FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 180, 20 October 1927, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN

CATS’ CHORUS In the swelling solemnity of the National Anthem at the dedication of the International Bridge between the United States and Canada, the jargon of a hundred tongues did not matter. The Boston “Christian Science Monitor'’ asks why should not a committee of international musicians compose a universal world hymn? The answer is another question: Why should not a detachment of dogs baying at the moon and a company of cats calling on Cupid, both met in argument, ably represent a deaf and dumb asylum?

AT THE TROTS “They have it on the world for sport,’’ observed an American at Alexandra Park yesterday. He was referring to “the trots.” And it really is remarkable how popular trotting races are, especially with women. A rough calculation yesterday placed the fair sex at the Auckland Trotting Club’s spring meeting at a numerical advantage. It was a day of days in regard to weather, and the fashions took an airing. Saturday was “a bad day,” and those who had to splash through pools of water to approach the 10s totalisator angrily demanded to know Why. But this defect is to be remedied, for the club has arranged for the filling in of depressions and for proper drainage. Indeed the club has embarked upon a policy of pleasing patrons, and the more the sport is patronised, the more improvements will be effected to the grounds as time and opportunity arise. In its new secretary, Mr. H. G. Mabee, the Auckland Trotting Club has an invaluable asset. He combines with a thorough knowledge of trotting rare tact, invariable courtesy, and that real kindliness which stamps the gentleman. -HERE COMES A. MILLION POUNDS!” Having had several successively fine days, Aucklanders are helping to talk of the possibilities of drought and to recount their experiences in the days when the world went dry. (There was a period of one full month in one particular year during which no rain fell.) In outback Australia there are areas upon which no quality of mercy descends for months at a time. Yet daring souls adventure that way, clear the land, sow wheat, and thus gamble. It will surprise many New Zealanders to know that some Australians grow wheat with a nine-inch rainfall—nine inches in one year, where parts of New Zealand have nine inches in one week and don’t consider it to be very wet! Well, they do it! Sometimes the rain doesn’t come when expected, and “bang!’” goes the crop and the seed that was for it and the labour thereof. But next year the water-can of the sweet little cherub is tilted in time, and there’s gold in every drop.

. . . Look you now upon some many thousands of acres, their shoots parched and drooping on the cracked surface of the earth. There is no rain to revive them and to be stored in the subsoil to nourish their roots until the ears have ripened. No rain, nor sign of any. And so pass the days. Yet one wonderful morning you may awaken to go forth and scent a “something” in the air, and you may watch whence the wind comes and see that cloud which is “no bigger than a man’s hand” appearing on the horizon, to the far-off draws of thunder. Then you may say: “Here comes a million pounds!”

“ACROSS AUSTRALIA” Mrs. G. Sandford, who lectured last night to a large audience on her experiences in “Crossing Australia by Car,” is a woman of parts. Besides being a skilled motorist, and a mechanic to boot, she is an air expert, having successfully qualified for a pilot’s certificate at the Christchurch airdrome—the first New Zea-

land woman to achieve such a distinction. Intrepid to a degree, there is no adventure she would not undertake if it promised sufficient difficulties. The car in which she and Miss Christie crossed Australia was the first closed-in car to reach Darwin, and was the only motor which has succeeded in getting through in the rainy season. One could almost guarantee that if Mrs. Sandford had made available a suitable machine she would be the first to fly the Tasman. Certainly it would not be the risk which would deter her.