HAPPY COGS

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 258, 30 October 1937, Page 13

HAPPY COGS

THE MAORI AND HIS MOTHER TONGUE.

Is the language of the Maoris—the native people of New Zealand—in danger of dying out? This was one of many questions discussed by the hundred delegates from all parts of New Zealand in conference at Rotorua, the picturesque town in the centre of the hot springs country of the Dominion. They represented the Maoris from every district, and included a number of Europeans who are interested in the welfare of the Maoris. We are proud of the way the European and Maori people of New Zealand have dwelt in harmony for generations. The Maoris enjoy equal citizenship and play the same games. That is as it should be; but the elders of the Maoris and their European friends see with regret that the natives are in danger of losing their ancient ways of living, their customs and manners, their aria and crafts, their traditions, and even their native tongue. It was stated at the conference that in the past the Maori children attending special native schools had been discouraged from speaking their own tongue, and that Maoris have become so accustomed to European ways of living that many of the parents do not speak Maori in their homes. THE LITTLE OLD WOMAN TELLS US ABOUT HER GARDEN. Woodville. Dear Hub, —My garden is starting to liven up. Oscar dug it and I have peas, beans, raddishes, lettuce up and some cabbages and cauliflowers in. He has quietened the pony. I told you he has taught her to come to his whistle. My old cat, “Forty” has four kittens, two tabbies and two orange ones. My cow has a lovely calf and one of my horses a foal, so I have quite a few baby pets. The days are growing longer now, it is light up till half past six or seven o’clock. 1 have another pet lamb now but it is very small. Do you like animals, Ilub? I am getting a penfriend in India and later I will get one in Samoa. Are there many white butterflies in Palmerston! There are two sparrow’s nests near my house and a starling’s nest in the stable. Stella and Lofty, two of my ponys are quite friendly with the starling now, but when the nest was first built they pulled it down. I call the foal ‘•.Scamp/ 7 because he is so mischievious. I am tired so will close. Love to all the big family. Little Old Woman. You are indeed a busy soul, Little Old Woman —with your garden and your farmyard. Yes, I do love animals—don’t know what I’d do without a aog. The white butterfly is beginning to flit around our cabbage patch now. Woodville. Dear Hub, —1 am sorry I have not written before. We have a pony uamed Tony who is very quiet. I am in Sti. 2 at school. There are a lot of birds’ nests now. I like finding them, but 1 do not touch them. I have only found cue lark’s nest, when I fouud it it had only three eggs in it, then I went back the next day and it had three lark’s in it. They had no feathers and they did look so funny. It is getting .te so 1 will have to close now with lots of love to you and all the Cogs. Pip. Well, Pip, you are a true Cog in not interfering with the young larks. Don’t you love to see them soaring into the •ummer sky filling the air with their glad songs! Waituna West. Dear Hub, —We have now moved to Waituna West. I ride my pony to achool and she goes very well up and down hills. My brother has got twelve teeth and he is nearly getting another one. I see Romona 7 s letter in the Cogs 7 Page. She is my cousin. One of my friends might be joining us. Mr Kelly i* the name of our teacher. Dad and I went out eeling and we caught an eel weighing about ten to twelve lbs. We went over again and under a log we saw a great big eel so Dad speared it but missed it. I love to read Powder and Patches exciting rhymes every week. I must end off, Hub. Snow Flake Fairy. P.S. I might be coining in to see you gome day. I shall be very pleased to see you, Snow Flake Fairy. Isn’t eeling a thrilling sport

