ROUND ABOUT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 177, 24 June 1940, Page 5

ROUND ABOUT

(By Aitchel)

There Avas some amusement Jit the County Chambers on Thursday afternoon when Mr F. J. Burt, of Matata, who is a member of bo'.lt the Hospital Board and the County Council, observed that he 'got it both Avays.' His reference Avas to j criticism of rating for hospital finance. Mr Burt had an exceptionally busy time on Local Body affairs last week. On Tuesday he attended the monthly meeting of the Bay of Plenty PoAver Board at Opotiki; on, Wednesday ;ic Avas in Whakatane for a special meeting of the County Council; on Thursday morning he was present for the annual and monthly meetings of the Bay of Plenty Hospital Board and at 1 p.m. the same day, looking as fresh as the proverbial daisy, he Avas on time for the monthly meeting of the County Council. And as president of the Rangitaiki Rugby SubUnion he Avas on deck on Saturday! 'mm a * "The speech Avhich Mr Winston Churchill made in the House of Commons on Thursday is, in its essential elements, the speech aaTilcli every thoughtful and patriotic r.ubject AAOuld have liked to make but which, lacking Churchill's eloquence and command of his mother tongue, lias been reduced to more or less coherent mntterings OA*er the matutinal eggs and bacon accompanied by diagram draAving with jithe forks and table knives." Thus a leader in a contemporary. You know, there are many people like that. Drawing diagrams with, the knives or forks, I mean. Some go further and use other table fittings to illustrate their points. I have known a sugar basin to be ;transformed into a miniature Berlin; a ! cruet to majke an admirable false rail; and yesterday I Avas for.tunate enough to see a replica of the Niagara, albeit in normal times it is used as a gravy-boat. Claude's like that. I Av.ent rountl to his place for lunch on Saturday and he started "right in on the illustrating business. The subject was lioav he Avorkcd his Avay out of one of these maze things, so you can imagine the a- : mount of visual explanation required (according" to Claude). He had eA^erything in use barring the loaf of bread. I couldn't proceed Avith the meal because he had my knife and' fork. At last I protested—not :because of hunger, but because it seemed that my poAAer of assimilation of his verbal drawings Avas in question. -With some of Claude's prosy pictures there is reason for the doubt. "Good heaA'ens," I said, '"don't you think I can folloAV you \A r ith— out all that shifting of the crockery and cutlery?" "No," he answered seriously. "You see, your brain is like this." \ Ami he reached for the bread and started to discourse on nerve terminals, consciousness, Abolition and so forth. He is incorrigible. But after all,. I Avas flattered. Some people do not credit me Avith as much as Claude did. ; in a* ?3 Something happens and immediately there is a crop of rumours.When the Niagara Avas lost there AA r ere many people ready to give credence to the suggestion that the Italian fishermen long resident in NeAV Zealand had soAvn a AVhole field of mines, a regular mine-belt, rpund the coast of this country. That sore of thing is particularly stupid* but the latest beats the wide variety Ave have heard since the war started. It is said that the common cold which is going the rounds at the present time —in some cases the 'flu is to blame —is not the common cold at all, but (Ha! The Villain Treads Softly—Hush Thee and Hold Thy Breath) is the avotlc of enemy agents. Avho are spreading disease germs among the populace. Its true. I have heard tAVo people usually credited Avith at least half a loaf adding speed and credulity to this . . . this" . . . this bally rot. « m 9 • There seems to be quite a bit of the 'flu going the rounds and, folloAA'ing the path of the lesser evil — the ordinary common, or garden. co ]d —one or two red noses are to be seen. Probably there has been quits a rush on handkerchiefs although none has been reported. Following on the discovery that linen >hoe laces noAV have a home-made brother fashioned from string it seems likely that some substitute Avill be found for our Avhite squares when, stocks run out.