THE "SOUL OF MILK"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22250, 26 October 1935, Page 6 (Supplement)

THE "SOUL OF MILK"

THOUGHTS FROM MAETERLINCK FREE RATION FOR CHILDREN BY A.L.B. We nil remember the cartoon so full of simple pathos in the Jubileo number of Punch, representing a small slum child, in a hospital, asking, " Nurse, how far down may I drink? ' when given a glass of milk. One wonders since tho daily distribution of tho free milk to our school children, if any local child has asked, " Pleaso teacher, how far down may I drink? " At least we are satisfied to know that owing to this milk ration for our children, no such

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cartoon could now occur with any justification in an Auckland paper! In that charming play, " The Blue Bird," Maeterlinck gives a souL to all the common everyday necessities of life. The spirits of fire, water, sugar, milk, and even of the round cottage loaves appear in familiar form to the innocent eyes of the two peasant children. No mistaking the fat wee men dancing hilariously over the cobble stenes of the kitchcu, for anything but the fresh loaves out of the household breadbin; and milk, a beautiful and white-robed woman, emerges as if by magic from the quaint china milk jug! With these fantastic, yet poetical, conceptions of Maeterlinck in our minds, we ponder a little whimsically on the hundreds of little milk-drinkers in our schools. Does the " Soul of Milk hover around those rows and rows of enamel mugs, listening joyously to the merry laughter of the little people over their daily pint? Surely she smiles with contentment and happiness at the thought of the healthy active bodies and minds she is helping to create and nourish! Maybe she weeps a little silently over an attenuated and undernourished Bobby or Betty! Perhaps she feels a justifiable anger that she was not bidden earlier to prepare this feast!