RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31539, 29 November 1967, Page 21

RANDOM REMINDER

COUP

Because the season is comparatively short, and seems even shorter, New Zealanders adore whitebait and will pay astronomical prices sometimes to have it in the house. Similarly, oysters are a fetish and young men will go without their lunches for a week to be able to buy what they consider enough for a satisfactory meal. The mushroom season also arouses considerable excitement and in this the country people can share more readily than those living in the cities. The

last time mushrooms were about, a North Canterbury farmer noticed a fine field of them while he was out in his car and on his return home he issued some simple, straightforward instructions to his wife to go out and get some of them. She. dutiful creature, dropped what she was doing—she was probably polishing some saddles or something curtsied and went to do her master’s bidding. She followed his directions, stopped the car, alighted, went into the field. There was a man

there, gathering mushrooms. When he saw her he addressed her in singularly unkind terms, ordered her off, and told her she should not trespass. Crestfallen, humiliated, empty-handed, she returned to her home and told her husband. He was not pleased, because the mushroom field was, in fact, one of several of his small holdings in the district. He was instantly into action, racing off in his car to attack the interloper. When he reached the field, the man had gone. So had the mushrooms.