THE JUNGLE

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5301, 14 January 1947, Page 4

THE JUNGLE

— o 1 fJXHE birds and beasts have been used with devastating irony by authors and playwrights in holding the mirror up to man. "The Jungle Book," "Penguine Island," "The Insect Play," and in part, "Alice in Wonderland" are prime examples of this type of humour, another sa'mple of which we reproduce in this issue from the mordant pen of that retiring genius, who under the name of "Whim Wham," regales readers of the Press, Christchurch, with fanciful verse on current events. It is not always easy to discern in these moods a poet of uncommon power and sensitivity who is represented in every anthology of New Zealand verse, but in his versatility, he ranges at will froqi the fashion of Pope and Keats to that of Hood and Dennis. Nothing more outrageously right than "Little Monkeys" has been penned concerning the present industrial set-up in this country and if the disputants and consultants now abroad could be presented with a framed copy of his observations, it might do something to deflate the egoism of these people and bring them to a cleaner appreci- j ation of their place and purpose in the community. There will be . the usual jerrymandering at the forthcoming congress in Wel- f lington, no doubt, and at the end of the discussions, a f orm of ; Words, not to express, but to dif- ; guise the real intention of the ! movers. As the chairman might say, the Apes have it.