i ■ ■ everywhere. Walter's father, Mr.Jim Hulett, that wonderful man and constant provider of tuck and other favours to all of us, came to our aid by giving us some equipment. Walter, in his wild and adventurous manner, decided we should collect our first swarm of beesfrom the date palm in front ofthe school, where an enormous swarm had settled. We collected a rickety, three-tier pot-plant stand, a bent iron pipe and a large paraffin box. Whilst I held the box above my head, Walter climbed the stand to lever the branch with the bees into the box. At this stage the stand collapsed and, in falling, Walter dislodged the bees - PANDEMONIUM! The angry swarm attacked as we and the other boys raced for the dormitories. We were badly stung and had swollen faces and limbs for a long time. We had many other forays with the bees, always ending up the stung losers. MATTY.The coming of Mr. Matterson saw the beginning of the "Real Kearsney" and was the best thing that could have happened.Immediately leaps to my mind the tragedy of his losing both his wife and child in childbirth, at the school. Although we were kept as far apart as was possible,and ignorant of what was actually transpiring, we pupils,living in such close quarters to the staff, were only too aware of the tension. Only when we saw the grave a day or two later were we able to appreciate Mr.Matterson's,and our own,great loss with the passing of such a lovely and friendly person as was Mrs. Matterson. Hill was the head prefect,and although he and I had many a fight,he was a fine chap and a worthy first head boy of the school. SPORT.Coming from the Transvaal, where I'd played soccer, I did not take kindly to Rugby and had many wealson my back for notgetting down sufficiently into the scrum.Cricket was my main outlet, but, with so few of us, it was hard to muster a good team from the boys, as the enclosed photograph will indicate.(Not printed here- Ed.) We had tennis courts, which we had to mark ourselves; we played a lot of tennis-had occasional cross-country runs and paper chases through the tea fields which I particularly enjoyed. There are so many incidents that throng to mind,but a few stand out clearly. Wedid nothave a swimming bath,and poor Walter wascaughtswimmingin theenormous drinking water-tank in the roofofthe school. What a rumpus this created,and the punishment meted out to Walter, and some of us as his supporters, was severe. BREWING.The prefects had been given a study on the firstfloor in one ofthe outbuildings. We collected a gang offags and setthem to cutting up dozens of pineapples and other fruit into tin baths and buckets. From this we created a "brew" with the addition of a little yeast, and bottled the resultant liquid. We stored the bottles in the foundations of the main building in readiness for our end ofterm feast. We were dismayed when wefound that a number ofthe bottles had exploded. However,there were sufficient left to do their dastardly work when we rounded up the school one night to enjoy the provender we had collected-to be fortified with the"Pop"we had made.We had no idea or fore-knowledge of its potency,wi;:h the result that many of the boys were rendered almost unconscious. Naturally, another mighty rumpus ensued. Detention and chastisement were dealt out to the main offenders. On many evenings swarms of flying ants invaded the prep room and the floor was com pletely covered with a carpet of wings.Some boys collected the ant carcasses in tins,and after 28
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