RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32385, 26 August 1970, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

THE OLD STEAM BOX TRICK

Two Australian advertising men have come to Christchurch with imperishable memories of a recent visit to the north. They were in the Wairakei area, and heard that on a private property there was a most spectacular steam bore. They sought and obtained permission to visit it, but the owner of the property asked them to make their visit straight away, because one of his men was showing the bore to some Russian visitors.

Sure enough, when the Australians reached the property, the Russians were there all right, and with them a young Maori as their guide. The Russians, evidently were as heavy of eyebrow and as serious of countenance as cartoonists like to have them and they watched with eqprmous impassivity the bubbling water, the shaking ground and, at regular intervals, the great gush of water spurting spectacularly into

the sky. The Russians watched the process for a long time, with no hint of animation other than a few mumbled words among themselves. But finally one of them, the one who spoke English, turned to his guide with the air of a man who has seen through the joke and is able to appreciate it. “0.K.,” he said, “now let us have the facts—where is the switch-on, switch-off?”