Ode To A “Strawberry

Box.”

(Written at sea, aboard s.s. M—)

OH, sacred, holy Box! Thou O’er whose too shallow seeming depths I weakly bow, Thee I extol!

Offering my humble tribute, direly wrung From a protesting and indignant turn.

Oh, Comforter! Oh, Janitor of Heaven!

Where all is empty bliss and much for given, To thee I pray!

Hide deep within the shadows of thy heart This shame that sears, as turn and tribute part.

Cling fast beside the welter of my bunk, Assurance lend to stay my soul’s blue funk Best worse befall; And in the awful retches of the night Pity this wailing body’s horrid plight— Receive my all!

Norfolk Is., 17/10/33.

M.M.

AUSTRALIAN newspapers have given much prominence to the report of the recent patrol in Papua by Messrs. Hides and O’Malley, who pene trated the Kunimaipa Valley, in dis tricts rarely if ever before visited by white men. They had some lively and strange adventures and, as told in the terse style of Mr. Hides’s report, they make really exciting stories for the consumption of newspaper readers.

The two officers appear to have car ried out an excellent job of work and one gathers that thev have earned the hearty commendation of the Lieutenant-Governor and the Federal Department.