RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33153, 17 February 1973, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

EMBRYONIC ENTREPRENEUR

The accumulation of cash assets is regarded as being beneficial to the State, and to the ultimate welfare of the man in the street. With some, saving is an obsession; with others, sheer necessity. Without making capital out of the issue, it is generally conceded today that the secret of financial success is to spend what you have left after saving, instead of saving what you have left after spending. But it is dollars to cents that a 10-year-old residing in the North Island will be able to show his contemporaries a thing or two in future years, when it comes to a question of demonstrating initiative in fiscal matters. It all happened at the school he attends. Early last term the P.T.A. decided on an all-out debt redemption effort to make, once and for all, the school’s new swimming bath a viable proposition

and no future financial embarrasment to their successors in office. The Gala Day they conducted for the purpose was tremendously successful, winning as it did wide and practical support from parents, their children and the public at large. Not one person entered into the spirit of the occasion with more enthusiasm than that 10-year-old. The owner of an eight-millimetre projector—and some home movies—he received permission to use one of the classrooms in which to exhibit them. He had received the support of his classmates, many of whom augmented his meagre film supply by borrowing those belonging to parents and relatives. He placarded the entrance to the classroom with graphic if artless posters; enlised the aid of his closest friend to man a lound-hpiler; inveigled another into acting as cashier while he personally took care of the all-

important projection work. Admission charges were a nominal 10c and sc. Business was surprisingly brisk, and each session found the available accommodation severely taxed. By 3.30 p.m. “box office receipts” amounted to $18.35. The headmaster, making a courtesy call, beaming his approval and pleasure, congratulated his young pupils for their enterprise and initiative. But his platitudes proved to be painfully premature. He lingered awhile to see the last of a large selection of films to be run through. His spectacles steamed up at the sight of it. It is well, perhaps that he, most of all, inspite of subsequent intensive detective work, will never know its source of supply. The 100-foot epic dealt with a topic usually surreptitiously shown at stag parties. The technique of love making. Swedish style.