SHOTS IN THE DARK

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 293, 9 April 1941, Page 5

SHOTS IN THE DARK

BUGBEARS OF THE BLACKOUT WHERE WAS MOSES ETC. • . • Glaring headlamps sending searchlights fingers up and) down the Strand* pointing inquisitive shafts across the harbour and illuminating the houses on Hillcrest, produced a few 1 hesitant queries from the blinking shopkeepers of Whakatane, who from the semi-gloom of their establishments asked innoicently of the pedestrians, "Why the black-out ?"

Friday evening was definitely 'one out of the bag' as far as illuminations were concerned, for while tke ardent wardens, armed with their new authority beat up and down. the Strand seeking the light-fiends who dared to show the public their wares, motorists on the other handi had the time of their lives fairly yelling to imaginary raiders, ihft position of Whakatane, its environs and choicest residential sites, Only Ninety-five Per Cent. The little shopkeeper looked ni> from attention •to a prospective as the E.P.S. entered and coughed heavily. "Only ninety-five per cent efficient" said the new comer sadly. The fugitive rushed to secure more scrim and trailed it-along the base of the shade already in hisr. window. "That's better," he enquired hopefully. "0.K." came the mournful rejoinder the. warden's? voice being lost in the viscious'honk' from a pasing moving searchlight. "Now," rejoined the little shopkeeper to his prospective, "if you. will just wait till the next car turns in the street you will be able to see the colours of this tie by its headlamps." Procession of Light. 'Do your Easter shopping by feel* was a suggestion put forward by an enterprising firm of drapers, 'by smell,' added an adjoining groceryestablishment, 'by ear' added the music seller, but the confectioner refused to fall in line and so the

chorus remains incomplete

Ohope Defiance. But it -was Ohope that supplied the defiance that gave the famous 'raspberry' to the Jap invasion. This was reported by a simple warden, who claims that he visited one bach, where the sole owner said he was Avilling to risk Hitler's bombs or Japanese shells and therefore could not see the necessity for blacking out his windows. Such fearlessness in the face of all the motor headlights rather confounded the one in authority, "When they take the trouble to lob a shell especially at me, then I'll believe there's a real necessity for covering up the windows." spoke the intrepid one. "At any rate," he concluded doubtfully, "I don't believe Hitler ever heard of me!"

However he promised to be good, in future and to pull down the blinds and pin the sides. "That'll fool them, I suppose/' he concluded cunningly. Freedom of the County. From the darkness of Whakatane and the coastal strip* it is almost disquieting to slip into the bril-iiantly-lit metropolis of Taneatua, the great dairying centre of Edgecumbe, or the growing industrial centre of Te Teko, and finding the streets alive with the custom-seek-ing public. A raw native of Whakatane immediately gets the jitters, and tries to find a policeman, in the face of so much blatant illumination. But the shudders pass offi quickly when one remembers that such privileged centres are apart, from the danger belt, and can go their own dazzling way. But the lights of Whaka, will shine again, and we feel with the growing strength of the Home Guard, the Women's Auxiliary and. the Scout and Cub troops, that the tremulous screening of lights wills: soon be no longer necessary. Wg<* will shortly be able to show ourt square set jaw, and our steely glinting eyes grim with determination. No one would dare then. My Husband ! We relate the warden who on go-« ing round to the rear of a house m Kopeopeo, remarked politely to the .housewife, 'Madam, there's a chink ; n your front window!' The di&*.-> concerting retort floored him as itt vould have you or me. "I'll have u to know, sir, that's my lmsnnd !"