POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 6, 6 July 1940, Page 10

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

BY PERCY FLAGE

•Inquiry in "Prediction" (London): "Does sex continue in the hereafter?" » # * Wake up, Melisande: it is not housewives, but hussifs, which are being sent to our soldier boys. * * * Since they specialise in stabs in the' back, the Nazis' charge against the British Navy at Oran moves the world to cynical laughter. * * * Cervantes says: "Fortune always leaves some door open in disasters whereby to come at a remedy:" (Listening, "Bulldog" Churchill?) * * * Fun in the news (Philadelphia paper): A massage by the Rev. Mr. Sweitzer, of the Pilgrim Holiness Church, will follow the singing. * * * NICE THOUGHT. Adult: Having played "Grab" and "Beggar my Neighbour" when I was a child, il^ comforts me to remember that even if there was only one card left in my hand it was still possible to win the lot. I suppose war is like that. We have now lost our Allies, but what a win must be in store for the British Empire! * * * WEATHER-STRONG. Do you fear the force of the wind, The slash of the rain? Go face them and fight them, Be savage again. Go hungry and cold like the wolf, Go wade like the crane: The palms of your hands will thicken, The skin of your cheek will tan, You'll grow rugged and weary and swarthy, But you'll walk like a man. HAMLIN GARLAND. ' (Sent by Junette.) * » # BRAIN-TEASERS. This problem, which comes from X., should give the old grey matter a lively stirring-up. In other words, it is not exactly easy. Here she goes: A train of thirty vehicles over all is travelling South on a single line, and approaches a station at which there is a crossing, loop of "'twenty over all capacity, at the same time as a train of forty vehicles over all approaches travelling North. How to cross the trains? Here are the fish (or fishes) waiting to be played:—Haco + ?', Ranise + ?, Nutani ■+• ?, Palmer + ?, Undarr + ?, Cures + ?, Raspen'+ ? Eleventh hour solutions: Polly Flinders, No. 1 and No. 2 (all but the seventh), Tommy, No. 1,. and E.D. No. 2, Jaybee No. 1. * # ♦ SCHOOL'S IN. Do you know that— (1) More than 2000 street names have been changed by the London County Council since 1935 in order to eliminate duplication in names? (2) Elephants of opposite sex often form strong attachment for each other which endures as long as they live? (3) Liquor is controlled by the Swedish Government, arid one-tenth of the revenue from the sale of alcohol is devoted to a campaign to discourage the use of alcohol? . (4), A bird can change its wing area in flight, which is something man has been unable to do in an aeroplane? (5) Trees within range of street lights keep their leaves longer in autumn than those in darker stretches? (6) Helmets of British soldiers are provided with sacking covers which have loops for holding foliage when camouflage is needed? (7) Ballot papers made out in raised Braille type were recently used for voting at a meeting of blind. people m Washington? • (8) Dropping bombs on a volcano to stop the flow of hot lava in directions where it would menace life and property has proved successful? (9) Englishes now the language of the Governments of 600,000,000 people, and part of the education of every great country? ' * ■ (10) Noble, an English gold coin (value 6s 8d), first struck in the reign of Edward 111, is said to have derived from the high quality of the metal of which it was composed? * * * DARK ROSALEEN. This poem is taken from David McKee Wright's collection titled Aa Irish Heart." Wright left New Zealand many years ago to join the Bulletin," Sydney. He died there. Mist over a far sea And fields purple and green; And 'tis there surely I would be With the old things seen, With the old things I remember, And the old things I forget, But the turf fire of December Or the June hedges wet. There's a tree my mother's father With his own hand set; _ There's a well I'd drink at rather Than all streams met; There's an old gate swinging In low, green wall— And, och, for thrushes singing When the apple blossoms fall. Light over a fair sea; And there Sleive Donard looks With more thoughts to bring to m« Than old' brown books, Than brown books with gold bands And pages yellow old; For the blue mountain understand! All a heart can hold. 'Tis far away and far to keep, And winding is the road, And I have fifty fields to reap With white corn sowed; But the old things that were very fair, 1 And the old things I forget, And a woman's head with soft grey hair Are living with me yet. * * * FIRST TUI. We were down at the bottom of the garden the other day examining the snowdrops and jonquils when a bird swept over our head like a dive bomber and swished into a considerable ngaio tree to the' nor'-west of our observation point. Treading daintily like Agag, we were working around to sight the visitor when all of a sudden he broke into a gurgle which ended up in a screech readily remembered. A tui! Just when we had caught a glimpse of him in the thick foliage of the ngaio he plunged into a nearby kowhai, a small bird hovering about him, and took off again, this time in the direction of a well-grown kaka beak which is showing some scarlet pendants. We followed him discreetly . . . to find him upside down on a small branch busy on one of the blooms. His afternoon tea finished, the tui fled into the Botanic Gardens and disappeared. Since tujs do not reside in the Gardens, this one must have stormed across the bay in search of honey. We like to believe that he is the bird who regularly visits our patch early in the spring, to be followed later by his family or bosom pals.