COOK’S CORNER. Here is a recipe for chocolate coconut ice. You will require lib lump sugar, .1-3 lb disiccated coconut, 3oz. cocoa, 1$ gills milk, aud some vanilla flavouring. Put the cocoa into a saucepan and mix to a smooth paste with some of the milk, then stir in the remainder. Add the sugar, and put over a low gas until dissovled. Bring to the boil, stir in the coconut, and boil for about 15 to 20 minutes, keeping it well stirred. Add a few drops of vanilla, then pour into a wet tin and spread over evenly. Leave until set, then turn out on the other side and leave to dry. Cut in blocks. Apiti. Dear Hub, —It is raining quite heavily here but it was blowing last night. I think I like rain better than wind We have forty-six chickens. Most of them are black but we have about ten little bantam chickens, some are cream and others are black. We will have more chickens soon as we have two more hens sitting. My cat has two kittens, both black but one has little white paws. Snow Queen. What a disappointing weekend we’ve had and after the promise of fine weather we had last week. Y r ou will be kept busy with your growing chicken family, Snow Queen —don’t they cat such a loti

Koputaroa. Dear Hub, —Just a few lines to help fill up a tiny space in our Page. I suppose it has grown ever so big since I last wrote. We have our shearing all done now. Now we are going to brand the sheep. I have a pet lamb whose name is Peter and he is about three months old. Dad found Peter when he was a tiny lamb. The people who owned him would not take him back. Peter comes in to the garden and smells the flowers and what ever he likes, he bites the heads off. But does not eat them. We also have another little lamb down on the flat. Our flower garden has been lovely. It has been a blaze of bright red flowers and golden coloured wallflower. Soon the red and pink rambling roses will be out in flower. Well, as news is scarce just at present, I will bring this short note to a close. I wont leave it so long again before I write. Flax Flower. W'elcome back again, Flax Flower after your absence—l think Mr Printerman might consent to squeeze in your letter! What a comical lamb Peter must be! SEA WATER TO DRINK Drinking oceans dry has been brought a step nearer by the chemists. While experimenting with maKmg artificial gums or resins Dr. Adams and Dr. Holmes found two which would act as filters for sea water. The sea water, filtered first through one resin and then the other, was deprived of its saltness and became drinkable. It is a very tiny step, and the amount or drinking water obtained only filled a flask in the laboratory, and was more expensive than most drinkables. But some day drinking water will be manufactured out of sea water at small expense in large quantities, although Francis Bacon in the New Atlantis put [it down as one of the impossibilities.

