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Hedged with Divinities

XI

page 75

XI.

The next morning Harriet and Victoria put in an appearance, mounted, and leading a third horse. They looked rather bashful in appearing before a man, as they were riding cavalier-fashion, but the novelty soon wore off. On Jack asking them if they preferred the side-saddle, they both declared that they did so, but that without a riding habit the side-saddle looked ridiculous, and skirts were not allowed. The girls explained that if they avoided the Park, where most of the women were again assembled, they should not attract remark nor cause a crowd to follow them. They skirted the Supreme Court, and crossing Official Bay, reined up the horses on the long slope which leads from the old site of Fort Britomart to the Wharf. Thence their eyes looked over the desolate morass which extended from Lower Queen Street across Fort Street and the Railway Station. The breaking up of the main sewer along Queen Street had undermined the foundations of numerous houses, which falling in had dammed the flow of storm water from the streets of the upper town. Debris had collected everywhere, and immense pools of slime and fetid water had collected on the flat of Fort Street and the reclaimed land page 76between Shortland Street and the Wharf. Two or three large hotels and Firth's flourmill still stood like islands in the putrid sea, but the Railway Station buildings had fallen in, and rows of trucks and carriages stood like black walls in the mire.

"Little hope of engines and rolling-stock available there," said Jack, all his engineering instincts aroused. "We must search some of the higher workshops and stations."

Seaward all was still. No longer was the beautiful sunny harbour dotted with the white sails of boats, or busy with the continual passing to and fro of the river steamers. A solitary rowing-boat appeared near the North Shore, and this was the only representative of the busy fleet whose vessels once jostled each other at the crowded wharves. A few masts standing above the water, and a small steamer or two ashore and helpless looking, were the only relics of Auckland's merchant shipping. With a sad heart Jack turned his rein, and with his companions rode towards Newmarket. There he was glad to find an engine in fairly deceut order and only needing a good overhaul, and several trucks and carriages shunted on to one of the sidings. The riders cantered on to the Onehunga road, as Jack wanted to see the state of the railway-bridges, in the hope of being able to establish communication with the nearer country districts before he undertook the task of replenishing the farms. They rode as far as Otahuhu; Jack dismounting and examining the timber and iron-work of each bridge. In some cases the approaches had been washed away, but most of the trestle-work and solid portions were firm and sound.

As the trio passed on their way they had brief snatches of conversation. "How have you arranged page 77about money? and how is the social order carried on?" said Jack.

"We don't want money," answered Harriet, "and we have no occasion for it. At first the rich women were able to buy the services of the poorer ones, but that custom soon found a new level. No one felt inclined to save money or to hoard it; for, so far as we could see, there would soon be no one to benefit by it. Those who owned houses insisted on the rent being paid them for a little while, but in most houses the breadwinners were gone; there was no money to pay rents with, and unless the houseowner was very strong and noisy the tenant would not turn out or take any notice. Soon every one, driven by starvation, helped themselves to the things in the shops, to the food and clothes and everything. Of course the greedy ones got most, but it was taken from them if it could not be used at once. Those who hadn't anything got desperate, and forming parties together, helped themselves from the supply of those who had taken too much. I am afraid its a sad and sorry kind of Communism."

"Communism on one leg," suggested Jack. "Have you kept up social ranks at all? How was it I found servants at Government House if you were all in a wild struggle for existence?"

"Oh, we were not very violent, you know. We made lots of tries to get things to rights, and as it was as easy to live in spacious pleasant houses as in bad, we did so, and put caretakers into the large buildings. They would as soon live there as anywhere else, and have kept them clean, because like most decent women they hate to see things dirty. I suppose that under your Majesty's beneficent rule" (here Harriet bowed and laughed) "we shall soon have not only plenty to eat, page 78but rank and distinction, and perhaps begin the struggle for wealth again."

"I confess I should like to see it begin again here," Jack said; "it would be proof that there was something worth fighting for amongst us, but it will be an immense effort to secure even the necessities of life before we can fight for the luxuries."

The conversation was here interrupted by Jack checking his horse, and disappearing under a bridge. When he emerged he resumed the questioning. "There is one thing I notice; that I haven't seen any dogs. What has become of the dogs?"

"I am ashamed to tell you," answered Miss Stanley; "we've eaten the dogs. It seems horrid, I know, but it was easier to kill them than the big things, and we were so hungry—all the cats went too. We have no dogs, but we have lots of fowls. Did'nt you hear the chorus of their voices last night? Everybody has a lot of fowls, and takes the greatest care of them, for they are almost our only animal food; those and eggs and fish. If it hadn't been for the fowls I don't know what we possibly could have lived on. We watch our chickens with intense interest; very selfish interest, I'm afraid. We tried to breed pigs, but had nothing on which to feed them, and when we let them go loose to find their own food they got wild and were too fierce for us to catch. We've made a great many large nets lately, so that we shall not be dependent on the few fish we could get by hook or line. Bread is what we want most, for many of us grow vegetables, and we could get along if we only had bread and more meat."

"We'll have a big try next week," said Jack.

Having reached Onehunga they retraced their steps, and rode past Mount Eden toward the Whau, where, page 79after examining some distance along the Helensville railway line, Jack expressed himself satisfied with the day's work, and the small cavalcade returned to the city. The few women they had met at a distance did not notice him as a new arrival, and when they were at such close quarters that the fact of his being a male broke upon their astonished senses, they appeared so utterly dumbfounded that Jack rode hastily onward before they recovered from their stupor. Past the once-pleasant homes of the suburbs of Ponsonby and the deserted shops of Newton, past the shady trees of Symonds Street, he rode till he regained his home and Jenny's welcome.