FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 193, 4 November 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN

RETURN TO THE RAIL The return of suburban dwellers to rail way travelling is a movement that has been going on for some time, the number increasing each week. The main reason for this is the greatly reduced charges for season tickets, making travel by rail the cheapest of all methods. In addition to this, railway traveUing to and from the suburbs is far more comfortable and far speedier than by tram or bus, in which comfort seems to have been the last thing thought of by those who designed these vehicles. Also, you invariably get civility on the railways. That counts a little, too. HELPING THE EXCAVATORS An electric cable fused in Symonds Street yesterday and blew part of the footpath in the air, leaving a gaping hole. This is not so damaging as it seems. Any cable which blows up the footpath in any part of the city only anticipates the army of excavation by a day or two. If only these cables could be trained to fuse just when required, think of the labour that would be saved. Perhaps clocks could be placed on them, to cause fusing at a given time. Then again, perhaps clocks would be of very little use, after all, for the excavators seem never to know when they are going to excavate, or where. Rumour hath it that five men were for five days excavating in a certain street; then they filled in the hole, rammed the earth tight and re-made the footpath. Two hours later they started to dig it up again. One of the workmen had forgotten his spanner. ... REJUVENATED The ex-Kaiser’s sister, about whom all the fuss Is being made because she is going to marry a Russian commoner, 33 years younger than herself, has been in the hands of a rejuvenating specialist. After two months of his treatment, she is said to have been so transformed that she looked only 30, and fainted when she saw herself in the mirror. After two months of worry with a husband 33 years younger than herself she will no doubt be so retransformed that she will drop dead when she looks into the mirror. NO COMBINATION An enlightening illustration to which the public may be kept long subjected by the obstinacy of local bodies is furnished by the foot-track which runs across the quarry grounds between the foot of Edwin Street, Mt. Eden, and Clive Road, Epsom. A good road could be made across here to connect the streets mentioned, for the distance Is only a couple of hundred yards, and all the material Is on the spot. But Mt. Eden will not undertake the work —It would rather see hundreds of drivers who go from this part of Mt. Eden to Epsom daily go all the way round, either via Khyber Pass or by Stokes Road. Clive Road leads into Mountain Road from the spot from which the proposed new road would emerge, but it is a blind street, though a magnificently formed thoroughfare. At the blind 'end commences the track up the Mount, a wretched thing, instead of a fittingly noble drive. Tha City and Mt. Eden Councils should combine to put this neighbourhood in shape.

THE LICENCE IMPOSITION There is an easy way out of the unemployment difficulty, if the Government and the local bodies only realised it. There are so many inspectors of one kind and another now that a few thousand more wouldn’t matter —excepting to the taxpayers and ratepayers who are mulcted for their maintenance, and they don’t count. All that the authorities have to do is to think of a few more things for which people must take out licences, and that would provide jobs for additional inspectors. At present, shopkeepers have to have separate licences for the sale of guns, fireworks, bread, milk, soft drinks, fruit and vegetables (to mention but a few articles); the householder has to have licences for his dog and his fowls and his radio, and for a stable for his horse and the right to drive his motor. A plumber must have a licence, and he must take out a permit for every job. And one licence is not sufficient for most things. A drainage contractor showed the Look-Out Man a drainage licence (at £1 a time) from each of the districts ruled by the local bodies of Auckland, Mt. Albert, Mt. Eden, Mt. Roskill and One Tree Hill. Itj addition to these annual licences he has to pay for a permit before he can undertake any job—the cost falling eventually on the ratepayer, of course. And the plan of the drainage work proposed has to be approved by the local body. 'The plan is drawn by the contractor —and it is annexed by the inspector and “prepared” for submitting to the local body at a fee of 10s 6d or £1 Is. But there are quite a number of things overlooked for which licences might be demanded—domestic cats, pigeons, canaries, and walk-ing-sticks, to name a few —and it seems high time that smokers were compelled to be licensed and to purchase a permit with every packet of cigarettes. Really, the authorities should exercise a little more resource.