FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 104, 23 July 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

NOT IN SAMOA'S “WHO'S WHO" The Hon. W. Noswortliy, the distinguished author of the latest notable publication of local interest, “Who’s Who in Samoa” (issued by Parliamentary authority), omitted from this charming and interesting work one name—that of Newton Rowe, formerly District Inspector, Savai i, Samoa, Does Mr. Nosworthy know him? If not, why not? You may “know the tree by its fruit” in his case, also, Mr. Nosworthy. Here is some of it—fallen ripe from the papes of “Foreign Affairs,” a London periodical: “Mountebanks again strut the boards in Apia. . . . The Faipules and the Administrator lose no opportunity of publicly praising themselves and one another; and the more sychophantic of the white officials have flooded the local, Fiji and New Zealand newspapers with eulogies of the Administrator and themselves. Adverse criticism is ‘the work of a disgruntled white minority.’ The ‘minority,’ however, actually represents a large majority of the Europeans in Samoa, despite the fact that the Administraor has the whip-hand over all but those engaged in commerce and mission work (the missions, for various reason, are silent). As to the ‘good work’ of the Administrator—the Chinese free labour system was framed before he came to Samoa; the coconut trees were planted long before he came to Samoa; his Fetu (Boy Scout) movement shows signs of changing the Samoans from ‘a race of gentlemen’ to a race of hooligans.” SERIOUS CHARGES * “Before the introduction of prohibition,” says the author of this article, “the Samoans had no taste for intoxicants. . . . They have found that, under present conditions, intoxicants are easily made and sold at a large profit to visiting Europeans (Euro pean residents, including Government officials, make their own intoxicants). Incidentally they are fast acquiring the taste for alcohol. New Zealand appears not to care what happens so long as she is furnished with glowing reports—which the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations reads—giving high praise to the Mandatory Power. . . . One hundred and fiftynine accredited native representatives of the thirty-three districts comprising Western Samoa have repudiated thirty of the thirty-three Faipules, and are now petitioning the New Zealand Parliament, protesting at the administration of General Richardson. ... It is said that every instrument of the law which can be used against the chiefs concerned is being applied to the utmost, and that a campaign of coercion and intimidation, with the object of stifling all further utterance, is now in full progress in Samoa. It is to be hoped New Zealand will awaken to a sense of decency add duty.” A MODEST RETORT All American editors do not reply to criticism with pens dipped in gall. Read this modest answer of the editor of the Moreland “Monitor”:—“l have been criticised quite a little by some of the town ‘smart-alecks’ for using poor grammar. Now I have three good reasons for this. In the first place, I don’t know any better. Second, half of you wouldn’t understand it if I did use it. Third, if I did speak and write correctly, I might be managing some big New York paper at a large salary and you farmers would lose the best editor in Graham County.”

WHY WIVES LEAVE HOME Some wives leave home for trivial reasons, such as being beaten by their husbands or being chased around the backyard with an axe. Wives who consider themselves ill-used because their protectors occasionally throw an underdone chop at them as a protest at their culinary imperfections should reflect that at one time the laws of England permitted a husband to beat his wife with a stick, provided the stick was no thicker than a man’s thumb. Paris provides the latest most extraordinary reason for a wife to leave home. The lady’s husband returned from abroad—and in such company! He brought with him 70 baby crocodiles, which he installed in the bathroom of his flat. “I thought it was a joke,” said Madame to the Commissary of Police, to whom she made complaint. “Now the disgusting creatures are crawling all over the flat, and life has become unbear able. They cause my children dread ful nightmares.” The police chief was sympathetic? but powerless; so the wife took her children and left the flat to her husband and the crocodiles. She runs a risk, too, if she refuses to live under her husband’s roof —crocodiles or no crocodiles—she is liable to be divorced. Her husband’s grief at having to take this step would doubtless be accompanied by “crocodile tears.” THE BED-MAKERS

After long and careful consideration, with due weight given to every link in the mesh of evidence, the Arbitration Court has announced that workers employed in linking together small pieces of wire to form a mesh and fastening the mesh to a frame, are wire-mattress makers, and must be paid accordingly. Up goes the price of beds! The next step will be for the housemaids at hotels and boardinghouses, who “make the beds” daily, to be brought under the award. One cannot sleep the sleep of the just unless the bed has been well made; the heads that wear crowns would lie even more uneasy but for the tender hands that have smoothed the pillows; the gaiety of nations would be lessened were it not for well-made beds. Let, therefore, all or any of those who contribute toward the making of beds and the provision of slumber be brought within the blessed haven of the Bed-makers’ Union.