WELCOME IN 1 Daisy Kee-Sue, Woodville. Audrey Quayle, Feildlng. THE LAND OF HOT STREAMS. Aunt Jane had a wonderful holiday, Cogs—from Auckland she travelled by rail down to Te Kuiti. It was the day after the big storm and the countryside looked so desolate and broken —the lower areas were flooded and great gaping holes showed where trees had been uprooted by the fury of the wind. Even the animals looked beaten, standin" patiently with lowered heads and rain soaked backs to the wind and now and then shaking of showers of cold muddy water into the air. In one paddock a small hillock completely surrounded by water was the island home of a colony of bedraggled looking bunnies. Arriving at Te Kuiti we camped for the night and early next morning set off for Hamilton and Cambridge.' At Hamilton we camped on the shores of the flooded Waikato—its banks fringed with lovely weeping willows—their branches trailing gracefully on the muddy waters. Cambridge looked so English with its wide streets and beautiful trees and we stayed a day to admire it. Then wo went to Matamata where Aunt Jane had her first swim in the hot baths. How lovely it was not to have to hesitate on the edge tryingly to pluck up courage to jump in—one just couldn’t get in quickly enough I As we travelled south towards Rotorua it became warmer and harvesters were busy with hay—their brown backs showing up vividly against the golden sheaves. Arriving at Rotorua that land of hot steam and coloured lakes, we pitched our camp in the beautiful reserve where many other holiday-makers formed a canvas town. Aunt Jane had heard so much of the wonderful “Fairy Springs ” and her expectations were not disappointed. In a narrow pool —very deep and very blue hundreds of trout—all sizes and colours live—some so tame that they will tako food from ones hand—and if one wasn’t quick enough, pieces of ones hand! Our guide took us down a winding track which followed a stream where hundreds of trout swam leisurely upstream. The guide told us that those trout never change their positions and they always swim in regular formation —they even had a leader. No one was allowed to touch the trout and that was why there were so many and they were so tame. Reluctantly we left the “Fairy Springs” and made our way to the Maori village of Ohinemutu. Scores of little brown-eyed Maori children surrounded us and offered to sing and haka for us for pennies—such quaint little fellows in ragged old clothes which only seemed to make them picturesque instead of shabby. At Whakarewarewa or Whaka as it is better known, we engaged a guide—a good natured Maori woman in a bright red dress with a red and white handkerchief tied over her black shiny hair. We stood for a while on the bridge watching a slim brown girl dive with incredible precision for pennies thrown down by tourists, then we were taken to see those wonderful hot streams and geysers which are the source of so much interest to people all over the world. Grim looking holes where water is always simmering, and lazy old mud holes where the boiling mud looks just like porridge slowly rising and falling making all sorts of funny shapes only to be puffed up and then down again. The most famous geyser of all Pohutu was not playing but the guide told us that when it did great showers of boiling water were hurled with wonderful regularity into the air, the suns rays turning the water into a beautiful rainbow. On our way to the model pa we saw some Maori men hold a dead pig under in a hot pool and then all. hands set to work to scrape off the hide! Funny little brown boys and girls darted in and out of the warm pools calling for pennies. Aunt Jane lined up six of them and the quaint little children sang and danced the haka—rolling their dark eyes and poking out their pink tongues thoroughly enjoying themselves. The model pa is situated on a hill and is surrounded by a stockade—made of stout manuka stakes so arranged that entry into the pa is made impossible— except through a special gate. Once inside the stockade one was surprised at the neatness of everything. There was the village meetinghouse with its symbolical carving, the “potaka” or foodstore house raised high on piles to keep thieves from entering it, and all about were the houses of the village, giving the tourist an idea of how the Maori lived before the white man and his customs came. Aunt Jane wondered whether the Maori guide ever sighed for her old manner of living instead of just showing it to people who came as"sightseers. From the pa one looked down into the valley full of steam, smelling of suiphur and boiling mud and far out on the lake lay the little island to where, a Maori legend tells us, a Maori maid once swam out to her lover Tutanikae, Aunt Jane just stood and gazed and tried to imagine what all that had looked like years ago—before the pink terraces were buried in the lake, before the coming of the white man transformed that land of steam and boiling waters into a place where hundreds of sightseers came to look and wonder and pass on.

THE PLUNKET NURSE WRITES TO YOU ALL. My dear Cogs,—This note is to say how very much the quilts were appreciated. The kind thought of all you little people to make those quilts and pass them on to us to give away to other children, whose parents are not able to afford to buy sufficient bed clothing for them, and especially during the cold weather, was one of the kindest and most thoughtful acts that any society of children could do, and it will be most gratifying to one and all of you to know that these quilts were very much appreciated by other little ones who were delighted to have a floral quilt on their little beds and to be warm and comfortable at night. Once again thanking you all for the very kindest of thought and good acts in sending them to us to give away, and wishing you all the greatest success, Yours sincerely, A. M. Kearns. Plunket Nurse. AN OLD COG REJOINS THE PAGE Woodville. Dear Hub, —I am sure this will be a pleasant surprise to you to receive a letter from an old Cog. Although 1 have not written to your Page for some years, I have always taken the interest in reading it. I feel now that I would love to join again so I am sending in threepence in stamps for a new Cog’s badge. lam attending High School and I like it very much. Just recently the Girl Guides paid a visit to the Esplanade. We spent the day there and had a very enjoyable time. The cheery blossoms looked magnificent in its bloom. Last/month our school celebrated its diamond jubilee. For part of the celebrations a fancy dress bah was held for thle school children and I went as “Madame Pompadour.” 1 hope that you are keeping very well aud with best of wishes. Daisy Kee-Sue. Welcome back again, Cog, we are so pleased you have come back to us.

