FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 59, 1 June 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

the LOOK-OUT MAN.

THE CAPTURE OF SCOTT The story of the escaped prisoner, Scott, who was captured yesterday near Te Aroha, is remarkable, not so much because he escaped—the escape of prisoners from gaols, prison farms, trains, or hospitals, is a common thing in this country—but in that he should have eluded capture for two years. Scott was not a desperate criminal, and during his period of freedom he appears to have been earning an honest living, bolting from one job to another in different districts, as he became aware that the police were on his tracks. He fared hardly during the long and intermittent chase—and a certain amount of sympathy often goes out to a fugitive, even though he be a fugitive from justice. A prisoner accentuates his condition, of course, in breaking prison, but to some men liberty is the all-pervading passion, and they will risk not only additional punishment, but actual death, for even a brief period of freedom. * * * C.O.D. The grievance of New Zealand 1 traders against the postal authorities is that the Postal Department will accept goods for New Zealand addresses, C.O.D. from Great Britain, Ireland and Fiji, but not from New Zealand traders. There is certainly a curious anomaly in this. One would imagine that New Zealanders would have an equal claim on their own post office; but Government departments work in wonderful and mysterious ways. It was said by one of the deputationistsi who waited on the Prime Minister that most of the orders for goods imported from abroad in this way came from the West Coast. Is it possible that prices on the West Coast are so exhorbitant that the West Coasters are forced to send to Great Britain for their goods? If so, the remedy is obvious. They may keep their money in their own country by sending their orders to Auckland, where the traders give the public a fair deal. * * THE FIRST STEP Marriage is responsible for many things, good and bad. It is now blamed as the cause of many young people (who, it is inferred, might otherwise pass through life as “drysters”) taking the first , sip that leads to the path of the alcoholic. The Auckland Ministers’ Association is quite emphatic about it, and it has passed a strong resolution, “viewing with concern the great prevalence of the practice” of wine being consumed at marriage festivities. One clergyman went so far as to suggest that ministers, before consenting to perform a marriage ceremony, should stipulate that no wine be served at the reception. But the meeting did not go so far as to adopt the suggestion. If it were acted upon, it is to be feared that quite a' number of people, objecting to being forbidden to conduct their own festivities according to their own desires, might decide to do without the blessings of a religious ceremony, dispense with “the benefit of clergy,” and have their marriage harness adjusted by the registrar. MUSSOLINI* AND * MORALS Mussolini’s commission to make “women’s dresses more moral” has invited 3,000,000 young unmarried Italian women to ban all “immodest” attire. If they do so, the commission will allow them to take part in the public lotteries, and also to have two free tickets, and the bride who holds a certain number will receive a trousseau and a railway ticket to any European resort for her honeymoon. The ways of some reformers are straAge. Here we have a proposal to banish impropriety of dress and substitute gambling. Is it’possible that the Italian girl will become a combination of prude and plunger?

PARENTS AND TEETH It is strange that parents who by no stretch of imagination could be suspected of a desire to place arsenic. in their children’s food will permit their offspring to be poisoned day after day by decayed teeth, thus exposing them to the risk of death by disease so engendered. In England only recently, a man and his wife were convicted and fined for causing unnecessary suffering to and injuring the health of their son by neglecting to obtain dental treatment. Though free treatment was available, it was denied the lad by his parents, with the result that he suffered abscesses in the jaw, anaemia and enlarged glands, and vvas generally in a sickly condition. Judging by the teeth of numerous young Aucklanders, prosecutions are necessary here also. Perhaps the Society for the Protection of Women and Children might find the subject worth investigation. It is a common complaint of teachers that the notices sent to parents after the dental inspection of their children are ignored, and that the' teeth of the children are permitted to go from bad to worse. There is not the excuse of ignorance for this neglect nowadays. The evil effect of dental caries on health is too wellknown to be disregarded.