Page 6 Advertisements Column 1

Taihape Daily Times, 14 January 1918, Page 6

GARDEN OF EDEN. Canon Parfit, of Jerusalem, who described himself as "Vicar of Mesopotamia and Rural Dean of the Garden of Eden," told a few Eastern tales in London recently. He said that when he first saw his "charge" the scenery did not impress him. The people were poverty-strick-en, and begged for "baksheesh," the children were "brilliantly clad in olive oil and the sweetest of smiles." A soldier, writing home, said the heat was so intense that the population were feeding their fowls on icecream to prevent them laying hardhoiled eggs. \" At JB'agdad, the pontoon bridge having washed away, the Sultar. letermined to build a new one, so lie set about raising the money. The people were, whipped , and blackmailed into parting with £40,000. The bridge cosf £4OOO, the tax-gatherer pocketed th e iest