THE GIGANTIC PUMPKIN.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1071, 14 April 1880, Page 2

THE GIGANTIC PUMPKIN.

(Pumpkinosa Giganticus. ) Now on View at the Masonic. It has been our lot to see many 'pumpkins in our time, but the largest member of that genus that we have ever beheld is at present in the store-room of Mr. Daniel Page, of the Masonic Hotel. Pumpkins, we believe, have as much right to be considered fruit as cucumbers. The fruit, then, under review belongs to the pumpkinosa giganticiw species. It was brought into to town yesterday on a two wheeled vehicle, and when placed on the ground stood a little under three feet in height, the whole form being decidedly globular. This remarkable species of pumpkin was grown by Mr. Keating, on the Mangapapa Trust property, Whantaupoko, and was cut from the parent stem before it reached maturity, owing to the security of the garden being threatened by the abnormal development. [The imperfect and most unsatisfactory description here given was forwarded this morning by an eminent local horticulturalist. The circumstances are as follows : — Yesterday afternoon, at a few minutes to 3. 30, we were called upon to inspect the pumpkin asabove mentioned, which was on view at Mr. D. Page's Masonic Hotel. Having not more than about half-an-hour to spare, we only had time to go round a portion of it, say about one-third, or it might have been a little over that. We were then convinced that the pumkin was altogether too much for our descriptive powers. In our time we have described some big things. We have " done "an enormous gooseberry, a gigantic cabbage a monster cauliflower. Threeheaded calves and eight-legged lambs are easy for us to describe, through long practice and familiarity with the subjects. But this pumpkin has altogether mastered us. We called upon a surveyor to take its dimensions, but he at once told us that his instruments were unequal to the work, and his knowledge of mensuration, although never before called in question, did not extend to getting the diameter in order to approximate the circumference of such a pumpkin. The pumpkin must be seen to be believed, and those who attempt to describe it will probably be charged with seeing double. It cannot be said in'gazing at it— and it can only be gazed at properly by a number of distinct gazings— that it isa thing of beauty and a joy for ever. We are told, but we are scarcely able to believe it, that this pumpkin has drawn tears from the eyes of beholders. We know, however, and can speak from personal knowledge that it has drawn many pints of beer and glasses of whiskey at the hand of the landlord. It was impossible to look at it on the bar counter without a feeling of thirst coming over one, and the landlord of the Masonic is not a man to look upon suffering humanity unmoved — Ed.]