LITTLE HOUSE FOR THE PRINCESS

Taranaki Daily News, 18 June 1932, Page 6 (Supplement)

LITTLE HOUSE FOR THE PRINCESS

WARM HEARTS & CLEVER HANDS.

Welsh efficiency, Welsh generosity, and once more Welsh efficiency—this is the story of the little thatched cottage presented by the people of 5 - Wales t.o Princess Elizabeth for her sixth birthday. It conies from warm hearts and clever hands.

Weighing ten tons, the cottage is 22 ft. long, Bft. wide, and 16ft. high, and the curve of its eaves gives it a grace and beauty all its own. Welsh craftsmen have filled it with Welsh furniture, and all the decorators, artisans, and other workers in the building and allied trades have made the little home complete with electric light, gas cooker, telephone, and wireless set. And one more thing was thought of; the insurance policy. This was made out in miniature, £7'so for the house and £5OO for its contents. This unique policy was handed over with the deeds, and the Duke of York took them home, in his pocket, while the house started to follow by road on a steam lorry. On the way some sparks set the house on fire, and only by the energy of an A.A. Scout and a local fire brigade was it saved.

Here Welsh efficiency took up the challenge. Mr. Morgan Willmott, the architect, set to work to restore the roof and damaged walls in time not only for the birthday, but for the Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia. He reassembled his painters, his plumbers, his carpenters, and his electricians at Cardiff, and sent them to London with all necessary materials for replacements. Then he took an aeroplane to be able to arrange matters in London. But the cheque for £750 promised on the unique insurance policy reached London even before the plane! Princess Elizabeth will now have something which has been through fire and water to reach her, and the C.N. wishes her many happy hours in her own Welsh home. A CATCH. What is the difference between a man who saw ' the Niagara Falls and one who did not see the falls but saw a duck pond? The one, seen through the mist; the other missed the scene. When asked about the duck pond, you say, .‘‘That’s where you fell in.” (Sent by Brian Wood.) What is it everything has got ? A name. (Sent by Frances Linn.) A KING’S FLOWERS.

The King has received a present from the Maharajah of Nepal, the great State which forms for hundreds of miles the north-east boundary of British India. , The gift is a collection of 300 kinds of seeds and plants, and it is the fourth gift of this kind the Maharajah has eent the King. Botanists are not allowed to go into Nepal in search of specimens, so these collections are of great importance. - The plants were sent to the Natural History Museum at Kensington. They are v being examined and classified, and the experts hope to find a number of

new and interesting species which should be of great value to botanists. The seeds have been sent to Kew, to Edinburgh, and to the nurseries in Hyde Park. It is expected that many new sorts of plants grown from them will be in flower next season. The more decorative will be sent to the gardens of Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle, and to the royal parks and gardens open to the public. Thousands of our people, we may expect, will soon be able to seq flowers which two years ago few white men had ever set eyes on.

MIKE AND “ROVING KIDNAPPER.”

Mike the monkey sometimes saw aeroplanes flying over the jungle, and he longed to have one. ’ “I’d get one back on Prim the parrot if I had,” thought Mike. “She’s always boasting about, her wings, and saying how sad it must be only to have legs. My whiskers! Wouldn’t she look blue if she- saw me flying over the tree tops!” Then he ambled off to watch Sonny, the little boy who lived on the edge of the jungle. When Sonny came out of his hut, he had something very queer in his hand. Mike nearly fell out-of his tree when he saw '-his queer thing flying in the air like a flat bird with a long tail,' and he thought it was a new sort of aeroplane.

“Let the poor thing go,” gabbled Mike. “Don’t hold it on a string, you nasty, cruel little boy.” Then Sonny’s mother called, and, putting a big stone on the string of the kite, Sonny went into the house. Down the tree popped Mike, grabbed the string, bit it through with his strong teeth, and screamed; “I’ve got an aeroplane! I can go where I like! I can fly!”

Away went the kite with Mike clinging to the string. But, alas! He could not go where he liked. He was horrified to find himself swinging in the air. Over the jungle tree-tops he sailed, and all the jungle folk went tearing after him, on the ground and in the trees. “What’s he doing?” screamed Prim. “Must w© laugh or cry?” Fortunately, a tree knocked Mike into the river. As he scrambled out, he saw quantities of jungle folk waiting, all ready to laugh, but luckily he had an idea.

“A dreadful adventure,” he murmured. “That thing with a tail was the wild, roving kidnapper, and he nearly got me. Look out!”

' Away rushed the jungle folk to warn their children that a horrible new creaka,? 4xn forafiU