Dear Hub, —I can’t write yet so my Mummie will write for me. Can I have “Snowy” for a pen-name! We have a bottle of milk every morning and we all like it. We go for the mail every night to see if our badge has come. My Mummie says there is a little boy at Ruawhata who can say A.B.C. backwards and all the little pieces like B for butcher and he is only oh years old. Mum says he is so lovely to hear. Well I must close now with heaps of love to all. Snowy. Yes, your may have “Snowy” for your pen-name.. What a clever wee boy that must be. It wont bo very long before you can say your A.8.C., Snowy. That bottle of milk you drink every day will make you grow up very fast, won’t it? Cunningham’s road. Dear Hub, —I am sending you the names aud addresses of some girls from South Africa who wanted pen-friends in New Zealand. I saw that Cinderella was granting a pen-friend there so she might like to write to one of these. There is quite a change in the weather to-day after the lovely days we have had lately. We have thirty chicks, Hub, twenty -six white ones and four black. Well, Hub, I must close, hoping some of the Cogs will write to these girls in South Africa. Jean Batten. Well, Jean Batten, you are no doubt a very proud Cog bearing such a famous name! Many thanks for the names of South African pen-friends. Halcombe. Dear Hub, —I am sending three stamps for my badge. To-day is cold We have some chicks three weeks old. I have a cat named Nigger and it is his birthday. I am thinking of coming to see you, Hub, The trees are blowing with the wind. That is all I have to tell you Hub, so must end my .cer, Hub, with all my love to all of you. I will write to you again some other time when I have the chance. Rose Bud. Your badge will be posted, Rose Bud, | and I am sure you will be a very proud Coglet when you see it.

SOLUTION TO JUMBLED MOTOR CARS There were eight motor cars, and sixty four letters—so how long did it take you to guess that each car had eight letters in its name. So by taking the first letter and then skipping to the eighth each time, it was simple to solve the puzzle! The answer was:— CADILLAC WOLSELEY VAUXHALL CROSSLEY STANDARD PLYMOUTH OVERLAND CHRYSLER SKILLTEST WINNER CALLING ALL CARS! This week’s Skilltest was won by Snow Queen. Apparently the girl are more “car conscious” than the boys as I not one boy attempted the Skilltest! Congratulations, Snow Queen. ODDS AND ENDS. A BLOCK OF MARBLE AS BIG AS THE ABBEY A block of marble weighing a million tons was recently'’ blown from a mountain in the famous Carrara quaries, from which Michael Angelo got his marble. It will give work for six years to 2000 workers, who will break up a mass about as big as Westminster 'Abbey. The preparation for the explosion lasted seven months and a ton of explosive was used. HOW NEW ZEALAND GOT ITS NAME Abel Janszoon Tasman, the Dutch navigator, discovered New Zealand, and thought the islands so much like the Zealand at home in Holland that he called it the New Zealand.

Dear Hub, —We -were up early Saturday morning to see if our letter was in the paper. My mother is going to sit a hen’ on twelve eggs. I love little chickens. lam in Std I. Mummie says if I pass she will get me a nice present. I hope Ido pass. I must close now and go to school. With lots of love to all. Shirley Temple. P.S. Harry and I received our badges to-day. We thank you very much. I am glad you like your badge, Shirley Temple, and hope you will write to us every week. Ashhurst. Dear Hub, —I wrote to you last week so there will be not much news to tell you. This last week it has been lovely/ but to-day is windy and cold. Dad has been shearing and we had our pet lamb shorn. At school we are playing baseball and I like it, too. Our plum tree has little green plums growing on it, but I like them best when they are ripe. Early this morning I went out to our big* buggie cage where a mothej bird is sitting on three eggs. Suddenly I heard a squeaking noise just like birds make. After a while 1 saw a little buggio but we don’t know how many are out. Every week 1 try to do the puzzle in the Cogs’ Page but 1 just can’t. Well, I will close now with lots of love to all the Cogs. Snowy. Well, Snowy, so Mr Puz has you beaten! Just try and try again and one day I’m sure you will see your name as a winner! Waituna West. Dear Hub, —I found a magpie’s nest and it had two eggs in it so I left it. Now it has one young one and an egg. We have marked out the tennis court at. school and we play tennis now. The football was put through the window at school about a fortnight ago. Heather got my socks and washed them on Saturday and she is only two and a half years old. The Manager. You Cogs seem very adept at locating, magpies nests —yours is the second one, The Manager—how did you “ manage” it!

