BROOM HANDLES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

BROOM HANDLES.

(By Sherley Stewart, Bltham; ase 15). Broom handles! Very finest tawa handles! What an ever-present need! How essential to the creed Of the makers that appearance Should permit of any clearance In the fine New Zealand bush, The beautiful green bush, The lovely native bush that lines the road. They're vandals! Ignorant, unfeeling vandals! Do they think the common broom Is a very fitting tomb For the tawa's leafy glory?. I will tell you now a story Of the fine New Zealand bush, The beautiful green bush, The lovely native bush that lined the road. Where the tall-stemmed tawa reared its head Jn green-crowned sovereignty o'er other trees Came the ruthless axes, and the vandals' tread — They had come for plunder, they had come to seize The white heart of the tawa—and the tree lies dead. From the sixty feet of glorious height But ten by the ravaging vandals were taken They have ruined that splendour, that glorious sight For ten feet of white wood—the rest is forsaken, Is forsaken to wither in unnatural light. On the ground where the curling moss kiesed their proud feet, Where in homage the green ferns bowed down, Whence the note of the tui came liquid and sweet, Lie the tawas, dead monarchs, made lifeless and brown For ten feet of timber, in broom-makers' street. RIDDLES. (Sent in by Josephine McKenzie, Tokirima; age 12.) Q. When's a, sailor not a sailor? A. When he is aboard. Q. Why did the letter box? A. Because it saw the tree bark. Q. In what way does a cake represent the ocean? A, They both have currents. Q. When are the streets of a' town very greaey? A. When the rain is dripping. Q. How can you swallow a door ? A. By bolting it. Q. Why are fishermen and shepherds like beggars? A. Because they Kve by hook or by crook. Q. When may, we know that animals talk? A. When we hear deer stalking (deers talking) in the Highlands. —Copied. (Sent in by Myrtle Kemp, Russell Road, Ifanurewa; age 15.) Q. Can you tell the difference between a sailor and 'a watch with a broken spring ? A. One goes to sea and the other ceases to go. Q. Why is E the most important letter in the alphabet? A. Becauee it comes before everything and everybody. Q. What room is it impossible to enter? A. A mushroom. Q. Why is a loaf like a singing lesson? A. Because you cannot begin it without doh (dough). Q. Which has the hardest life, tea or coffee ? A. Tea, for while coffee is allowed to settle, tea is compelled to draw. Q. What bridge cannot bear a fly? A. The bridge of your nose. .