RICHES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 194, 5 November 1927, Page 27 (Supplement)

RICHES

SPECIAL PRIZE I think that all the city folk have money, just to burn! Their hands are in their pockets, and they pay at every turn. A shilling in a taxi-cab, a penny in a tram — (And often they can’t get a seat, there’s too much of a jam!) If they go to the seaside, or to a garden fete, They have to pay to get there, and pay, too, at the gate. There’s threepence for the round-about, a penny for a swing, And if they don’t pay at the stalls, they don’t GET anything. They pay to see the pictures, they pay for cups of tea, (The way the money disappears is wonderful to see). They pay to watch a football match, for milk and cream they pay, They must have heaps of money, for they’re paying all the day. So I’ll stay in the country, I don’t pay for my tea— There are lots of home-made cakes, and jam, to eat, you see, And lots*of cream and milk and butter, all of it “bucksliee,” So —I’ll stay in the country—oh, that’s the place for me. Yes! I’ll stay in the country, oh, that’s the place for me!

I swing all day, and never pay, in our old apple tree. I ride astride on my white horse, I gallop far, and free. Oh! I’ll stay in the country, it's cheaper, far, for me. —Leslie O’Callaghan, Kaikotira (aged 10). CATHERINE WHEELS One of the commonest sights on the Fifth of November is the Catherinewheel. It is named after Saint Catherine, who was bound to a wheel. Catherine of Alexandria was the cleverest girl of her day in Egypt. She lived in the fourth century, when most of the people about here were heathen. One day she heard that the Emperor Maximinus had ordered that many poor people should be slain as a sacrifice to the idols the emperor worshipped, and Catherine went to his palace and condemned his cruelty. It was in vain that he tried to argue ’ with her. She was too clever for him, and what she said was too just to be affected by anything he could urge. So the emperor sent for his wise men to argue with her, but she defeated them all in a great debate, and many people became Christian on hearing her wonderful words. This made the emperor , angry, and he ordered that she should ; be put to death —tortured on a wheel. What this wheel was like we do not know. One account says it was shaped like an ordinary wheel but armed with i spikes. Another account says that it 1 was not one wheel, but four wheels 1 joined. Whatever the nature of the wheel, poor Catherine was bound to it. But a wonderful thing happened. No sooner had she been tied to the wheel than an angel appeared and set her free. He broke the wheel in pieces. But the emperor was not content, and had Catherine beaten with scourges, and cast her into a dungeon without food: and at the end of 12 days she was led forth and beheaded