FEEDING THE MULTITUDE

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16815, 5 June 1926, Page 8

FEEDING THE MULTITUDE

BUNS FOR HUNGRY YOUNGSTERS.

generosity of f.a.c

One of the busiest —perhaps the busiest —scenes at the Show during Hie week, has been in the station yard, right opposite the main Show gates. Here every afternoon thousands of visiting school children have been regaled on tea and buns, a thoughtful and humane act carried out by the Farmers’ Auctioneering Co., gratis. The scene each afternoon has been most animated, as the hordes of youngsters, marshalled into double rows by their teachers, filed past the three or four young ladies of the F.A.C., who were armed with huge pitchers of steaming hot tea, and several male assistants bending over large boxes of buns, for their dole. Needless to say this free “feed” has been greatly appreciated by the youngsters just before boarding their trains, many on a journey lasting four or five hours and who would in the ordinary course be on the verge of starvation on arrival at their homes. We all know the voracity of the childish appetite, and the onlooker could stand and smile at the many amusing incidents that occurred in this throng of hungry youthfulness. Unselfishness is not one of the ethics of average childhood where feeding is concerned, and consequently much of the by-play as the youngsters surged forward to get their helping was most laughable. Once past the post was ail that was expected of each scholar, but so far as many of them were concerned rules were only made to be broken, and it was amusing to see many of them hurriedly swallowing their portion, almost choking in the effort to get it down, and then double back for a further helping. Jt was of course difficult, where so many little mouths were to be fed, for ttie officials to keep a check on individual consumption, and even if they did espy some snub-nosed youngster “ringing the changes" they merely smiled sympathetically, possibly reminded of their own ever hungry child days. One little Maori boy, however, whose face became exceedingly familiar in the queue, was jocularly held up by one of the officials, who asked him "how many buns he had already had. The little copper-hued lad looked up rather startled that he had been detected, but on receiving encouragement from the official's kindly smile, he was emboldened to truthfully admit that he had already had six buns and an equal number of cups of coffee. It is not recorded what happened to the youngster on the train journey home, but if he slept at. all his slumbers, we should imagine, would not be untroubled ones.

Country parents whose children partook o'f this thoughtful hospitality on the part of the F.A.C. certainly owe the company a debt of gratitude for their generosity, it is such acts .of attention and thought for the welfare of visitors that help to make a how like this popular and to induce ■jtsiders to come to the town oil iccial occasions.