BREEZES

Wairarapa Daily Times, 19 June 1936, Page 4

BREEZES

There’s a Difference!

“Dad, what is a .traitor in politics?” “A traitor, my son, is a man who leaves our party and goes over to the other side.”

“Well, then, what is a man who leaves his party and'comes over to our side?” '

“A convert, my boy.” * * * *

Angler’s Paradise. An American was telling an Irishman: “The fish are so numerous in one river in the States that the folks there just drop a pail into the water and pull it out full of fish.” “Well, now,” said Pat, “do you know that in the river Liffey, in Ireland, if the people want a pail of water, they have to push all the fish out of the way before they can get the pail in.” * # * * Mirage Photographed, i Dr. E. G. Hall, Duke University zoologist, has returned to America from a research expedition in the Chilean Andes, bringing 700 photographs and important data collected during the. recent internatioanl high altitude expedition of which he was a member. Numbered among Dr. Hall’s “prizes” is the photograph of a mountain mirage, which he listed as a rare picture. It shows a far distant mountain range rising above a desert horizon, taken with the camera close to the ground. The range could not be seen if the observers raised ihemselves to a standing position on the running board of their car. The atmospheric layer several feet above the earth’s surface “bent” the reflected light from the mountain over the earth’s curvature. “It was one of those much-heard-of but rarely seen phenomena of the desert,” Dr. Hall explained. j The natural scientist also brought home two unusual animals, known as kinkajous —related to the raccoon family. . * * * *

Beating the Census. The monkey is the despair of the census-taker. This is one of many interesting facts indicated in the Journal of the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire, just issued, says the “Daily Telegraph.” In a report by Captain C. R. S. Pitman on Northern Rhodesia, there is a detailed attempt to give the numbers pf wild animals there. But the enumerators confess that “no estimate has been attempted of baboons and monkeys.” The “amazing progressive increase” of buffaloes is commented upon. Their total is put at 60,000, and their growth is described as a disquieting feature of the game situation. In the report of the Uganda Protectorate, too, the prolific buffalo is shown to be a serious threat to economic development.

A most gentlemanly fellow, according to an account by Captain H. C. Brockenhurst, is the giant panda of Northwest China. He subsists entirely on bamboo stalks, but scrupulously preserves the very thin stalks and the leaves for his spouse. This correct conduct in matrimonial life is an appropriate sequel to this noble animal’s courtship. During the mating season the male utters a kind of roar for three or four days in succession. During this time, the natives say, the female climbs into a tree and the male remains on the ground. # -Jfr * ‘ * Spartan Living. We want women and not guard grenadiers of the pre-war style as marriage companions, writes the “Black Corps,” official weekly of Hitler’s bodyguards, protesting against the Spaftan demands of the “Workman,” official organ of the National Labour Ministry. In demanding a Spartan education for girls serving in the labour service camps, the “Workman” writes: —“The* girls must get accustomed to sleeping on straw bedding, rise in the chill of the earliest morning hours, get used to simple washing facilities, abolish all cosmetics, and wear simple and uniform clothes.”

The “Black-Corps” remarks: “To serve in the labour corps means serving the community. Straw bedding is a good method of defacing ‘class arro : gance,’ which grows nowhere better than in eiderdowns. But why these exaggerations, why get the girls accustomed to straw bedding for the rest of their lives when even some drill schools for non-commissioned officers have replaced straw sacks with softer mattresses stuffed with seaweed? We. do not want ex-soldiers who have just completed their term with the army to toss sleeplessly on their straw bedding because of its hard stuffing, while their wives fondly treasure this same straw sack.”

The “Black Corps,”.while admitting that early rising is a virtue, wants to know why it must always be chilly when the girls rise, and it challenges the “Workman” to produce the girl who does not gain by applying powder to her nose when it is shiny.