DAY OF MAGIC.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 279, 25 November 1938, Page 8

DAY OF MAGIC.

CHILDREN ENTERTAINED.

NICOLA AT WILSON HOME,

Yesterday was a day of days for over 30 crippled children at the Wilson Home, Takapuna, >vhen for more than an hour in the afternoon they were entertained by the magician Nicola, who performed a number of seemingly impossible feats, producing rabbits, billiard balls and eggs from the most unexpected quarters with the greatest of ease.

The entertainment was held on the wide balcony overlooking the sea, the children being arranged in a semi-circle in beds, chairs, and in some cases on the la]w of their nurses. The applause from the youthful audience was proof that they were having the time of their lives.

Hie clumsy gyrations of an enormous pig. capable of rolling its eyes, putting out its tongue and wagging its tail, put the children in merry mood at the commencement of the programme, and when the pig completed the turn with a skilful jig there were roars of laughter.

The highlight of the afternoon was the Indian basket trick, in which a young woman, apparently too large for a wicker basket, suddenly disappeared into thin air. . Swords thrust through the basket made that quite certain, but Nicola, with that seeming omnipotence possessed by all good magicians, produced her from the basket again, whole and unharmed. In a trick with dice in a box, the kiddies thought they had discovered the magician's secret, only to find that Nicola had been too sliaro for them.

Clever comedy by one of Nicola's assistants, who produced an inexhaustible supply of eggs from his mouth, kept the fun going, and the children were loth to let the magician go.

At the conclusion of the performance Nicola and his assistants were enthusiastically applauded, and the thanks of the Auckland Hospital authorities for the entertainment were expressed by Dr. Stuart Mackay.