A SLY PEEP INTO THE GOVERNOR'S SALOON CARRIAGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7329, 15 February 1902, Page 4

A SLY PEEP INTO THE GOVERNOR'S SALOON CARRIAGE.

(Specially written fox tho '" Stair.") (By G.E.8.) Another long-cherished and fixed belief of mine has gone by the board, and I am ( more convinced than ever that things are not always what they appear t& be. I had always entertained the idea that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, his Excellency Lord Ranfurly, the Right Hon R. J. Seddon, P.C., L.L.D., etc., etc., and similar exalted personages, always relegated to iueir private secretaries such- duties a^, cui'lmg newspapers and clipping, , exr. tracts therefrom, when items of personal interest were met with therein. This no; tion of mine has been rudely dispelled, however, and the disillusionment happened thusly: — On Wednesday morning last, as "Star" readers are aware, the Governor paid a visit to Cheviot, has gubernatorial carriage being coupled to the engine of the 7.35 a.m. train for Culverdten. Next this elaborately ornamented and upholstered conveyance was a Yankee carriage, one compartment of which was devoted to first>class - passengers, and the' other ( to travellers of more moderate wants. The car-door of the. Vice-Regal carriage faced the rear of the train, and as the damask curtains draping the entrance had been looped up, to admit of freer ventilation, any person sitting in the nest carriage, and rude enough to gaze through the door or end windows, could therefrom obtain a full view of the interior of ihis Excellency's perambulating drawihg-room. I was a passenger by this north train, afid shortly after quitting Kaiapoi I wandered " forrard " : to this aforesaid American car, little dreaming of the surprise in' store for me. No one else was in thi& - compartment -at this time, anxt my first iiwpvls6 y ' was to flee the spot, and leanre his Excellency's privacy uninvaded. Journalistic instincts and curiosity, however, proved too strong for good manners, and reflecting that for a few brief minutes I could watch Vice-Royalty unseen, without giving the leasb offence — since "what the eye doesn'C see, the heart doesn't grieve at "—I sat down' in a corner and beheld — what? Near the door to the left, on a pivotted, luxuriously-cushioned armchair, sat the Governor, with a pile of newspapers on 'his knees,, neatly folded, and' a. pair of gold -pince -nez, fixed, in .'the most business-like position. . Oa another armchair next the door was seated a grey-suited gentleman friend of his Excellency, deeply immersed in his morning paper. '' ißack " of the car — to use an Americanism — the Hon C. Hill Trevor occupied , another chair, also up to his eyes laterally .and figuratively in the news of the day. I bestowed- 'little thought or. attention on the ornate " fixings " or fittings of the carriage, for I had beheld these before the vehicle 'had 'been graced by Royalty in the persons of the Duke and Duchess of York and Cornwall. What most interested me was the occupation of the Governor. As I have said, he ; had quite a pile ; of newspapers on his' -knees, some- ' 'thing 'like a dozen or so. These he took \ip one by one, held them up before hi»i at arm's length, and ran his gaze up and down, each page with such comprehensiveness and business celerity as told of much previous experience. The moment an item of news oa'Sght his eye he reached- for a pair of sixinch scissors lying on a small table at his elbow, and with a dexterity that would have dene credit to any experienced city editor or Sir George Newnes in ihis busiest "Tit-Bit." piracy days, his Excellency amputated that desirable morceau. Big or little, short or long, local " par " or column " article," whatever it might be, the shining steel blades ran up and down and across its boundary lines, with wonderful precision and quickness. The excerpts were carefully laid aside on a' table; 'the mutilated print was converted into carpet--ting; anotheri journal was just as rapidly dissected, and 'by the time we pulledi up at Flax ton Lord Ranfurly's beautifully-ap-pointed carriage resembled 1 a 'back-blocks editorial sanctum after "exchanges" pruning. Luckily the supply of papers was somewhat limited, for when' I witnessed the lnst post mortem the Governor was knee-deep in mangled literature, and 1 If much more material 'had been available his entourage would have had some difficulty in resurrecting him from the debris. The expeditious manner in which this work of excision was carried oiit showed clearly that his Excellency must be an energetic man of action when occasion arises, and I can readily imagine that when an accumulation of private and official correspondence demands his attention, his staff 'have a lively time of it until the work is completed. I can just as readily imagine ■that the particular domestic who tidies up the gubernatorial study in the morning after the mail has been dealt with must sometimes istnnd aghast at " the mess master 'as made." ' Several other impressions were left on my mind by the scene I had so surreptitiously witnessed ; first, that Lord Ranfurly gives business precedence to pleasure, for apparently not one word was .spoken by him or his fellow-travellers while these newspapers were baing examined, and nofc a moment, was spent in admiring the scsnery or noting the harvest operations being carried on along the line. Secondly, that hi>3 Excellency is no effeminate ki(jglove knight, dependent upon those around him for every little- duty requiring to be done, but quite able to take his share of whatever work confronts him. Lastly, that his clever manipulation of the scissors and rapid selection of items for excision would render him invaluable to the- editor of a poroiiw weekly newspaper. In fact it is mwfc probrM* 1» v.-ouM hav-s creditably filled nnv position in. life, just as he has that of Governor of New Zealand:.