EMBARRASSING GIFT

Hokitika Guardian, 20 April 1929, Page 3

EMBARRASSING GIFT

CARGO OF BLACK SWANS

LONDON, Feb. 28

Commenting on a cable message from Wellington that the London Zoo will shortly receive an addition of 500 black swans, captured m the South Island the property of Mr R. White, an Australian, the “Morning Post” says, in its leader coloumns : 1

“The generosity of the donor will,

we fear, rather embarrass the authorities. Australians have a fine habit of making gifts in the grand manner. The ‘wide open spaces’ of the South breed men large of limb and large or heart, it may not have occurred to Air White probably the happy owner of extensive domains, that the space available at the London Zoo is somewhat restricted. Like the chef who surprised his Royal master with four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie, he has merely had the desire to please; and in an age that delights in inventions and discoveries and wonders of gigantic proportions, he has proved himself an up-to-date psycholigist' by trying to please us with a truly munificent gift. Whatever happens to the swans, we shall not be likely to forget the benefactor and our modern rhymesters might do worse than immortalise an event which is so delightfully characteristic of the large-hearted benevolence oi our brothers across the seas. To them nothing ik ever too good for the Motherland.”