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Greymouth Evening Star, 8 May 1931, Page 2

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TWO UP AND LEAP-FROG. , CANBERRA, April 29. Strange things happened on -.the broad acres of Eden Monaro this afternoon, when the Canberra train broke down, and remained isolated for nearly two hours. On board the train was a large party of Federal Parliamentarians, bound for Canberra to attend the meeting of Parliament. The passengers left the carriages and displayed remarkable knowledge of the mechanism of the locomotive. ( Having passed on their knowledge to the engineers, time began to hang heavily on theii’ hands, and a game of throwing stones at a piece of coal excited keen and enthusiastic competition. Because Mr. Corser, the Federal member for Wide Bay “made the game up,” Mr. Lazzarini told him that he would have to go first. Then, shot for shot, the two honourable members threw stones at a defenceless piece of coal. They were soon joined by other members--Mr. Rowe, the member for Parramatta, whose physical prqportions were a great handicap, and Mr. Beasley, but their efforts had nothing of the sharp trajectory of their vocal shafts in Parliament, and they all failed dismally to hit the target. Mr. Lazzarini was untiring, and at last, with a leap of joy, cried out in boyish glee, and to the astonishment of a hundred onlookers, “I hit it!” Then a game of “two up” was suggested. Mr. Lazzarini got a “kip,” and Senator Foil was an enthusiastic bettor. Mr. Lazzarini had a run of luck and skilfully “headed them” —twice consecutively—and won threepence. But the way in which he handled ths “kip” did not meet with the approval of the ex-Prime Minister (Mr. Hughes), who watched the game from the carriage window. “You would disgrace a shearing shed,” he called out to Mr. Lazzarini, and reprovingly added, “You must make them turn.”

One of the. members then suggested a game of leap frog, but Mr. Rowe protested that his leaping days Were over, and that if he played he would have to go “frog.” Stirred by the strange sight, stationowners motored over a great paddock to the train, and members were suddenly made aware that the depression still existed. One of the squatters complained that- his losses amounted to £250 a week, and that during the last two or three years the value of his property had dropped by £70,000. Members commiserated with him, and some broke away and went mushrooming, but came back empty-handed. Shortly afterwards a new locomotive arrived. Members arrived at Parliament two hours late.