PUZZLES

New Zealand Listener, Volume 2, Issue 29, 12 January 1940, Page 55

PUZZLES

tions of the holiday period readers have still been puzzling themselves and writing letters to our Puzzle Uncle about life’s little worries. Answers to the pre-Christmas collection are still trickling in, some good, some not so good. On the whole, however, the class is very intelligent; sometimes, in fact, too clever for the teacher. FE, among all the distracTo Correspondents A. M. Connolly (Waipukurau) and N. W. Collins (Sumner) are this week appointed M’s.P. (Masters of Puzzles) of the very first class. At the end of the answer to the 4+9=7 problem in the Christmas collection we inserted a tag: ". . , mother asks him why he’s been so long." These two correspondents dropped to the significance of that apparently casual remark and have

hastened to tell us that our answer to the problem meant fifteen changes against the ten of the alternative answer. We had been amazed at our own cleverness in thinking of the dodge. Now we are delighted that someone has seen through it. These young players, as they say on the sports page, should go a long way. A. H. (Devonport) and Miss J. Redshaw (Westshore): Your answer to Mr. Morse’s railway crossing puzzle seems to us to be the obvious one, and for that reason, puzzles being puzzles, we avoided it. But now you have raised the point we must ask Mr. Morse to tell us why, if the car is travelling on the left-hand side of a chain-wide road, it should not cross the railway lines before the train reaches the exact centre of the " crossing." If you please, Mr. Morse, ...

W. J. Fisher (Te Awamutu): See our issue of December 29 for disillusionment about the monkey and his mother. But you had the word-sum right. We hope some mathematician will tell us just how to do that sort of thing. Mathematicians, please oblige. . . How do you work out word-sums without guessing the answer? Many thanks for Smith, Jones, and Robertson. How many more like that in your scrap book? Miss Helen Brown (Morrinsville): You, too, will by now have seen our issue of December 29. Your working of the monkey puzzle was perfect. Full marks. Have you anything you'd like to try on us? All welcome. W. J. Fisher’s problem will make life hard for you. J. O. Gorman (Sandringham): You caught the tram. See issue of January 5. W. Johnstone (Morrinsville): Obviously, Mr. Morse has been too clever. We agree with you and, as you see, have asked Mr. Morse to explain himself, R. B. Houlihan (Mt. Eden): This time, the ship is not rising with the tide. R. Moses (Remuera): You tell the truth. Thanks. Names on Trains W. J. Fisher sends this excellent problem from a Te Awamutu scrapbook: A railroad train with a crew of three and with three passengers travels between Sheffield and Leeds, England. The train crew is made up of an engineer, a fireman and a guard. Their names are Smith, Jones and Robertson. (DO not consider these names respectively.) The three passengers. are named Smith, Jones and Robertson, but will be referred to as Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones and Mr. Robertson. Mr, Robertson lives in Leeds. Mr. Jones’s annual salary is £100/2/1. The guard lives half-way between Sheffield and Leeds. His namesake among the passengers lives at Sheffield. The guard’s nearest neighbour is one of the passengers and has an annual salary exactly three times that of the guard. Smith beat the fireman at billiards. What is the name of the engineer? Going Backward And another train problem: The Limited is travelling from Auckland to Wellington at 50 miles per hour. The engineer says to the fireman "At this moment part of this train is actually moving at a considerable speed back along the rail towards Auckland." What part of the train is it?

No complicated document is neces. sary, according to News Review. A private need only supply a statement, witnessed by an officer, that he wishes to marry Mademoiselle, and the deed is as good as done. Once, the private had to show good cause why he was unable to attend his wedding. Now, M. Daladier has arranged that duty in the front line is good cause, and the rest has become automatic. The would-be husband’s statement is forwarded to the civic authorities for inspection, shown to the bride, and capped with a rubber stamp as final as_ a ring on the finger if she cares to take it along to the Mayor’s office, ~ Soldiers with that feeling that the next one has their number on it have no need to worry that their sweethearts will not be provided for. Once he has signed the paper the wedding is considered legal and binding, and the sweetheart, at. his death, whether she has presented the paper for stamping or not, becomes his widow and entitled to a pension. Some sweethearts, of course, like to be married in church. Unable quite to accept the idea of marrying a woman off to a piece of paper, the Church has arranged to complete the ceremony if Mademoiselle brings along a friend as proxy.