Contrary Mary

In Apia, in Apia, The days are blue and gold.

The nights hold more of magic Than nights were made to hold.

The palm trees guard my still lagoon; We own a mortgage on the moon.

And yet, and yet (I know it’s silly!) I sit and think of Piccadilly.

Of London Town, of London Town, All men and maidens sing, And journeys up or journeys down Find Paris in the Spring.

Who sulks in Athens, scowls in Rome, In Venice finds the seas of home?

I do, I do (I know it’s queer!) I sit and dream of far Apia.

Kathleen Newick,

Apia, W. Samoa.

Grace Before Meat

(South Seas Style)

By Charles Brown, Jr.

Lord of the isle whose viands are won By no sweat of the hand; God of the universe whose sun Brings food out of the land; Father of orange tree and breadfruit That bend to serve their meat— Forgive us all our strumming lute On Thy diverting seat.

And, though Thy children have their spread Within the Lord’s arbour, Give us this day our daily bread And —Joy in the harbour.

Amen.

Tf Mr. J. C. Gerlach, consultant to the new tropical section of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture, after completing surveys of W.

Samoa and Niue, paid a brief visit to New Zealand in July, then de parted by air for Aitutaki to carry out a . similar agricultural survey of the Cook Islands.