RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30442, 16 May 1964, Page 36

RANDOM REMINDER

OVER THE TEA CUPS

It is distressing to think that every year New Zealanders are likely to throw away something like 5,000,000,000,000 tea leaves. It is even more distressing to think that the figure could be 1,000,000,000,000 We are uncertain about the accuracy of our computations. They are based on the fact that each New Zealander drinks about seven pounds of tea. We tried to assess what that represented in tea leaves by making a rather rough measurement of an ounce on a set of scales designed principally for air mail letters, then dividing the ounce down and down, by

halves, until there remained what we fondly hoped was about a thirty second of an ounce. But it might have been a sixteenth. At any rate it was at that stage the counting began. And we had not even finished when those chaps with the white coats arrived. But tea leaves should never be thrown away haphazardly. There are some people who appreciate them, who, indeed, treasure them. They can be used, in certain circumstances, to promote the growth of plant life out of doors, and tea leaves have a way with maidenhair fern. And without tea

leaves there would be none of that dramatic turning of the cup before the lady friend of the woman down the street started to tell you about the dark gentleman and a visitor from overseas. Tea leaves have many uses. And even the cold unused tea plays a part in life’s drama. Ladies with grey hair have been known to use it as a colouring medium. But there is one use for tea leaves now, sadly, neglected; a commentary, perhaps, on the buoyant juvenile economy of the times. There is no evidence to suggest that tea leaves are now being used to make cigarettes.