FIRST OF APRIL EPISODE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2720, 12 April 1924, Page 3

FIRST OF APRIL EPISODE.

GIRLS POLLED TO EAT PAPER. -Dunedin, April 4. A most extraordinary case was reported to an Otago Daily Times reporter to-day. it was to the effect that two little girls, attending a country school not many miles distant from Dunedin were imbued with a bright idea on Tuesday morning. Knowing that u was April 1, a day still cherished by the children as one on which to spring jokes on their friends, they wrote the following lines on two pieces of paper: —“Duck in a pond, Ush in a pool, the person who reads this is a big April fooL” The papers, enclosed in an envelope, came into the hands of the head teacher, who showed his resentment —so it is alleged- —by calling the offenders to the front of the class and telling them that they would receive a certain number of strokes of the strap unless they masticated liie offensive papers and swallowed them in a time limit of live minutes. The girls became frightened and (so it is alleged) did as they were told, while the teacher stood over them.

The informant further stated that one of the girls developed some sickness while on her way home afterwards and had to receive attention.

A Maori boy pupil was also implicated and he was ordered to masticate and swallow the envelope, but he could uot manage the undertaking. lie was therefore sent home. It is understood that the parents of the gii-ls became so incensed as the result of the proceeding that tiiey immediately placed the matter in the hands of a solicitor, and that legal proceedings will be taken. A further report is that one of the parents of the girls concerned hud an interview with the teacher in a paddock close to the school some time after the incident occurred. This interview is reported to have been anything but an amiable one. The matter has been reported to the Education Board.