QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21632, 30 April 1932, Page 12

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

RESEARCH FOR THE HIGH COMMISSIONER.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, March 15. Of the endless procession of letters to the High Commissioner in which the writers ask for particular information about New Zealand there are always one or two a week which require considerable ingenuity in answering. These conundrums are dealt with by the librarian.

Last week, for instance, a major of the French army wrote saying that he was writing a work of pure fiction. His characters were travelling by way of Australia and New Zealand to the South Sea Islands. He understood that New Zealand was very beautiful, and he required some printed matter from which he might be able to draw material for another chapter. He sincerely hoped that his request would not be deemed indiscreet, as any information he might be favoured with might give to some of the French readers knowledge of a country practically unknown to them. * A certain Dutch vice-admiral visited New Zealand and was presented with a greenstone tiki. Through a New Zealand friend he now asks: Where does the greenstone come from? Can it be obtained from any other part of the world? What does the name “tiki” mean? He has also hoard that Great Britain is no longer “Mistress of the Seas.” Is this correct, and why?

Another correspondent sets a very simple question, but it is not always easy to answer such questions. “ What are the colours of the Masterton High School?” he asks. As a matter of fact, the literature in the High Commissioner’s Department was equal to the occasion.