The Kingdom of Tonga

[cappy]

[QUOTE=Richard Quartermaine;206904]So small Cappy that he would have been like a CANAPE or a geordie with a prostrate problem who .......canney pee

[Richard Quartermaine]

Ha! where man?

[cappy]

if you remember your days with the geordies on your ist trip richard you will recall.....HOWAY means come on ....while haddaway as in pulling a boat hardaway....means GO AWAY or i dont believe it ......have said on the site before one of my favourite memories is of lautoka....a different scene to anywhere i had seen before.....a grat memory .....when the kids and grankids listen to my old stories i always tell them of lautoka ....although whether it bears any resemblance tothose btimes now is surely debatable......on my ist visit to sydney ther wasone skyscraper and circular quay was made of wood ......one of which upon picking up a case of beer put a splinter from finger tip to the ist knuckle ....the chief steward from north shields decided in his wisdom and drunkeness to cut a v in my nail to get hold of the splinter but sadly for me proceeded to cut a v in my finger end and stated i i moved again he would cut my bloody throat ......by this time the finger was stating to look black and swelling up ...the mate rang the agent and i was sent to hospital were the splinter was taken out but as the wood was so soft they cut through the finger to get at it .....then of course the obligitory needle in my nether regions to kill infection.......to be greated on my return to the cragmoor with many quips about my bandaged finger like thank god you didnt put you willy in there.....and how much did she charge for that and you were told to wear a blob etc......suppose those old timbers were there from the ist fleet etc ......went back on holiday a few years ago and of course it is now a fine pedestrian area with excellent but quite expensive fish restaurants i think we ate in a place called doyles ....dont know if it is still there but it was a memorable meal and visit......am now rambling but must say your pictures of the old islands are very interesting richard regards cappy

[Richard Quartermaine]

I remember the lads telling me sixty-eight years ago when I was about to pay off in Melbourne to say to my mother (sounds like) "Whash heer now mither, an hash y'agahn'n".

Lautoka was our second home in Fiji. My sister Yvonne, now 88, sharp as a tack, went to Lautoka in the late 1940s with her husband John and was for 20 years secretary to the manager of a bank there. Her two boys were born there and her eldest son Mike has in the last couple of years sold up his Nadi marine import business and moved to Australia. Margaret and the kids would come along with me on my business trips around Viti Levu (the island Suva is on the South and Lautoka the North) on the Kings and Queens Road (mostly gravel winding around sharp hills and coral beaches in those days). Always found time to down some Fiji Lager and Fiji Bitter at the Northern Club and stay a few days with Von.
A couple of photos: With Von and Mike at their Lautoka home in November 1955 when I passed through from when I left Canada. And on a picnic on the reef island across the lagoon from our house at Suva Point. The launch on the right was our beloved 'Volasi(n)ga' (Morning Star). Those kids are now in their 50s.

I've got some old pictures of Circular Quay I'll dig out.
Moce (morthay) Richard

[cappy]

meaning richard ....wot cheer mother how is it going .....regards cappy .....and im sure she would be in good cheer to see her son return

[Richard Quartermaine]

Indeed yes Cappy and you will recognise that the 'long grass' at Lautoka was in fact early growth of sugar cane (no doubt housing some mongoose).
Richard