POWDER AND PATCHES RHYMES AGAIN

Hukanui. Dear Hub, Again I’m late in rhyming This usual note to you, Please accept apologies From one who thinks them due. But ’praps you always keep a space For my weekly letter, And from now on I promise To be not so lata»— and better. At writing in the early week, The weather’s not been kind, The poor anemomes we had Have hung their heads and pined. It was wet for Labour week-end, It always is you know. It rained and was very cold, And the south winds did blow. 1 received a letter, Hub, From a boy I do not know, Who wrote all the way from Colyton Just to let me know That ho enjoys my letters. He wrote in rhyme to me, And just guessed my name was Lawrance, Because I’m P. and P. Thanks Ivan for the letter, I’ll answer it one day When time is not so anxious To fly swiftly away. Our garden’s rather nice, Hub, The flowers have been so gay But the cold winds and showers Have frightened them away. My snowy puss is friendly And just o’er brim with purr, And poor Mother’s cushions Are just a snow with furl I think the show sounds interesting. I think when last 1 went, Since I visited a show Eight whole years I’ve spent. They’re really all the same, Hub, Or thats what people say, They’re all right if you’re “holding” And feeling like a “Day.” Well this is really awful, I think that I must end , Before to the dishes An anxious hand I lend. I’m going to the talkies Though 1 ’ve been once before, It’s called “Lloyds of London.” And full of romance o’ war, And older days and friendships, A picture that will last When all the lighter comedys^ Aro buried in the past. Love from your Coglet I say again adieu And next week I promise To write earlier to you. Powder and Patches. I’m sure you were very thrilled P. and P. to get Ivan’s letter. I wondel if he is a Cog, too? THE GUY THAT WOULD NOT BURN Imperial Chemical Industries, continually employing its resources of money and brains to give new materials to the world, has made a new chemical to protect them from the world’s most relentless enemy of fire. It is built up out of monammouium phosphate and can be brushed or sprayed on timber wall boards, and wall-paper. Covered with a film of it they will not burn. Timber fireproofed in this way benefits most of all, because burning timber, besides startiug a fire, in a house, for example, feeds the fiarnes. But Faspos, the new fireproof chemical, acts as a sort of robot fireman to tell the flames they shall not pass. It forms a glaze over the surface of the wood that is turning to charcoal in the fire, and chokes the flames rising from the gums and gases in it. But Faspos does not stop at wood. It can armour reeds, straw, cork, and paper against fire, especially paper. Among the perils of carnival and Christmas festivities are the paper lanterns, streamers, and festoons which hold out an invitation to any unguarded flame. Faspos can make them safe. To show what it could do, Imperial Chemical Industries built two bonfires and suspended over each a Guy Fawkes of the proper old kind with cocked hat, arms, and legs complete. The fires were lit. In a few moments one guy had nothing left but its arms. But the other guy, treated with Faspos, was unharmed by the fiery furnace. This demonstration took place appropriately on Guy Fawkes Day, when tho London Fire Brigades received 150 calls to put out fires, many of them caused by fireworks. Faspos cannot deal witn the danger of fireworks, but it may lessen the damage they cause. Perhaps it may be that, if the Home Office will not save our babies from the fire danger, Imperial. Chemicals may make these inflammable toys quite safe.

