FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 133, 26 August 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

DAYLIGHT SAVING

When Parliament sits on a subject of note — Should beer be abolishedf—should feminines votef It sits and it argues; it’s looking for fight; It yaps and it yarns until late in the night. When Parliament sits on a subject supreme , The bellicose bickering stops, it would ‘‘Let ‘night’ be abolished and substitute ‘day,’ “All in favour say ‘Yea’; all against it say ‘Nay’ ” The members for Labour say “Gosh, ivhat a borel” The Government benches continue to snore; And even the Speaker will stifle a yawn. On hearing the roosters announcing the dawn . And finally members are keen to partake Of “Bellamy’s” vintage to keep them awake, And thus Mr. Sidey, the lover of light Has proved that a day can be spent in the night. —B.C.H.

TOO MANY LAWYERS

Tlie frequency -with which solicitors are before the courts for the appropriation of trust monies is very disturbing. One has just been sentenced to two years’ imprisonment on charges of having stolen £2,488 —but the real deficiency was stated to amount to £ 15,500. “The most painful case with which I have had to deal since I have been on the Bench,” observed his Honour. Educated people who steal thousands of pounds seem to receive a lot of sympathy; ignorant people who steal a few shillings are regarded as common thieves. Apparently it pays to steal big, if one steals at all; the amount doesn’t appear to have much effect on the sentence. In some cases, however, it seems a case of “steal or starve” in the legal profession, which is shockingly overcrowded. There are so many solicitors in New Zealand that one has the impression that they are run out of a tap. The University might consider the advisability of turning the tap off for a while.

EARNING A HOUSE

The Auckland working man who yearns for a home of his own might consider the way they do it in Fiji. One hundred Fijians who have been working for the past 12 months on the Vuna Estates of Tarte Brothers are, under an agreement made when they “signed on,” being paid in kind instead of cash. Sixty men from Yasawa and 40 from other districts will each receive the roof for a house 50 feet long by 15 feet wide, including rafters, galvanised iron, etc., also two wooden doors and one wooden window, with all necessary nails, locks, hinges, screws, etc. These are being shipped by the auxiliary schooner Helena, which will leave for the Wester Islands to-morrow. The houses will be erected by the Fijian carpenters in their respective towns. It would be nice to see our homeless workers trotting out to his time-payment section at the end of a year’s service with a nice little bungalow under his arm. Or he might be paid a weekly “wage” —a door this week, a window the next, a load of iron or tiles the next, and so on.

OLD “ HINDY ” Hindenburg, President of Germany, still tough as iron, will celebrate his 80th birthday on October 2, and it is announced that a number of political prisoners, who now goose-step within stone walls for having slandered him, are to be released by his clemency. There was nothing clement about ‘“Hindy” in the war—he believed that war was war. When he was elected president, Europe stiffened in suspense, believing another blood-letting inevitable. But “Hindy” had apparently seen enough of war to suffice him for his few remaining years, and he bade the Junkers get out of his way while he set about the rehabilitation of the Fatherland along the lines of peace. They erected a colossal wooden statue of their adored war-dog in Berlin, and special uaiJs were sold to be driven into it, the money going to war charities. Hindenburg was born with war in his blood, for he was a member of a noted Junker family. He served through the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franeo-Prussian War of 1870-71, being present at the battles of St. Prlvat and Sedan and the seige of Paris. He retired from the army in 1911, but signalised his return in 1914 (at the age of 67) by inflicting a disastrous defeat on the Russians at the Battle of Tanneberg. He was victor in a succession of battles on the Eastern Front, and in August, 1916, he succeeded Falkenhayn as German Generalissimo. His motto is “Work and Pray,” and in his spare time he plays with his grandchildren and his dogs, or drinks beer with his veteran cronies of the old wars.