THE INCLEMENT WRAGGE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12145, 10 December 1908, Page 8

THE INCLEMENT WRAGGE.

Mr Clement "Wragge, who was for so long an Australian institution, is coming out to New Zealand aeain on a lecture tour.. Up in Brisbane, Mr Wraggo used to be an unfailing source of delight to all of us. He wrote the most astonishing weather forecasts ever psnned^ His vocabulary was curious, and at timers vitriolic. He made the most Astounding phrasris. i None the less, he was an excellent meteorologist, and a very interesting man. His eccentricity was absolute. In Brisbane housed to go about town with a pack of hounds at his heels. I wont'up a mountain in Tasmania with him, at ■midwinter. He had succeeded in .scet-: ting «i small observatory 'oh-, the■ sumnsit, but I remember the trip cirefly by reason of the fact that the weatherman took an autoharp^w-ith him. and strummed -it off ard o^ tbrcttsrh all .the. bitter night. If you have ever beard «n autoharp you will understand. The cowl blew off the chimney at midnight, and wo were smoked out until the riboTninabl<» thing was fixed again. It was blowing a blizzard, and we" wpro all I'oidrr than we had ever been in our Jives. But not Mr Wragg?. He sat' thei\> with tho flaps of bis cap tied down over his oars, and/he sane: chanties interminably to his own dolorous accompaniment. I shall not climb any more ri\ountaiiw..-wlthI"hi.m ar nr'dwinter. It va?, a perfectly appalln-jr .experience. I rtvpfer. my nfou-tains wai-m.

You : ph-uH nink-'1 a .r-.in-b of hearing Mr "\Vragjro lecture, fie is about tl'io quaintest lecturer.,in the world. •