FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 201, 14 November 1927, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN” LVXCH-TJME PUEITAXISM “Dear Look-out Man: After having read your verse on the subject of the City Council ■wanting to supervise the way the bathers dress at Point Chevalier, I thought I would write and tell you that the City Council is going in for a general campaign of purity and intends to abolish nakedness altogether—even the naked truth. I have it from a cousin of the wife’s sister’s husband, who works in the City Council Purity Department. Even now a by-law is being framed to prohibit the placing of undressed salad on the luncheon tables at the restaurants. All salads will have to be respectably dressed and potatoes must wear their jackets, and not be served in the nude. I thought I would write and let you know in advance. The tilings you see in these restaurants are shocking. No wonder the beetroot blushes. Yours for purity,-—‘Cover Up-' ” VALE! The death of Mr. J. W. Boynton, the veteran magistrate, removes a popular figure, and one beloved by those who knew him well. Mr. Boynton had decided views on some questions, but he was a just man and a warm-hearted man. A little while back the magistrate and his dog were a familialsight. Mr. Poynton had a great affection for his dog—a fox terrier, whose plumpness was eloquent testimony to his master’s good treatment. The dog used to accompany the magistrate to the court daily, and doze peacefully on the floor alongside the magisterial chair. One day it failed to turn up, and Mr. Poynton sorrowfully announced its sudden demise. There was strong suspicion that some meanspirited individual had poisoned the animal so as to cause grief to its owner. Mr. Poynton was a selfeducated mau. He was ail omniverous reader and had an amazingly wide knowledge of men and affairs. Shortly before he went on six months’ leave lie expended a considerable sum in books, intending to enjoy the delights of uninterrupted reading in his retirement. But it was not to be; for his eyesight failed, and now he is dead with only two months of his leave gone. Practically he died ill harness, at the age of 65, after having worked since he was 11 years old. He was a man! WATER DL VIXERS An interesting item from Perth relates the discovery of water near the Wyndham meat works, to which it has hitherto had to he carted several miles. A water diviner routed scepticism by locating two copious supplies quite near the town. Some people have a remarkable water sense; but apparently it is a sense confined to the few. The Look-Out Man knew a chap in Tasmania who lived on this gift. He charged a fee to try the ground, and if he located water there was a further fee to be paid. His only accessory was a green switch, which would jerk violently downwards if he passed over moisture. Sometimes they would have to dig 30ft before the water was reached; but where the switch had jerked, there was the water sure enough. The jerking is due to the effect of the neighbourhood of water or metal (metals have also been located in this way) on certain sensitive constitutions.

WELLS’S VIEW.—“The Baldwin Government is heading straight for war,” says Mr. H. G. Wells, in a letter to the Liberal candidate for a by-election at Southend. He intends to vote for the Liberal,, Mr. Wells explains, as it is “the business of every man to end immediately the dangerous drift toward armament and aggression.”

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CHALIAPIN’S DEPENDENTS Chaliapin refused to sing in Berlin for £SO when the opera house proprietors combined to cut down bis fees, saying he usually received £SOO for a single performance, and that he had 26 dependents. These opera singers are not all so frank as Chaliapin; usually the number of their dependents is kept secret, and their children, like those of the Merry Monarch, are not counted until they are dead. But £SO does seem a paltry fee to offer to a world-star. Chaliapin could hardly be blamed if he said about Germany what Frances Alda said about Australia. “KEEP IT DARK!’’ Members of the City Council ought to learn the old comic song, “Keep It Dark,” and hum it whisperingly in the gloomy corridors as they tread their way to the secret chambers wherein the business of the citizens is discussed in camera. The council has refused to admit the Press to the meetings of the committee that is to consider the allegations of waste made against the engineering department by Councillor Murray. In the opinion of the council, the ratepayers have no right to know how their money is being spent or misspent. But when members of the council meet behind closed doors, the ratepayers cannot be blamed for wondering what sort of work is going on there, and whether all is as all should be. The hush-hush policy is a stupid policy in any case. Truth finds voice eventually, despite all attempts to strangle it—and it shrieks the louder for its repression when it does announce itself.