ROUND ABOUT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 141, 1 April 1940, Page 5

ROUND ABOUT

(By Aitcbel) Easter came and went and. now we are faced with a nice long stretch, as the monkey said when. . . until holidays are ours at Christmas. Imm m * We arc reliably informed that an unusual incident occurred on a farm not so very far away from here, when a polccoat attacked and killed a very Jine four-year-old cock pheasant, which was in a pen. The following night the farmer baited a trap and caught offending; polecat which proved to lie a fine specimen of the breed and measured 21 inches from the tip of the nose to the tip of the'tail. Claude has never seen a jjolecat but lias heard a lot about them and says that if he had been asked to do Hie measuring it would have been 21 feet from the tip of the nose. « ta a e And the story is told of the arrival] in 'Rome of the British Treasury official, who will examine the causes of the recent breakdown in Anglo-Italian commercial negotiations. It is reported that the Italians arc suspicious of the British Government's intentions in sending this particular chap. His name is the trouble—Mr Play fair. * * «!< » A number of people, admittedly most of them have been visitors and as such are not expected to know better, have enquired the reason for the activity at the wharf.

There was one fellow who thought it a preparation for a German naval base. He had the spymania properly and got to dashing about yelling for assistance in arresting the workmen. We quietened him by sitting on him and then Claude proceeded to drive a little sense into his head. It was only a Tittle sense because Claudp hasn't too much anyway and he didn't like taking a risk. Of course, having absolutely none I couldn't assist. I did the sitting. That reminds me of an elderly relative of Claude's. Ninety-seven is his age and Claude gets the blues sometimes thinking about him. He complains bitterly to me that the relative has no ambition; spends his time sitting ajnl thinking. That's not so bad, says my friend,but there are times when lie slips a bit and just sits. Anyhow, to get 011 with the story The chappie who occasioned us so much concern, and who was dead nuts on the naval base idea, turned out to be a Midshipman (or it may have been a Leading Picture-Ticket Winner) of the "Good Endeavour'* so, of course, the thing was in his blood. He raved for a while about the enemy; unfurling the Union Jack; what cads were the Bulgars; standing on the burning deck; every man for himself doing his duty this day as was expected and all that sort of thing, and then when we had succeeded in calming him and bring ing back some signs of sanity he wanted to know why the construction of a new wharf was under way, if it was not for the reason he had advanced. » The brain acts quickly in a crisis and Claude, fearing another outburst, had an inspiration. Remembering the chap's seafaring history he told him that the Harbour Board, being far-sighted, had decided to build a substantial structure for the re-enactment,, in 2039* of the landing in Whakatane of! Peter the Whaler. c * • » And it is not only the Harbour Board iwith the ability to see contyparatively far ahead. One business house in Whakatane had the Union Jack up at the mast-head for the Centennial doings and kept it there until Wednesday, when it was lowered to the half-Kvay mark on the death of the Prime Minister. m m 9 m There is an epidemic of hub-cap losing at present sweeping the town. Not as serious as some diseases but stilh very hard to cure., Motorists appear to be losing their* sense of value and recklessly discarding parts of their cars. It may be those Avho used all their March and April coupons during the E'aster vacation and are now marking their attitude with a grand and devil-may-care gesture of « * «'»''• One of the masculine gender, at least, did not feel, see or hear the earthquake shocks at 4 a.,m. on Friday. Being in the habit of sleeping when he goes to bed (he maintains that that is what a bed is for) the first thing he knew about it was when he was told at 8 a.m. (Continued foot previous column)