WHA DAUR MEDDLE WI' ME?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 891, 31 August 1956, Page 5

WHA DAUR MEDDLE WI' ME?

Sir,-Seething with righteous indignation after reading "The Plain Man’s Guide to Plain Gardening" in your issue of August 17, I am constrained to express myself as forcibly as I can in protest against this denigration of Scottish staple diet. I shall be obliged if you

will grant me as much publicity as possible to my gentle castigation of the author of this article. It is to be hoped that he does not express the Government’s official view, or I should fear. for the breaking down of New ZealandScottish relations. "Compost is to the soil what porridge is’ to the Scot-the only thing necessary to keep it in a state of rude health" ... ‘Recipe for a sort of all-purpose fertiliser haggis-a base dressing for the New Zealand Garden." lf Burns and Boswell lived today, We'd see their faces hardening, And what a lot they’d have to say On "Plain Man’s Guide to Gardening." The "Chieftain o’ the Pudden Race" Is not a theme for mirth, Porridge is on a higher plane Than compost, N.Z. earth. "Where, better men .. ."’ James Boswell cried, When Johnson spoke of oats, And the English bloodstock, woe betide Their glossy, shining coats If oats were lacking. So the Scot Would lack in health and courage. He'll not survive if we deprive Him of his morning ‘Parritch." New Zealand gardeners, then, take heed, Tread not upon the thistles, You'll find ‘tis not a noxious weed When Scotsmen’s anger bristles.

INDIGNANT SCOT

(Te Awamutu).