FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 52, 24 May 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

the LOOK-OUT MAN

HARE AND HOUNDS Mr. W. Grounds, chairman of the Dairy Produce Control Board, says that Mr. Coates’s statement to a London deputation that control was the decided policy of New Zealand, while he opposed one of the first essential details, betrayed an inclination to face both ways—to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. Well, Mr. Grounds must know that to become a Premier one must first be a politician, and that to be a politician one must face both ways, and must both run and hunt. Politicians must not be judged as other men; they are a circle in themselves —a vicious circle. WITH A. STING IN TT* Joseph Clarkson, of Hamilton, has no use for mild liquors, such a®, whisky, rum or beer. He had a decoction of his own—methylated spirits, to whic?f he imparted a “sting” with mustard and cayenne pepper. They sent him to Roto Roa-—and some first-class hotel has missed the chance of securing a first-class cocktail-mixer. WONDERFUL! Mr. A. E. Jull, a member of the Highways Board, told a Christchurch conference that many of the North Island counties had been brought to their present state of activity because of the work of Southerners. The chairmen of these county councils came from Invercargill or somewhere else in the South Island. They are wonderful folk, these Southerners —wonderful! And they will tell you they have the most wonderful, most beautiful and most progressive country on earth in the South. That’s why all of them who can do so, by hook or by crook, come to live in the North. All the developmental work of the Dominion has been done by Southerners, who are the best administrators, the best business people, the best athletes, the best educated and the most modest .inhabitants of the earth. Also, they win all the beauty competitions. It is understood that New Zealand was really discovered before Captain Cook came along —by a Southerner from Stewart Island. * * * LINDBERGH'S TRIUMPH It was typical of the vivacious, warm-hearted French that they should , give so enthusiastic a reception to i Captain Lindbergh, the first airman to fly from America to France, despite that they were mourning the loss of their own brave adventurers who had failed and died. Amazement has been expressed at Lindbergh’s endurance in remaining awake and alert for 38£ hours, but it was the sheer reckless courage of the man in setting off alone on so long and perilous a journey that was remarkable. Many men would dare things in company that they would shrink from alone. Endurance is a physical quality, as witness the fools who waltz without stopping for days and nights on end, and those who have played the piano continuously for a week. Perhaps there would only be one thing calling for more endurance than to play the piano for a week —to listen to it. Feats like that of Lindbergh are great examples for further useful achievement. Waltzing and piano-playing for the breaking of records are merely examples of egregrious folly.

W.A. WITHOUT NEWSPAPERS

Owing to a printers’ strike, Western Australia has been without newspapers since last Wednesday. There is probably no truth in the statement that the strike was engineered by wireless interests. It is wonderful, by the way, how some newspapers have managed to appear in the past, despite seemingly insuperable difficulties. There is the story, for instance, of the country newspaper which was raided by the editor of the rival rag and robbed of all its “s” type. Next day the paper appeared with this paragraph: “Laft night a rafcal whom we fufpect if eftablifhed in the office of another newfpaper ftole into our premifef and ftole our type. We hope foon to feize hold of the rafcally fcoundrel, when he will be fure of fecuring hif defertf. Meanwhile, until we fecure new type, we fliafl endeavour, with the loyal affiftance of our ftaff, to carry on af fuccefffully af poffible.” i

UNWANTED NOTORIETY

A few weeks ago an account was given in a Southern paper of how a Farmers’ Union official spent some days among settlers in the Ashburton County, in Canterbury, and was not offered even a cup of tea. The report has been copiecT* into almost every paper in the Dominion, and Ashburton finds itself with a wide-spread reputation for stinginess. Next time that official travels through .Ashburton he will provide himself with nourishment for the road. It reminds one of the threat of General Grant, who said that after he had passed through the Shenandoah Valley any crow wanting to fly over it would have to carry its tucker for the trip. They say there are no crows in the Ashburton district.