RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30448, 23 May 1964, Page 36

RANDOM REMINDER

MUCH ADO

It is distressing how many little failures there are day by day. The man showing off his newlybought car to a friend discovers the battery is flat; when there is a visitor in the house, the bestbehaved children become very imps of mischief. This often breeds a feeling of disappointment and frustration. It certainly did the other day, when a Christchurch joiner had to call the fire brigade. He and his apprentice were in the yard, chatting over their morning tea, and remarking how well the incinerator seemed to be going, when they discovered a conflagration among the timber stocks. The joiner rushed at his

principal fire - fighting equipment, a foam extinguisher which, unfortunately, had not been serviced for a considerable number of years. Too many years. For when he operated the device, it delivered a slow ooze of coagulated foam—rather like the squeezing of a tube of toothpaste. Then there was a tremendous scurrying about, with the apprentice playing. most ably, the role of a prophet of doom, in search of a rather ancient garden hose. With this, the joiner succeeded in quenching the flames. And all this excitement was watched by an audience of one—the man next door.

But with everything under control, the joiner thought he should ask the fire brigade to come down to douse his stocks with water in case there was a fresh outbreak. Three engines came, at full speed, with sirens wailing. And with them came a police car, siren wailing. The whole neighbourhood, it seemed, turned out to watch the drama played out. And this is where it must have been very frustrating for the joiner. For all he had to offer the brigadesmen, and his hopeful crowd of spectators, was a wisp of smoke no greater than that which might issue from a pro-perly-packed pipe.