FLY AWAY HOME

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 793, 1 October 1954, Page 9

FLY AWAY HOME

W

SUNDOWNER

SEPTEMBER 4

CAN never decide what means most to me after a long holiday "-the changes in my animals and trees or the challenge of the weeds. I am still child enoughchildish enough if anyone prefers it that way-to be excited over the chickens that have become hens, the lambs that have become sheep, and the seedlings that have ‘become rooted

bushes or trees. But I am also lazy enough > to have a

sinking at the heart when | look at the orchard and garden. If I had not left such good neighbours behind me this time, the kind who do generous things

by stealth and are so difficult when you try to thank them that you never begin, I might be wondering now if it was worth while coming back. But the tasks that would have tried my spirit have been far more than half done. A few hours with the scythe (a tool I like), a few days with the spade (not so satisfying as the scythe, but easier to handle than the pen), and the rapidly warming sun will do the rest. But it is not going to be so easy to recover the confidence-it was never affection--of our cows, sheep and fowls. I find it interesting, but not really comforting, that Tip, who has had less kindee ee

ness from me than any of the other animals, has not even begun to think me a | stranger. As soon as I arrived he came | to meet me, and as soon as I spoke he barked and wagged his-tai] and tried to lick my hands. it was a warmer welcome by many degrees than I had earned or deserved. But I deserved better than my reception by Iddy the cat, who gave me one look and scampered under the | house. Because cats are clean medically. and relatively clean aesthetically, I have usually made a fuss of Iddy several times a day. Because dogs in New Zealand are never clean, Tip gets very little patting and is rebuffed when he comes too close. But a dog's memory is longer than a cats, if the test is the speed of the reaction. Iddy will be round my feet again in a day or two, when she has had time to piece her associations together and make sure of them. Tip did not ask for time. in spite of the fact that he has had what Iddy has lacked for fourteen weeks-the memory-deadening influence of a new affection. I did not expect much from our pet lambs and pampered cows. and I would have been astonished by any sign of recognition in the fowlhouse. The lambs, I think, recognised me as something they have seen before-a creature they don't like but don’t greatly fear. If I go too close they run, as they do from a dog, but I am no more disturbing to them than a dog is, and a little less interesting. The cows both looked blankly at me when I went out to speak to them, and moved out of my way; but they accepted

me at once when I returned with an armful of hay. They have not read Virgil. e e e

SEPTEMBER 7

_! call a \WeE were looking at a big bush in Gayndah just breaking into bloom. "White hibiscus," a taxi-driver called out behind us, and went on without stopping. We shouted our thanks and moved on, too, but in the opposite direction, "It’s |

kind of him," Neg. | whispered, "but he’s |

wrong. i KnOW hibiscus." "But these people must know it, too. We can’t tell them the names of their own flowers." There was another shout, and the taxi was behind us again. "J am sorry," the voice said. "Not | white hibiscus. White bohemia. ’ We thanked him a second time, and as soon as he was out of hearing Ng. said: "There’s no such plant. I suppose hé means white bauhinia."* I don’t think he did. I don’t think he knew. But I am sure he meant to be kind. It’s a way they have in Queensland, and I wish we had the same way here. hk * ok

SEPTEMBER 11

\V E were not told what it costs the Otahuhu publican to add the head and hoofs of a hippopotamus to his museum. That did not matter much. But I should like to know what the Chinese merchant gave for the hide. If it is true that the hide is to be cured and used as a rug, it would be

interesting to know to what use the rug will be put-

whether the owner will he under it or on top of it, and what will happen to him if he rolls himself up in it. Unless Bella was as thin in the skin as she was weak in the back it will take a strong man to lift her hide, and many strong men to cure it. The usual thickness is an inch or more. and the usual future of a good hide is four or five hundred of the savage whips the Africans have known for ten thousand years. There are, however, other uses in the East for the spare parts of a hippopotamus, as, there are for the horn of a rhinoceros. and the antlers of our own red deer. The Superintendent of the London Zoo, in an appeal two or three years ago for the disappearing animals of the world, told a BBC audience that the | horn of a rhinoceros was worth far more in some parts of the East than its total weight in gold, and that this frightful price on rhinoceros heads was one of the reasons for their decline in numbers. Everyone who has examined Eastern. newspapers will have seen advertise- ments for tiger balms and other equally fantastic cures for debilitv: and most of us, of course, see those claims only that are made in Enclish. But it is not necessary to go to Delhi, Sineapore, or Hong Kong for these things. They are in our own newspapers every week, and no one would pay for the space théy occupy upless someone else is paying for the trade they bring. ; So I have my thoughts about Bella and her hide Whether it hecomes a rug or a cartload of sjamboks it will be foolish not to shave it a little’ thinner perverse not to soak it in grease till it becomes a little softer, and selfish not to ask when it arrives in the East whether its comfort should not be spread as widely as possible. (To be continued>