A DREAM AND THE REALITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 23 November 1926, Page 11

A DREAM AND THE REALITY.

(To the Editor.) Sir, —During a recent visit to one ot our large cities to pass away an evening I went to a vaudeville show. The star item on the programme was a selection by the “Badfellow” orchestra and I will endeavour to give you an outline of how it went. In the centre of the stage stretched out was a straw man with only dungarees, hobnailed boots and a shirt on. Closer inspection revealed hint to have a' resemblance to a dairy farmer, although he was apparently there as a musical instrument. Around this straw man was grouped a large number of mon who were evidently there to get the tune out of him. Slightly opt of sight of the audience was the man who was doing the conducting, but instead of a baton he had a string in his hand. His name on the programme was “Goodfellow,” although some of the people seemed to think he was a "Badfellow.” The rest of the players were made up of one. Grounds, Forsyth, Thacker and some others. Corrigan was amusing the crowd as a quick-change artist and turning flips in one corner. Mr. Coates and the member for Egmont were also there, the whole lot being connected to the strings the conductor had in his hand. Presently the man with the string gave it a pull, and all the players advanced to the straw man and started knocking a tune out of him .with little hammers with “absolute control” stamped on them. Strange .to say. they got quite a good tune out of him. to which the players sang the following song, to the tune of Rule Britannia: “Rule the Control Board. The Control Board rules N.Z., The dairy farmer ever, ever, ever will be our slaves.” Now, with the last words of the song the straw farmer showed signs of coming to life, and presently he also broke into song, and this is what he sang: “Oh. when I was single (before I married the Control Board), My pockets did jingle, Oh! How I long to be single again.” And with that, he rose and heaved the whole show out of the window. He reserved the pleasure of throwing Mr. Coates and Mr. Hawken out till next election. Only a dream of mine, sir, but dreams often have their foundation in fact, and it is a fact the Control Board, our weak-kneed Government, and the misguided dairy farmer hops to strings pulled from the Waikato, by an embittered man who once went Home to tame ihe lion in his own den, but ended up by getting badly mauled himself.—l am, etc., W. C. HICKEY. Intontii, Nov. 20.