EASTER EGGS.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 87, 13 April 1927, Page 6

EASTER EGGS.

ihcic jut -oinc Tiling*.' >.li< I :«11 a:x,enl ie- \ iewcr. "which look like book-. have the tubs of books, uiul uro bound like book-; ami vet thev ulO !U»t hooks, because J hcv ;ile cmptv inside. Such things are chess bo.-irds, bjiekgammoii boiuds ami Mr. Hume's 'History of Fngland.' " Thus it is with the Faster egg. It is made to look like Jill egg. and is duly set in a regulation size egg cii|>. And yet it is not an egg, inasmuch as it usually consists of chocolate or some other confection wiapped iu [taper of many coloured hues. Nobody <|iiite knows who buys these things, or to whom they are given, but they must have an enormous ?ale, judging by the numbers that appear in our shop windows. There are also Faster eggs which are so-called because thev come as a surprise, even when they do not come ns n "boon and a blessing to men." The British ( hancellor of the Fxchequer has presented such an egg to the people of (treat Britain in the shape of his surprise Budget. Many jteoplc will be inclined to sav that this particular egg is addled. If not exactly itself poached on toast, it will certainly ha\e the British taxpayer on toast. He will be called upon to pay for this Faster surprise by increased taxation on those luxuries of life which, as one writer tells us. are sit much more necessary to existence than those things which we popularly term the necessaries ot liie. The pill, however, is sii"jircttated. since the Chancellor has hinted that he may include sugar as well as wine and tobacco among the things to pay increased taxation to make another Churchill holiday. Mr. Fugene ( lien has not been forgotten, and lie has been presented with an Kaster egg in the shape of a Five-Power demand for apologies and reparations in connection with the looting done bv the Cantonese. Locally the residents of a northern seaside suburb have hail 1111 Fa-ter egg ~f a more agreeable nature in the shape of a fleet of luxurious limousines, which carry them :it a le-s co-t per mile than the old third class of a Parliamentary train in Croat Britain. The origin of the Faster egg itself has given rise to much ejaculation. It really arose from the habit of giving presents at Faster as well as at Christmas. These presents were always kept carefully packed until Faster Day. when the opening was supposed to represent for the recipient a- great a -urpri-e athe cracking of a -tore egg frciiuent I v docs. Perhaps, in the case of Mr. Churchill's Budget egg-, these may later develop into chicken-, and the chickens may come home to roo-t.