and hostess, we bade farewell to the beautiful spot whore we had . ' spent 'iuch an enjoyable day, and the train ' was c :on bearing us back to our Dunedin home*.' i It ti* on <lays =itioti A-s il*-o-^*» that tli-e ol*>ia<3-s srem to scatter from our horizon and wo sea that here already in our own tune we have the earnest of days to oome. when — " Man to man. the world o'er. Shall brothers be for a' that." J.K. January 2, 1907,