AN EXCITING DRIVE.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13108, 17 May 1911, Page 1

AN EXCITING DRIVE.

The members of tho Native feand Commission party which visited i{\paki recently, had a somewhat exciting drive back to Lyttolton after the termination of tho proceedings. The means of conveyance was a waggo.iette built to accommodate six persons, but into which seven were squeezed to meet the needs of tho occasion. Among the passengers was Mr William Uru, who turns the scale at something between nineteen mid twenty stone, and none of the others in the waggon could by any stretch of imagination bo called "featherweights." Out of consideration for the horses tho party walked up tho incline from llapaki to the'main road, and mounted the vehicle when the down grade had to be negotiated. Only half 1111 hour remained in which to catch the train, and tho waggonette swung along the roadway with a roll . like a ship in a heavy sea. There w.-is not much doing in the way of conversation. The passengers for the most part were expecting the vehicle to collapse at any minute, and were rehearsing in their minds the best way to be pitched out on the hard world. Nothing of the kind happened, Jio-.v-evor, although the speed had to be increased with the lessening of time. There was about five minutes to go before the train departed, when tiie Port was reached, and the horse, evidently a veteran on the road, seemed to realise what was expected of him. He sped along Norwich Quay in great style (the waggonette bumping and swaying ominously behind him), and finished strongly. At the Post Office the passengers hurriedly alighted and rushed pell-mell for the train in something of the formation of a football rush. They were just ift time, and had hardly settled themselves panting and puffing in their seats before the j train moved off.