_The following lines were written by Butler in February_, 1864, _and
appeared in the_ PRESS. _They refer to a visit paid to New Zealand by a
team of English cricketers_, _and have kindly been copied and sent to me
by Miss Colborne-Veel_, _whose father was editor of the_ PRESS _at the
time that Butler was writing for it_. _Miss Colborne-Veel has further
permitted to me to make use of the following explanatory note_: “_The
coming of the All England team was naturally a glorious event in a
province only fourteen years old_. _The Mayor and Councillors had_ ‘_a
car of state_’—_otherwise a brake_—‘_with postilions in the English
style_.’_ Cobb and Co. supplied a six-horse coach for the English
eleven_, _the yellow paint upon which suggested the_ ‘_glittering chariot
of pure gold_.’ _So they drove in triumph from the station and through
the town_. _Tinley for England and Tennant for Canterbury were the
heroes of the match_. _At the Wednesday dinner referred to they
exchanged compliments and cricket balls across the table_. _This early
esteem for cricket may be explained by a remark made by the All England
captain_, _that_ ‘_on no cricket ground in any colony had he met so many
public school men_, _especially men from old Rugby_, _as at
Canterbury_.’”
[To the Editor, the _Press_, February 15th, 1864.]
SIR—The following lines, which profess to have been written by a friend
of mine at three o’clock in the morning after the dinner of Wednesday
last, have been presented to myself with a request that I should forward
them to you. I would suggest to the writer of them the following
quotation from “Love’s Labour’s Lost.”