THE WIGWAM

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 581, 6 February 1929, Page 6

THE WIGWAM

FI err tee gather, here ice meet in pow-wow friendly and discreet , To talk of earth . and sea, and sky , and watch the world of men go by.

ON FINDING FRIENDS I AST evening, when the bright cloud caravans had passed into the sunset and the shadows were gathering about the "Wigwam. Kedfeather stood looking out over the Lake of Many "Waters thinking of many tilings. Among them was friendship, which is surely one of life's richest gifts to the world. llow many of you know Hilaire Belloc’s simple verse on this subject ? "From puiet homes and first beginning. < hit to the undiscovered ends. There’s nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and The love of friends.” "But friends aren’t everything,” Youth will cry. “There’s success, for instance. You can’t overlook that.” Of course not. but how tasteless would be the vintage in the cup ol success without a friend to share it with. But it is when sorrow with her sable wings, crosses our paths that our true friends are discovered. In times of adversity some sixth sense gi\o.s us almost uncanny powers of perception by which we are able to distinguish the pure gold of friendship from the spurious metal of polite pretence. True friends arc the beacons that gleam along the seaway where, each in his frail craft, with the fluttering flag of hope at the masthead, must fare forth in search of those “undiscovered ends.” —RKDFEATHER.

CLOUD CASTLES Another glorious day. which I have been enjoying with my eyes and ears and nose, for. besides the beauty of the day. there are also many delightful sounds to be enjoyed, such as birds singing, and wee winds rustling the grasses: and these same winds are bringing occasional whiffs of perfume from some far-distant flower garden. I have just been sitting on the verandah in the warm sunshine, and while I was there the green lawn suddenly seemed far too tempting to resist, so, before I knew it. I was lying down on the soft, warm grass watching rhe while clouds above me float slowly across a brilliant blue sky. Near me a little spider spun his silver threads from grass-blade to grassblade: it locust chirped lustily, and I felt the hot sun permeating my body. Have you ever felt that you would like to fling aside all restraint and be free to claim kinship with the winds <nd the birds and the trees for one glorious hour? -Red Star iJean Mclndoe, aged 14),

SONG FOR GERALDINE IV hen sunset's over and the night grows cold. I still remember that the sunshines gold Is no whit brighter than the silken ! sheen Of your soft golden hair, sweet Geraldine. I do not sorrow when the birds depart. For when they go, there echo in my heart, As soft as windsong in the celandine, Aot their songs, but your own. wee Geraldine. And when our skies are clouded and winds chill. And storm clouds threaten, I remember still The deep blue, devastating as serene. Of your sweet baby eyes. my Geraldine. —Little Swift Canoe (Fitzie Morris, aged 16).

GIRL GUIDES’ CORNER

The First Devonport Company will reassemble on Friday, February 9, and the Brownie Pack the following day.

Sun Cloud, of the First Cambridge Company, under date January 29, forwards the following notes from the Girl Guide camp at Roto-o-rangi: “We are having a great camp with plenty of learning and plenty of games, swims and rambles. All our tents face the bush which is only about ten yards from the nearest tent. The girls are very keen about learning the native trees, and we have patrol competitions in collecting and pressing the leaves and learning the different trees. “We have 31 in camp with six Te Awamutu girls. Yesterday we had a splendid hike three miles over the hills and at length came to an old Maori pa. The view from there was beautiful. We could see from Te Awamutu over to Hamilton and Cambridge, and could also distinguish the summit of Mount Egmont.

