Duff Under Suspicion

mo get the point of this funny story X you must know that out among these Fijian isles there are poison ous fish. Sometimes, one is not sure whether a fish is poisonous or not. Some people try to be sure, by boiling silver coins with the fish. If the coins turn black, the fish is said to be poisonous. I do not know whether it is a sound method.

Last Boxing Day, a Euronesian neigh bour called at my house, and had a meal there. He was given a slice of cold Xmas pudding.

Our guest suddenly stopped eating, and took something out of his mouth. “Why, it’s sixpence,” he exclaimed in surprise.

Myself: Sorry—l forgot to tell you that we always put some silver in our Xmas puddings.

Our guest: Yes? At home, we only put money with fish, when we boil it.

Then he cogitated for some time, and asked my son: Does the money ever go black?

My son (without batting an eyelid): Oh, yes. Why, last Christmas we had to chuck the pudding out—all the sixpences went black.

Our guest decided that he wouldn’t have another slice of pudding,—Ganibulu.

M. Jean Morin, one of Noumea’s best known port pilots, is dead, aged 59. He was a genial raconteur and a real Pacific personality, well known in New Hebrides and in Sydney and Newcastle —for before becoming a pilot he was captain of a Nickel Co. collier. A son of M. Morin escaped from Britanny to London over a year ago, and went to Syria to join the Fighting French.