With Feeling

Lines Written In Haste, and With Feeling

How many miles does the housewife run In the bracing air of the tropics?

Sorties to kitchen and housewash and one Twice round the house in the broiling sun To see that what has to be done is done.

The cookboy leaned on the last precious egg; The washboy has broken the iron; The garden boy’s dreaming on one lazy leg; The houseboy’s baby has swallowed a peg; The chickens queue up in the kitchen and beg.

White-ants peer from the bathroom floor, The seed boxes call out for water, The lock has sprung on the bedroom door, The butter’s run out and there’s none in the store, And the tanks will run dry if it doesn’t soon pour.

Masta brings scissors and points to his hair, And adds that three shirts need new buttons; The cover has ripped on the very best chair, The cake tins are empty, guests com ing, and there Is no corner shop selling ready made fare.

And old southern friends, in their innocent way, Are a further trial with their letters: “How lucky you are, right out of the fray, With servants to cope with the work,” they say; “Just WHAT do you do with yourself all day?”

Honiara, BSI.

R.M.

Criminal cases disposed of by the Magistrates’ Courts in Fiji in 1948 totalled 6,643. Details were: Fijians—l. 477 accused, 1.296 convicted. Indians — 4,572 accused, 3,092 convicted. Others— 1,090 accused, 797 convicted. Twenty-two Supreme Court cases involved 29 accused persons of whom 17 were Fijians, six were Indians and six were of other races.