“Last Wednesday Miss Allen, our camp advisor, spent the day here. She took Crystal Lake (Captain C. Richards). Moccasin Maker (Lieutenant Levesque). Drifting Snowflake (Margaret McCathie) and myself for our Pioneer’s badge, and I am glad to say we all passed. We did put in a day’s hard work. We had to pitch a tent, cook stew, dumplings, porridge and bacon, erect screenings and a flagstaff, organise a game and make ‘gadgets.’ “My First-Aid Outfit (won in Wigwam scribe competition for 1925) is out here, and has been used already when a kiddie sprained her ankle. We used one of the splints.” Red Star. Lone Guide of St. Peter’s Company, Hamilton, writes: "Yesterday I had two Frankton Girl Guides to see me, and they were telling me about a Field Day which is to bo held at Hamilton on March 2. Presumably. ten companies are to take part in it, and will be represented by girls selected by the captains of their respective companies. Full arrangements have not yet been made, but the girls are already in ‘hard training.’ There will be relay racing, drilling, and many other items, and tests, and the company whose representatives gain most marks in the day’s proceedings will be the proud holder of a handsome shield, for twelve months, when the shield will again be contested for.”

WITH THE BOY SCOUTS Scout work is now being taken up after the holidays, and most of the troops resumed their meetings last Friday. * * * Little Thunder, of the* First Papakura Troop, writes: "Our camp in the Hunua Gorge was a great success. On New Year's Day we had the pleasure of being visited by the Indian Scouts from Fiji, who were touring Auckland at the time. A week-end camp was held at Young’s Beach, on the outskirts of Papakura. from January 23 to January 25. “We resumed our parades on Friday, February 1, when we held our annual camp fire. The evening opened -vith several pleasant and amusing games. At the camp fire each troop rendered items, and various choruses were joined in by all. “Among the visitors were the Manurewa, St. Cuthbert’s and Papakura. Girl Guides, and the Mount Albert Scouts.” Wary Sentry, of the Glen Eden Troop, forwards the following notes: "On December 22 nearly all the Troop went to Beachlands for a fortnight’s camp, and an enjoyable time was spent despite three days of continuous rain. On the second Tuesday we visited the Kohimarama Troop, which was camped at Maraetai, about three miles away. £>n the following Thursday they, in turn, visited our camp, where we played cricket and Rugby. "On January 19 some of the boys trekked to Cornwallis, a distance of about 12 miles by road. They returned on the Sunday, having spent an enjoyable time. "Mr. Turner, our Scoutmaster, and Mr. Hadaway, our assistant-scout-master, have resigned. The scoutmaster’s place has been taken by Mr. Hocken and that of the assistantscoutmaster by C. Edwards and A. Allen. "The Inter-Patrol competition Shield was again won by the Tigers, who have now won it four successive tiroes.”

Five thousand feet above the sea, at Heiban, among the mountains to the west of the White Nile, is surely one of the strangest bodies of Boy Scouts in the whole Scout movement. A daring New Zealander, Mr. D. N. Mac Diarmid. went to Heiban soon after the war for the Sudan United Mission, and planted himself “amid a quarter of a million raw pagans ” These people wore no clothes, but, when the cold winds came, rubbed themselves all over with oil, which caught all the dirt that happened be about. Mr. Mac Diarmid happened to be about. Mr. Mac Diarmid taught them to wear clothes. He has taught the boys to read out of lesson-books he has written in their own language, telling their own folklore tales. He has taught them backsmith’s work, so that their parents have iron tools for the first time, in place’ of ten-foot ebony poles, for their agricultural work: and they make capital "Scouts. But there are no Girl Guides and no girls at school, for the parent Nubans do not believe in educating girls. The folklore tales in the Nuban reading books have a strong family resemblance to the tales of Uncle Remus, who, it will be remembered, was a man of African origin; but as there are no rabbits in the Nuba Mountains Brer Rabbit’s part is played by a harmless little leopard which lives in those parts. Both boys and girls are good at English games and have a kind of hockey of their own in which the goals are villages two or three miles apart!

