FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 136, 30 August 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

TALEST AT COMPETITIONS Aucklanders are earning (if not deserving) a name for lack of appreciation of good tilings in the way of entertainment. This is illustrated by the sparse attendances at the Auckland Competitions, where there is surprising talent revealed. The pianoforte section has proved of the highest merit, the dancing far excels even that to which Aucklanders have been accustomed in their wonderful amateur performances, and the standard both in singing and elocution is exceptionally high. Those who hare missed all the good things of the Competitions so far will be able partially to recoup their loss by attending the demonstration concerts on Thursday and Saturday nights, when the programmes will be “all star,” that is to say, they are to be provided by prizewinners. The L. O. M. is willing to wager there will be few indeed who will leave these concerts without feeling justifiable pride in the musical, vocal and terpsichorean talent of this city. A DOG'S UNLUCKY DAY Brown Rebel was disqualified for three months at a recent tin-hare meeting at Sydney. His owner, who had been caught giving the dog whisky before a race, said he thought it would do him good. If the dog thought so, it must have been disappointed, for the stewards took the rag soaked in spirits out of its mouth and sent it home to cliase cats. This was a noted win for teetolalism, for it so happened that Brown Rebel had been beaten in a previous race by a dog bounding along under the name of Red Limes —reminiscent of limejuice and soda. And the joke of it was that the race was for the Black and White Whisky Cup! It was surely Brown Rebel’s unlucky day. MAKING CERTAIN

The fear of being buried alive still haunts some people. There was the old man of Birmingham, for instance —whose case was mentioned in the news by cable. He ordered that two professors must make every test to prove life was extinct, and then, to multiply assurance, they were to put prussic acid in his mouth and cut his head off. Old men who die poor don’t make wills like that. Having nothing much to live for, they depart willingly enough when their time comes, as a. rule, and are pretty sure they will be quite dead enough when they die. But the old man of Birmingham left nearly £20,000. Naturally, he didn’t want to leave all that money unless he was quite certainly beyond spending it—or adding more to it. Yes, it would be a dreadful thing to be buried under the mistaken impression that you are dead, when you might otherwise recover to continue the enjoyment of your money, instead of leaving it to your relatives to spend. Judging by the way some mortals hoard their painfully accumulated wealth, they must have the itfta that they are immortal and can take it with them wherever they go. If that were so, death would lose its sting for quite a number of nervous old gentlemen with fat bank balances.

WiriTK WOMEN. COLOURED MEN Tile frequency with which white women of abandoned tastes are found in association with Chinese and Indians is such as should bring the blush of shame to the cheeks and the heat of indignation to the hearts of New Zealanders. These disgraceful associations will occur as long as drink and the devil take hold of women of a certain type—and as long as the law continues to allow the prestige of the white race to be lowered by coloured inferiors, who take advantage of the moral weakness of those whom vicious circumstances drive their way. White girls found in immoral association with Chinese or Indians (such as the unfortunate wretch dealt with by the Auckland Police Court last week) are only sometimes arrested on charges of vagrancy. Their coloured consorts should stand in the dock with them, and any Government with a single moral vertebra to its back bone -would make it a criminal offence, punishable with a long term of hardlabour Imprisonment, for any brown or yellow alien immorally to associate with a white woman. The time lias passed to be careless in this question. So long as New Zealanders tolerate the scandal so long shall they staud disgraced.