FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 82, 28 June 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

the LOOK-OUT MAN

THE PRUNING KNIFE When a local body applies the pruning knife, it seems to do it pretty thoroughly. The Wanganui City Council is the latest to get busy on the pruning, but it has left ‘"the under dog” alone, and done its carving on the heads of departments, whose salaries have been reduced in sums ranging from £l2 to £SO. The “salarical” fate of the engineer is not yet decided upon, but the proposal is to reduce him by £IOO. On the block for entire sacrifice are an inspector with several years’ service, and a draughtsman. This wholesale cutting was opposed by the Mayor and re-elected members of the council, but they were outvoted by the new councillors, who were nominees of the City Progressive Party, filled with economical enthusiasm. Whether this economy will prove economical in the end remains ‘to be seen. * * * LA VISH PRODUCTION In C. B. Cochran’s revue, “One Damn Thing After Another,” which is the best summary of a revue we have seen in print, is notable for the splendour of its frocking. One cape worn by Edythe Baker .contains between 500 and 600 ostrich feathers, shading from palest turquoise to rich royal blue. The spread of the cinema makes it imperative that every new revue should possess some record-breaker, even if it is only a million-dollar cape. The stupendous productions that issue from Hollywood with such amazing regularity, each surpassing its immediate predecessor, caused an English colyumist recently to pen an amusing travesty which began: “The difficulty in the, production of the new Stupour Film, ‘Old Mother Hubbard,’ in the staging of which, it will be remembered, 73 acres of cupboard and 400 tons of real bones were employed, has now been overcome!” ADVERTISE YOUR COUNTRY “You possess one of the most beautiful bits of the whole created world. It is a land of infinite variety, loveliness and charm.” New Zealanders will at once guess what land is here referred to —but they will guess wrongly. The reference is to England, not New Zealand, and it was made recently by a great American, Mr. A. B. Houghton, United States Ambassador in London. There is a distinct analogy, however, in the remainder of Mr. Houghton’s remarks: “I wish that more of my countrymen might share some of the pleasures which have fallen to my lot in this hospitable and friendly land. But the fault rests very largely with yourselves . . . Other countries have issued their invitations, and they have their reward in the number of tourists who flock to them every summer. If I were to quote the figures to illustrate the effect of this traffic, you would be surprised at its magnitude—it runs into scores of millions of pouifds. Britain could easily double or treble the number of tourists.” Leave out the name “Britain” and substitute “New Zealand,” and we have a little homily directly and peculiarly applicable to this country.

UNWAN TED IMMIGRANTS The frequency with which new arrivals in this country appear before the courts is not complimentary to the standard of immigration. There are black sheep in every flock, but there seems to be altogether too much dark wool coming this way. In several cases, it has been stated that young men who have been arrested here for theft have been acquainted with police courts in Great Britain, and apparently “left their country for their country’s good.” This class of immigrant doesn’t do this country much good, and one judge, in a Southern case the other day, showed a wise initiative when he fixed as one of the terms on which a young man was placed on probation that he should return to England by the first steamer. People who have been convicted under the criminal laws of England should be denied admittance to this country, for a term of years at least; and our immigration regulations should lay it down that immigrants convicted of offences under our criminal laws within a fixed period of years after their arrival shall be deported whence they came. THAT FIFTEEN MONTHS There has been discovered an American who does not crow, “We won the war!” This is the chief soldier of the nation, General Pershing. Said the general, speaking at Toronto a few days ago: “If the Allies had not been able to hold the line for 15 months, while America made ready, we might not have been able to get into the war at all, or, if we had, we would have had to fight alone.” This is a generous admission, and in marked contrast to the shriek of the Eagle of the dollar kings, which is growing quite hoarse, though no less fierce, in demanding the return in full, plus interest, of the money which America advanced the Allies while she was “making ready?’ It seems time an international court j was set up to determine how much America, owes the Allies for having ! “held the line” for her during that! long and terrifically costly 15 months.