FIRST-CLASS MEMORY.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 June 1933, Page 19 (Supplement)

FIRST-CLASS MEMORY.

IN A SECOND-CLASS HOTEL.

Mercurio Cosma has what some might consider a fortunate and others an unfortunate eccentricity. Whatever he reads is retained in his memory. An Italian newspaper reporter came across him the other day in a second-rate inn in Sardinia, where. he Was washingup and talking to himself as he Worked. The journalist Was amazed to hear between the clatter of the plates and dishes a long quotation from Dante’s Purgatory. “Oh,” said Cosma, in reply to his question as to where he had learned this, “I know the whole Divine Comedy by heart, and the Bible too,” he added, as if it were the most simple and natural thing in the world. Doubting this, the journalist next day obtained a copy Of the Divine Comedy and read aloud a few lines; whereupon Cosma continued the quotation and finished the whole Section. ' The next evening this was repeated with the Bible, Cosma reciting a lengthy portion of Exodus. . A journalist could hardly be expected to keep a thing like this to himself,.and since then Cosma has received numerous offers to show his powers in public. He has, however, declined them all, adding as an argument that often he does not understand what he is reciting, arid to become a showman’s property has no attraction for him. . And so he goes'oh with his washingup. ~ WHERE FEAR IS UNKNOWN. BIRDS IN AN ISLAND SANCTUARY. Several little islands inhabited only by native birds arid a caretaker and his family are to be found along the coast of New Zealand. They are the bird sanctuaries set 4side by the New Zealand Government many years ago so that the native birds,

which are in danger .of. becoming extinct" on the mainland, might live and increase in peace. Alas for the beautiful and quaint native birds Of New,Zealand! This. hewing down of forests and the draining of swamps to'toake way fpt pastures have destroyed the.homes..Where their ancestors lived. for thousands Of years. With the. passing of the forests the native birds passed away also. . . But on thd island sanctuaries the birds can live in natural surroundings, and the only human beings are the Government caretakers. Good news comes to. us about the birds of Kapiti Island, a . sanctuary about 30 miles from Wellington. This is an ideal place for the native birds, being hilly | and wooded. It is about five miles, long and two miles wide and several miles from the mainland." . . The caretaker is Mr. A. S.-. Wilkinson,, an ideal man for his job. He has a keen love for and an intimate knowledge Of the native, birds and their habits, and he also knows a great deal about the native trees and plants. He has planted-native shrubs on some of. the open spaces,-, so as to make more homes for the birds. IN HIS NATIVE LAND. HE SLEEPS AT LAST. , Raised from a grave at Fez in. Morocco, where it has rested for 27 years, the coffin containing all that is . mortal of a British officer has-been carried • over land, and “sea to be buried at Dundee. The officer’s name WaS. Angus Howard Reginald Ogilvy, and he Was a major in the Hussars who won the D.S.O. for services in the South African War. Soon after the end of-that war he was invited to become Instructor of CaValry by the Sultan of Morocco, who well knew the value of a soldier of our race; for was not Kaid Sir Harry Maclean the chief instructor of his army, and a valued counsellor at his Court? Sir Angus Ogilvy died at Fez at the age of 46, but so disturbed has been ; the State of Morocco since then that ' it has been impossible to bring his body I home till how. ; -