BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1934, Page 21 (Supplement)

BILLY BOYS’ WORKSHOP

HOW TO MAKE A TOY TRAIN. Here is a jolly little train which you can make chiefly from odd pieces of thm fretwood. Choose light-coloured wood, such as sycamore, about one eighth of an inch thick, Tire train consists of an engine and as many trucks as you like to make. . For the sides of the engine, cut two pieces to the shape and sizes given in diagram A, and, with a fretsaw, cut out the side window in each piece. Next cut out the engine front, shown at B, round the top comers and smooth with glasspaper. The top part, C, is two inches wide and to this part, on the centre line, you must nail the chimney

and dome, which can be cut from a piece of half-inch dowel rod. On top of the chimney nail a cap cut from three-quarter-inch rod. The front part of the cab, O, is two inches long and one-and-a-quarter inches wide, and is glued between the two sides. For the roof of the cab, cut a piece of wood two inches by one-arid-three-quarter inches and glue it in place. Now stick the other parts together and also to the footplate, D, which is five and a half inches long and two inches wide. Cut two small blocks to the sizes given at E, and stick them underneath the foot-plate, allowing a space of two-and-three-quarter inches between them. To make the wheels, take a short length of three-quarter-inch dowel rod and saw off four pieces about one-eighth of an inch thick, as indicated at F. Smooth both sides of each wheel with glasspaper, make a small hole in the centre, and then fix loosely to the ends of the blocks E with fine flat-headed nails, about half an inch long. To make one of the trucks, cut a piece of wood measuring four inches by two inches, for the floor; two pieces as shown at G, for the sides, and two pieces, H, for the ends. Glue these together as shown •in the top diagram. Stick two axle blocks, E, the same size as used for the engine, underneath the floor, as shown in diagram K. Cut four more wheels from the three-quarter-inch rod and fix them in the same way as the engine wheels. The couplings between the engine and trucks are wire nails, three-quarters of an inch long. The heads are cut off and the nails bent to form staples and hooks, which can be pushed into the wood with the aid of a pair of pliers. The Hut Carpenter. WELCOME, NEPAL. HOW 50,000 MEN WERE FREED. A diplomatic representative to London from Nepal has just been appointed. Nepal seems very far. away. It is an independent kingdom on the northeastern frontier of India, a land of magnificent forests and superb mountains, a land of tigers and elephants, bamboos and orchids, yet a land which has a good deal in common with England. ' One thing in common is the respect the people have, here as there, for the memory of the late Maharajah Sir Chandra Shumshere Jung. He determined to abolish slavery m Nepal. Of course people told him, as they have told all reformers, that it was impossible. You could not kill so old a custom. You could not offend thousands of powerful men. You could not dislocate trade. You could not change human nature. You might lose your throne. But he was not shaken. In 1924 he took a census of the slaves. Then he issued an . appeal to their owners to release them. He spoke of the cruelty of selling people like cattle and parting parents and children. He announced that on a certain date slavery would cease to be legal and the slaveowners would be compensated. The Maharajah would give 14 lakhs of rupees toward the compensation. This noble lead met with a wonderful response from 15,700 slave-owners, and 1280 of them offered to release their slaves at once without compensation. So liberty came to 51,000 people in Nepal. The special envoy just appointed to London is the nephew of that greathearted ruler, and surely he will find a warm welcoipe there. CUSTOMS LIKE STEEL. NATIVES HELD IN GRIP. Tribal customs die hard and they add not a little to the difficulty of ruling native peoples in the Empire. They hold backward natives in their grip as in a bond of steel.

One more example of all this has just occurred in Natal. A native chief was seeking to extend his power over his people, and for this purpose asked two witch doctors to supply him . with medicine made from a human body. A victim was necessary, and the chief persuaded a man to sell to him his invalid son for £6 . and ten oxen. A feast was held, the young man killed, and the medicine was prepared. But the British Governor heard of this and arrested the father and the natives concerned, with the result that they have been tried and sentenced to death..