AN AMUSING INCIDENT.

Western Star, Issue 13, 7 February 1874, Page 6

AN AMUSING INCIDENT.

A Maori and a Chinaman engaged in an encounter of wits the other day, on the Port Chalmers Railway Pier. The men were types of their respective races. On the one hand, the Maori, with tattooed features and haughty hearing ; on the other, the Mongol, loiv-browed and crafty of look, with shaven crown and pendant pigtail. The Maori was no other than W. Potiki, wellknown at the Port; whilst the Celestial was one of those who left recently for the land of their fathers in the barque Hadda. The meeting was brought about casually. Potiki, decked out in gorgeous array, with bell-topper on head, was walking up the pier with a medical friend, and meeting two or three Chinamen who seemed to be impressed by his appearance, patronisingly addressed one of them thus—“ Ha, John Chinaman, so you are going home, eh ? ” To which the Chinaman replied not; but after eyeing his interrogator for a minute or two, marched up to him, and placing his fingers on the tattooing on Potiki’s face, remarked contemptuously, “ What good that, eh ? ” Replied the Maori, straightening himself tip while his eyes flashed indignantly, “ That welly good joke,” and then came the retort quick and sudden, as with a sweep of his arm he knocked the Chinaman’s hat off, and seizing, his pigtail, whirled the Celestial round, at the same time shouting gleefully, “But what good this, eh ? ” The Chinaman eyed his antagonist askance, picked up his hat, and silently marched off, leaving Potiki in possession of the field.— “ Daily Times.”