RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30725, 14 April 1965, Page 30

RANDOM REMINDER

AS THE TWIG IS BENT

Returning to New Zealand from overseas these days is always something of a shock. In Auckland, the suburbs have stretched over another hill or two and the bridge is busier than ever. In Wellington, another concrete and glass edifice is threatening to look down on Mount Victoria; and in Christchurch, no matter how brief your absence, another three buildings have been knocked down. This may be progress of a sort, but the demolition gangs are having an insidious effect on the small boys who gaze on their work. Once, of course, it was the railways which excited their ambitions. But the inevitable replacement of the steam locomotive makes that a far less attractive proposition.

And if their thoughts should idly turn to demolition, Christchurch in a few years is going to be even flatter than the plains on which it stands. Unlikely? Experience in a Papanui home shows the trend. There are three boys whose idea of la dolce vita is to stand and stare at demolition work. There is also a girl, poor thing, who is different. She patiently collects the things that take up all that space in the packets of breakfast goodies and puts them to constructive use. By judicious purchases at a dozen nearby stores she built up from the back of a line of packets a whole village—church and steeple, a police station, a pub, two stores, a tiny railway station and the dinkiest little

houses you ever did see. But while she was away one day the boys invaded her room, bore off her village and set it down among their bulldozers, tractors and cranes. The church went easily and quite realistically and the speed with which the stores, pub and railway and police station toppled would have startled Mr Ryan. However, the houses resisted, bowing before the onslaught and then springing up again. But the boys had not been unobservant around the demolition sites. From a forgotten store they helped themselves to a string of crackers, placed the chargea skilfully, lit the fuses and retreated. Success.

Christchurch had best watch out