FOR WISE HEADS The names of six well-known authors are buried in the following sentences. Can you discover them? 1. The bravery of Dick ensured the safety of the house. 2. They passed a row of workmen’s cottages. 3. The genera] made foes honour him. 4. He was full of ennobling qualities. 5. He made a swift exit. 6. Jack was a hard youngster. Answer to last week’s word square: Patch. Adore. Toper. Creed. Herds. LONG RAILWAY TUNNELS America is again going to beat her own record in long railway tunnels with the Great Northern Railroad now approaching 'completion through the Cascade Mountains in the far western State of Washington. Though the new tunnel will be over seven miles long the American record will still be beaten by Europe with three of the great tunnels through the Alps, the Simplon, the St. Gothard and the Loetschberg. The tunnel will only save an hour in time and eight miles in distance as compared with the old winding railway through the pass. But the interest on the capital involved. including the

electrification of the line, wii! be less than is already spent annually on the six miles of snow sheds which protect the older track.

A STRANGE MEMORIAL Of all the world’s memorials, from Pharaoh’s pyramid to a pet dog’s tombstone, the strangest is probably to be found in Sweden. At the end of the 18th century Ragunda Lake in Central Norrland was famous for the Gedungen Falls. In order to reclaim some land for agriculture a fresh channel was cut in a ridge of rock on the lake’s edge, and one terrifying night the waters burst through the dams, rushing through the cleft of the rock on their way to the sea and sweeping away everything in their path. The lake was nearly emptied, and Gedungen Falls were dried up. The new falls have been roaring away instead and now they have been harnessed to a great electric power-sta-tion. But the old falls are not forgotten; a memorial tablet tells how they passed away suddenly in 1796. THE FIRST WIRELESS CLOCK The first wireless clock to be used by a railway company is being placed in one of the new big railway stations of New York City. The clock automaticallv receives correct time from the wireless station Arlington. and without being touched by man’s hand sets its dial and winds itself up. Tt also acts as a master clock controlling a number of others in different parts of the station. !

THE WORLD’S SOUNDEST SLEEPER

IN CHINA According to one of her professors, who teaches philosophy in Peking University, the Chinese are beginning to read the language they talk. For 2,000 years China has had two languages, one for her books, the other for speech. The book language has only been understood by the comparatively small class of the learned, who have looked with scorn on the language spoken by the hundreds of millions of their unlearned countrymen. The position in China until about 20 years ago was much like that in England 1,300 years ago, when boolcs read in that country were all written either in Latin or French, and the mass of the people could not have understood them if they could have read them. The language of the people was then changing from ttie, old Saxon into the English which the learned despised. But Robert of Brunne, Langland, Wyeliffe, Gower and Chaucer chose English, and printing, following quickly, helped the native tongue gradually to swamp the languages of the learned. The story of the triumph of the common English tongue is being repeated in the triumph of the common Chinese tongue. But the • change has been slower. The cumbrous language of the learned has not quite stood alone in China. For 400 years the despised talking language of the Chinese populace has been used by writers of novels, and Professor Hu declares that some o' these novels deserve to be read alongside the best novels that Europe has produced, though the writers of the classical book language of China have treated them with scorn. If the mass of the Chinese people are to be readers authors must use the talking language; and they are using it. So great is the change that the number of Chinese readers has been multiplied 30 times over in the last ten years. Some of the best Chinese writers are now using the talking language for their books, and so are reaching an enormously wider circle of readers. Also the most famous tales written in the language of the people are being far more widely read than ever before Three of these stories are being reprinted to the extent of a million copies yearly. One of the strangest features of this rise of the spoken language of China into the rank of literature is that we now see how misplaced much of the translation of European books into Chinese has been. European books of science and even the most famous novels, have been translated, not into the popular language of China, but into the learned language which only a comparative few can read. So translation has lost the advantage of this China m ° dern wave of reading in China is undergoing vast changes m a terrible and confused wav The world will have to wait to see what comes of it all. One of the most interwni n C P en^ S " f the future in China will be the effect on China when the vast stores of European thought reach the people of that country in the lan guage they can understand.

The world s champion slumberer is a commercial traveller of Baltimore who recently slept through a P’l 1,1 - ■ ! > " t ’ asi e eV: eVeral h ° UrS later —’ unhurt and