BACK TO NATURE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 59, 24 March 1944, Page 5

BACK TO NATURE

THE CAVE MAN TOUCH

WHAKATANE UNDER A CT.OUD

On Friday, the Borough of Whakntane was without electric power or running Avater. Calamitous indeed. Whakatane ay as literally at a standstill. Husbands came home and found the dinner uncooked. Radio stations blasted forth their :m>grammcs unheard. Picturegoers sat in dismal mourning over their programme calendars. Grocer's shops sold out of candles. The BEACON lay unread.—Calamity indeed Hut the. residents of Whakitane laced the situation with that calm brave stoicism inherited from their great grand parents, and opened another bottle of preserA'cs. Some preferred the old-fashioned method of i cooking over an open lire and sat in the backyard over a smoky flame the thin. A'cneer of cdvilisation ton: from them, as they cursed the power and Avater singularly then collectively. Verily mankind avhs reduced to the shadow of primcA'al days as he sat, hunched over his slow burning fire, his eyes .smarting, his toothless gums gnashing in anticipation. Unused to such methods of cusinery, four coupons Avorth of steak AYas invariably burnt to a cinder or a near approach to one, causing husbands and families, to dash in futile rage from tap to tap as they fought to relieve their parched gullets. Gradually their small stocks of AYater ran out. A raging thirst forced itself upon them. Remembering stories of men lost, in the desert some placed their handkerchiefs on the back lawn in the hope of them becoming saturated with deAv, then in desperation set off Avith staggering steps in the direction of toAvn, hoping there, to lind the milk bar or something similar open, that they could drown their raging thirst. Time passed ; but the wireless still refused to play, and the light still refused to emulate.' its name. As for the AYater —all taps were turned hard on but never a drop gushed forth. "Water AYater everywhere and not a drop to drink"—lt was. busy inundating the Strand, and swamping out newly sown grass seed. The AYater came, in the front doors and out the back. It eovered the floors and climbed up the furniture. Anything on ground Ica'cl avjls saturated. Water could be squeezed, <■ ut of everything—except the bathroom tap. "Change daily" girls ; were, forced to rush to the nearest tank for a change daily. For the most part the family just Avent umvashed, sporting a new coating of grime each day. An outsider Avould not have noticed much difference, except that necks, perhaps ayci'c worn dirtier. By the light of flickering candles (in the case of. the lucky ones, singular in the case of the others) the AYorking man counted his secret, hoard, and mourned despairingly over the tax snatched from his hard Avon earnings. The 'Erin go Bragh' Festival held in the Caledonian Hall that night drew large crowds avlio came to dance to the Avild light of a flicker-j ing candle and emit loud halloos whenever one of the tallowed wicks .snuffed out. In the Avee sina' hours! they waddled forth like bloated pups, stuffed to the ears Avith saAouries, cakes and raspberry drink, and vanished down dreary streets toj ghost-like houses squatting jn unlit shadows. Saturday saw the situation still unsolved. With three lots of dishes lying unwashed and uneared for in the si.nk, residents Avere forced to gaze further afield for platters, ainrw. Those avlio could, borroAved their neighbour's; those aylio couldn't dipped feverishly with grimy fingers into a messy eoo'king pot placed in the centre of the floor, and gnawed nwenously on Lhe remains of yesterday's mince. Then the majority of lliein turned on all the taps nndj lights and went out for the afternoon hoping that, they AAould once more he functioning normally Avhen j thev returned.

They were functioning normally all right! Many householders returned to their 'domiciles to find the wireless blaring forth time signals : the lights gloAVing merrily ; the healer scorching the paint off the Avails, the bath overiloAving and everything working in furious fashion. In a moment of ecstatic joy. the BEACON nearly printed two thousand. copies of last Aveek's issue, one oi lhe subscribers paid hi:/, account, and the Bank of New Zealand gave overweight on every pound of "livers" they sold. (Continued in next column)