The Club of Queer Crafts

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 74, 18 June 1927, Page 8

The Club of Queer Crafts

No. 5. The Ginger-Maker

WHO makes that mysterious delicacy, preserved ginger? Who but Kwong Hop, merrily working away in his Rutland Street factory? A peculiar exotic suggestion accompanies the very words “preserved ginger,” born out, perhaps, by the wellknown fact that a good deal of it used to come, and still does, in quaint reed-bound, parchment-covered earthen ware jars from China But it is, none the less, a fact that Auckland’s ginger supplies come from the industrious Elvvong Hop’s factory right in the cen:re of the city. And a queer industry it is. Pervading all the factory, and even the yard, is a wonderful tang—mildly pungent and irresistibly alluring to the appetite. Inside, the cauldrons boil and steam, and through the vaporous ginger-laden air Kwong Hop’s Chinese helpers trot and stoop about their tasks. And bow is it made, this palatepleasing, seductive condiment? Far away in China, land of birds’ nest soup and similar gastronomic masterpieces, grows the reed-like perennial plant known botanically as Zingiber officinale, and when the riot of its blue-and-yellow flowers has

withered down the tender roots are dug up, to be treated for manufacture into ginger.

In large barrels, filled with brine, Kwong Hop imports his raw material’. One may imagine him opening his shipment of roots and rubbing his hands to an accompaniment of musical Chinese as he appreciates the quality of his cargo. Then into a bath with it where the roots lie like so many curiouslyshaped new potatoes, newly scraped of their skins, while the pickle works out into the water. Out they come, then, into quaint baskets, and Kwong Hop and his helpers trot them into a boiler to boil away the last traces of brine. Then they are pricked and put into a bath of running water. Then comes operation into an ageold lore in the process of making them. In three solutions of sugar they are boiled, the last stage giving the aroma that is half the seduction of preserved ginger. That stage is the boiling in what is known in China as “rose flavoured” sugar. When dried, the roots are the succulent, translucent, amber-coloured delicacy that charms all palates, and is known so favourably for its digestive qualities. Wh@n tlie season is at its busiest, -Kwong Hop has six helpers, and the neat boxes of ginger pass out in a stream for distribution. Ten years the factory has been going, and orders are filled from all over New Zealand. Is there in Auckland a quainter factory than Kwong Hop’s, or a more worthy candidate for the Club of Queer Trades than Kwong lion, the ginger- maker ? HAM.

By the LOOK-OUT MAN. BRITISH MOTORS The visit to New Zealand of the British motor delegation reminds us that it is representative of the country that has turned out the fastest land machine on earth —and that not so very long ago, as time goes, the very British Dr. Samuel Johnson remarked, when the possibility of travel at 20 miles an hour was discussed: “Sir, it would be impossible; you could not breathe.” Dr. Johnson was very dogmatic. He did not forsee that in 1927 a Maqor Seagrave would drive a British-built vehicle at a speed of over ten times that under discussion, and tha{ the ingenuity of a British engineer would give the vehicle a streamline form to shelter the driver’s head and allow him to breathe. The engines of Seagrave’s car were SunbeamCoatalen aircraft engines, of a type, standardised during the war, and anything up to ten years old. So that with a Seagrave, a suitable body and a Daytona Beach, England could have established that 207 miles an hour record ten years ago! Englahd is nothing behind when it comes to engineering. THE LAW OF THE LAND Conscientious objectqrs, and those who object to drill on general principles, or on the principle that no man should be compelled to do anything, make a lot of noise for a small minority. The conscientious objector doesn’t object to the provision of policemen to prevent his being murdered in his bed, but he hates the idea that a nation should arm to prevent itself being obliterated. The “general principles” person fails to recognise that all the laws of life are based on conpulsion. He is compelled to breathe, for instance, to retain life. Even breathing is an exertion to some people; they would subsist without that effort if possible, and they certainly would not work unless they were compelled to by physical needs more solid than air. Nobody will deny, in any case, that military drill is beneficial to the growing boy, and if its only purpose was to keep him off the streets it would be all to the good. Military drill may be, and apparently is, conducted without the inculcation of the war spirit. Every man who takes boxing lessons doesn’t learn to leap into a roped arena and

“stoush” an opponent for the achievement of cheap glory; neither does the military trainee long to spill blood on the battlefield. But, if he is sensible, he recognises that it is as well to be fit for fight if war is forced upon his country. The courts can do no other than punish young men who will not render the service demanded by the law of the land. If the people as a whole objected to military service they could clearly enough indicate it at the ballot-box —and ~ take what, in time, would be coming. Meanwhile, the few cannot shirk while others serve. • * • CANTEEN FUNDS The Canteen Board, which hoards the canteen funds, states that in view of the work done by the patriotic societies to relieve distress among returned soldiers and their dependants, it will keep its money for use when that of the societies is exhausted, in about two years’ time. What will the patriotic societies have to say about being bled white while the Canteen Board holds on to its £200,000? The interest on the fund, says the board, is being used to educate the children of disabled soldiers and to provide unemployment relief under the scheme of the Returned Soldiers’ Association. Five per cent, on £200,000 would be £ 10,000 a year. Is that sum being found by the Canteen Board for the purposes indicated? It might perhaps be suggested that the board lend the Government, which says it hasn’t any money for new works for the workless, the sum of £200,000 for the carrying out of undertakings on which returned soldiers could be employed. It would still earn its interest, and the principal could be used for a particularly useful purpose.

FROM THE EIFFEL TOWER The Eiffel Tower is 984 feet high; yet there are people who will go all the way to the top to jump off and commit suicide. There are electric lifts running to the top; otherwise the exertion of climbing a thousand or so steps, and the time the task would occupy, might provide opportunity for reflection on the part of intending self-destruetionists. The man who took the jump this week fell on the girders . 160 feet from the ground, and gave a lot of trouble to those whose unpleasant lot it was to bring him down. Suicides are beastly selfish; they don’t care what inconvenience they cause. When society regards the suicide as an infernal nuisance and a cowardly escapee from his cares and responsibilities, instead of with a stupidly sentimental sympathy which places him among the martyrs, suicide will become unpopular and its victims only those unfortunates who are incapable of reason.