Woodville. Dear Hub, —It is a long time since I have written to you. Pip and I have two pet magpies called Ebb aud Zeb. My sister learns Highland dancing aud she tries to teach us. It has been very hot for three days or more but it is wet to-day and rather cold. It is lovely to see all the trees in full bloom. We will soon have gooseberry pies. I must close now because I have to go and do my work. Love to all. Wee Man. Doesn’t the thought of gooseberry pie make your mouth water, Wee Man? I think Eb and Zeb are splendid names for your “maggies.” Dannevirke. Dear Hub, —It is a long time since I have written to you but I read the page every week. We went over to Woodville for the school jubilee and had a great time. We saw lots of photos of our mother and uncles when they were at school. Paul and I went to the children’s fancy dress ball. We saw the parade and iveut to the sports. Paul went in a race and won it. We went through to Palmerston on Saturday to see the cherry blossoms. I suppose you have been to see them many times this season. Isn’t the Esplanade the loveliest place that ever was, Hub? Fairyland must be just like that. I think we all liked the wisteria the best. The gorge was a picture with all its golden broom. Our garden is very gay with all its flowering siirubs. We have twenty-one little ducklings and they are such darlings. My little brother, Martin, is beginning to talk now. Wo have the greatest fun with him. Your Cog, Mama’s Mate. Yes, Mama’s Mate, I think aur Esplanade looked just like fairyland —such crowds went down to see it.

THREE SOUTH AFRICAN PEN FRIENDS. Hazel Shellenerdine, Rustenbcrg Girl’s High School, Camp Grand road, Rondebosch Cape, South Africa. Morie Van der Merwe, Box 55, Heil* bron, 0.V.5., South Africa. Ina Conradic, Die Pastorie, Rawsonville, Cape Province, South Africia. Waituna West. Dear Hub, —I have not written for a long time. We have thirteen pet Jambs at home. We helped Dad to dock the young lambs. Hasn’t it been a lovely week? I have found a magpie’s nest with three eggs in it. We have a lot of cherry trees in bloom and they look very pretty. We are going to have a Guy Fawkes. It is bed-time now so 1 must go. The Footballer. Been a busy Cog haven’t you, Footballer? My word, you have a large family of pets to care for. Watch that mother magpie does not attack you! Whale line. Dear Hub, —1 am very sorry I have not written before as 1 have been very busy. We have six lambs and they drink a lot of milk. Two of them drink out of a basin and the rest out of a bottle. We ride our ponies to school now r . I suppose you will be wondering when I am going to send you those stamps but I keep forgetting to fix them up. Wo play cricket at school now and we have fun. As 1 cannot think of any more news I will close. Rilla of Ingleside. No, Rilla of Ingleside, I have not despaired of those stamps at all, I know just how busy life on the farm is at this time of the year—there never seems to be any time for anything but essentials, does there?

AND NOW FOR A LAUGH! DESCRIPTIVE The police patrol car drew alongside the motorist just outside a village. “Didn’t you see that notice ‘Slow Down Here’!” demanded the policeman. “I did,” replied the motorist, “but I thought it described the village. ” A Verse With Only On* Vow*ll Idling, I sit in this mild twilight dim, Whilst birds in wild, swift vigils < circling skim. Ligh winds in sighing sink, till, rising bright, * Night’s virgin pilgrim swims in vivid light. Not Needed. The visitor stood elose to the edge of the cliff. “This is a very dangerous spot,” ho said. *Tt's a wonder there is no warning notice.” “There was for three or four years,” replied the local inhabitant; ‘‘but nobody fell over, so we took it down.”

F eliding. Dear Hub, —I received my badge last Wednesday and am very pleased with it. lam sorry that “Sunbeam” ig taken, but as it is, can L have “Rainbow!” If that pen-name is taken could I have “Moonlight!” Twilight and Golden Sunlight are my best friends an<l it is because they are Cogs, X joined. I have a pet cat called Pornpv and he is a bag of mischief. He often follows us half way down the street when we go out. Well, Hub, I will close now. Audrey Quagle. Yes, you may be “Rainbow”—what a colourful trio you three Cogs are!