A LONG REACH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18974, 26 March 1936, Page 4

A LONG REACH

HOMEWORK OCTOPUS FATHERS' FULL MARKS During the course of a meeting of an important sports management committee in the office of the secretary the other evening, a telephone call came, and a juvenile voice asked for "Daddie," says the Wellington Post. The secretary appeared not surprised by the ring and asked what the trouble was. In a few seconds he observed to the committee : "The son says he's l got some vulgar fractions to do". They shouldn't be above us." Then he made a note and asked : "What is Aof-J of 5-6?" Problems of high policy were immediately abandoned for those of higher mathematics, and after much discussion and calculating a majority decision on the answer was communicated over the telephone.

The correspondence had just been read when, some five minutes later, the telephone again rang, and the youthful voice was heard : "How do you divide a small fraction by a bigger one?" A heated discussion took place and a deadlock in committee seemed imminent when someone suggested that to divide you really multiply upside down. When the annual report was being considered the telephone again began to ring. Committeemen clasped their pencils, ready for even more vulgar fractions, but the juvenile voice said that the last sum was a very long one and would be left on the table for daddie's return.

The harassed father observed apologetically: "He gets such a lot of homework that I've got to help him. . The other boys at school tell him that their fathers always do, and they can often get full marks, which is more than I c*u."