BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 March 1932, Page 4

BREEZES

Tact. Mrs Wiggles: “Was that a good box of cigars, Ephraim, that I bought you for your Christmas box?” Mr Wiggles: “I have not seen a better box.” * *• * * Just Like a Woman! “Do you know, John,” remarked Mrs Jaggs, as her husband stumbled upstairs, “that 1 have been awake for Hours waiting for you to come home from the club?” “If that isn’t just like a woman! ” growled Jaggs. “I’ve been at tne club for hours waiting for you to go to sleep. ’ ’ Meaning of Aotearoa. The reference by Tahu Wiremu Katana, the Maori religious leader, to the union of interests of Aotearoa, the North Island, and those of Te Waipounamu, the South Island, in the course of a speech at the native assembly at Te Kuiti, draws attention to the many names applied to the islands of the Dominion. Aotearoa is the general name among the Maori tribes for the whole of New Zealand, only the peoples of a portion of the North Island west coast, near Wanganui, using the word, as Ratana has done, to describe the North Island, which is ordinarily called Te Ilea a Maui. An abbreviated form of Aotearoa, Aotea, is the Maori term for Great Barrier Island. New Zealand was once known as Till Tiri o te Moana—“placed at wide intervals in the ocean”—and the Rarotongans knew this country as Avaiki-Tautau, one. of the Pacific Ocean’s many Ilawaikis. There is also a modern expression, Niu Tireni, which is merely a Maori pronunciation of New Zealand.

Some Recent Howlers.

“ What is the Milky Way? The way you feed infants.” “Solomon had one hundred wives and two hundred cucumbers.” “Composition is the art of bringing loose ideas into complication.” “Question: ‘Of whom was it said that he never smiled again?’ Answer: ‘Of Charles I. after his execution.” ‘‘Explain ‘Every shepherd tells his tale, Under the hawthorn in the dale’.” ‘All shepherds are down in the valley, making love to the girls’.” “Form a verb from suspicion. ‘I suspish’. ” “The rotation of the earth means that the world turns on its own abscess.” ‘‘Grammar Lesson on Masculines and corresponding Feminines. Teacher: ‘What is “she”?’ Pupil: ‘The objective of “he.” ’ ” “St. Andrew is the patent saint of Scotland, the patent saint of England is the Union Jack, the patent saint of Ireland is Blarney.” “Skim milk comes from a young cow in the summer, and condensedmilk from an old cow in winter.” # * * # Telephoning to London. > It costs money to talk to London, but business firms find that it often pays to get a quick answer. The other day the Auckland representative of an English business house rang up the head office in London, and the conversation was carried on with no more trouble than ringing up anyone on the local exchange. It was about 2 a.m., Auckland time, that the call was put through, which means that they would just be finishing lunch at the London office when the summons came to speak to someone on the other side of the world. The conversation was perfectly plainly heard at both ends, and in three minutes —the duration of the call —and at a cost of about £6, a very important business transaction was clinched.

Forgot Iler Own Language

A young Frenchwoman, who can speak twelve foreign, languages, but has lost command of her own, is engaging the attention of the French Academy of Medicine. A report of her case was submitted to the startled academicians by M. Marineseo, who conceals the woman’s identity under the initials “P.M.” She suffered from loss of memory after an attack of pleurisy, and remained in a trance-like condition for some time. Then she woke with “the mind of a child.’’ She could not speak French or use the simplest articles with the least dexterity. But in a few days she began to speak slowly in twelve foreign languages, of which she had been in complete ignorance before her illness. A little latci she wrote with her left hand, although previously she had used her right. Several psychologists, members of the Academy, are of the opinion that Ml le. P.M.’s illness stimulated an unconscious area of her brain which had received a series of perfect but involuntary impressions of which she was totally unaware. In other words, she had heard the foreign languages spoken and retained the- words in her sub-con-scious mind.