KEROSENE TINS

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2305, 25 November 1925, Page 11

KEROSENE TINS

Till I came to the dominions, I knew little of them (writes “A.A.A.” from New Zealand to the “Daily Chron. Icle"). Now I know that they are of |The Things That Matter. Not In towns, j perhaps, but in the backblocks; and 'next in importance come their cases. | To begin with, I have seen a house built of kerosene cases—its roof was of ! kerosene tins. Not a great house perhaps, but the happy old.aige pensioner who lived in it, and who built it, thought it was prime. And there is a garage, the neatest place possible, where every possible kind of tool and duster and* gadget is kept in a kerosene tine; all tins cut to fit, some of them falling forward like corn.blns, some with little circular holes, big enough for a hand to slip through all polished and smart, and everyone neatly labelled. In a farm where money Is not too easy tins and their cases arc everywhere. The shelves are made of the cases, so is the side.to.blc and the chairs sometimes arc nailed together out of the boards and roughly-turned legs are fixed on. The farmer milks into a couple, slung over his shoulders by a yoke. The ducks and hens drink out of them—with a tin opener they can be cut smoothly to any size. The dust pan is the top of one, all the stores are kept in them, and the milk Is scalded in one. Of course a big on e makes a splen. did pan for boiling Jam, and an excel, lent crock to store eggs in. You can make a cake in a, half-one, cut length; vnse—and .indeed, I know on 0 little farm that does all its quite good cooking In them. Bread is kept in them and all the dusters and blacking things; and what better shelter for

|furs from moths than a fine big one, well and truly soldered? In the garden they are Invaluable. A shallow one to grow seeds in, and a row of big ones on the verandah for shrubs. These are painted according to taste, and look gay. With a selection of them, cut in various sizes, any child With imagination has all the toys ,ho wants.

And who can imagine a picnic with, out them? Of course the tea is boiled In one, and the boat is baled with half one, and the wild bees arc robbed and the honey is harvested into one—blackberries are gathered, mushrooms are carried—what happy memories gather round kerosene tins! The Kerosene Tin is a power In the land. It awaits Its laureate—he is sure to come—only he ought to bo a she. I give her a present of the first line:— “I sing the song of the Kerosene Tin ’ ’