THE “FOGGYTODDLER” COMBINE.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 April 1922, Page 3

THE “FOGGYTODDLER” COMBINE.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —A wise man has said that if you know one thing in nature thoroughly, you have a good key to the knowledge of almost everything else. That seems to me to be pretty near the truth. Now, it so happens that I have a fairly good knowledge of the little yellow humble bee, very common in the north of Scotland, where I had the good fortune to “spend life’s early day.” Both you and your readers will have observed that having thought about one peculiar thing, will often cause you to think of some other equally peculiar thing. The little yellow humble bee, known in Scotland as the “foggytoddler,” because it runs, or toddles, about among the “fog” (Scotch name for moss), out of which it builds its little hive, about the size of a lark’s nest, but having a roof on it, and a small hole at the side for entrance. The largest swarms of these bees will hardly produce in a season’s gathering more honey than an ordinary schoolboy can dispose of at one sitting. In endeavoring t? find a suitable term that would distinguish and partially describe Mr. Wilford's new political party was the cause that brought back to my mind the existence of the yel--low humble bee. The various little political coteries which have joined up and identified themselves with the Wilford swarm have several striking characteristics that run parallel with those of the yellow humble bee. Tn the first place these “foggytoddlers,” both bees and men, are alike in being individually small, and of no consequence in the economic world. Then, again, both have an inherent tendency to swarm off in mere handfuls; and in neither case is the honey-gathering faculty developed to any appreciable extent. Both are equally lacking in the logical power of making their little homes secure through forethought, being shallow enough to build their nests out of very soft materials, and to place'them on the surface of the ground where an enemy, or even a natural occurrence, can blot them out for good and all, because of their eccentric perversities. Just take a. look at the Veitch brand of foggytoddler. Here we have a swarm consisting of two railway hummers, who have successfully hummed bur railways into non-paying propositions, with the Alliance of Labor smacking its lips on the top of the disaster! Then we have the Dimedin detachment of foggytoddiei*, consisting of three or four yellow bees on bamboo stilts, staggering through the country .in search of admirers, but with so little success that on nearing Wellington they di scried a safe landing place in the lap of leading-bee Wilford, into which they tumbled at last!” As the God, we are home at ''last!” As the Wilford swarm consisted, of eleven isolated hummers, the additions above mentioned will raise the total to sixteen or seventeen political foggytoddlers, all buzzing their wings in eager readiness to undertake the running (and perhaps ruining) of this country. —I am, etc., J, 0. TAYLOR.

THE TROUBLE IN IRELAND. (To the Editor.) ®* r ,' —l am highly flattered by the interest my neighbors have taken in my last letter to the News, and the store of knowledge they expect me to possess considering the number of questions they have asked me to answer. Question 1. R.J.N’., New Plymouth, asks, “Who started the murder campaign in Ireland?” My answer is the Black and Tans, a force chiefly composed of hardened criminals drafted out of English gaols by Lloyd George, Greenwood, and Macready, and sent over to Ireland with authority to destroy the life and property of the Irish people. They did not do it, as my friend says, from behind a hedge. No fear; they took a safe course. They came in fast lorries at dead of night, attacked isolated houses, did their divilish work quickly, and were off again, but they did not always get off Scot free by any means. They sometimes lost the number of their mess. Question 2: An old -friend of mine from Eltham asks me to compare the part Southern Ireland played in winning the war in relation to the part played by the North. I shall give a few instances which .must suffice. Southern Ireland jumped into the breech directly war was declared, and eventually raised an army of 40,000 men. They were the first to land in Gallipoli, and although they Iggt twothirds of their strength at the landing the remaining tliird cleared the Turks from the coast and chased them over the hill and kept them there until reinforcements arrived. It was the Dublin Munster Fusiliers that gave the Germans the first set back at Loos. It was the Dublin Munsters and Irish Guards under Sir Maurice Fite-Alan that saved the situation when General Lough retired, and when the Germans broke the line on the march to Paris. It was Connaught Rangers and Munsters that saved the British Army in the Balkans by a rearguard where every man of them died at his post. On the other hand, although Carson had a trained army for years before the ,war —and trained by German officers at that—not one man from Carson’s army left Ireland during the two first years of war. By that time thousands of Southern Ireland men had fallen in battle. I must tender an apology to Lady Geffries, as I had no intention of including the ladies amongst the P.P.A. asses.—l am, etc., JOHN DIGGINS. Inglewood, April 10.