FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 232, 20 December 1927, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN” TIN TAX Tin hare bets are off, owino to the threat of a tax. — N.Z. news paragraph. Tin hare supersedeth the jug, And the hound waxeth hot on the scent, But the bettor’s a Juggins, a mug, As he’ll find when his tin is all spent. Yet I can’t help a bet that my pug, With his sniffing and curious habit, Were as hot on a hare, tin or jug, As he grows on the track of tinned rabbit. A.W. in London “Daily Chronicle.” ■•TTPr The time-payment system has had several slaps in public of late, Naturally, “C.0.D.” is the ideal system, but a good many people would go without a good many things if it weren't for the convenience of “T.P.” There are arguments both for and against the system which is so “handy”; you find some business men quite approving of “T.P.”; others indict it as “the curse of the country” and "absolutely unsound.” We will leave it to the business men to fight out—a public debate between approved exponents of the cash and credit systems might be helpful. Meanwhile, ’“T.P.” is being blamed for causing dishonesty, among other things, in the same way as drink and gambling, and reformers are thus given another weapon with which to beat the drums of public opinion and gain prominence in the Press. It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any publicity these days.

THE GORSE DANGER Given a favouring breeze and that insufficient water-pressure which is to be encountered in various parts of Auckland, this summer should see quite a spectacular fire in one of the residential areas. Some suburbs have an aggregate of many acres of long, dry grass and furze—splendid stuff to catch fire and go galloping in a merry blaze on to nice, inflammable wooden houses. Hidden away somewhere is a law or by-law or regulation which provides that gorse must be eradicated. Nobody seems to bother about it. Meanwhile the fire brigades are kept busy rushing at great expense of petrol to subdue outbreaks on vacant sections. UNDER THE SEA

To-day the whole of the civilised world waits in painful suspense to learn the fate of the men who are trapped below the surface in the sunken U.S. submarine. Those still living have tapped a message in Morse with a hammer against the hull, asking, “How long?” And above their heads runs a fierce sea, rendering rescue work by the ships that are hovering there almost impossible. Will the weather ease and the high seas subside in time to allow of the sunken submarine being raised to the surface before the survivors of the collision succumb to lack of air, or to the generation of poisonous gases? A more dreadful plight could scarcely be imagined. Hope in this case is universal; but alas! it must necessarily be faint in the circumstances.

THE METER The confession is made by the chairman of the Auckland Electric-Power Board that the prevailing charges are “very complicated, and even our own meter-readers are sometimes at a loss to understand them.” Under the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that the consumers cast suspicious eyes at their accounts from the Power Board. What with electricity meters, water meters, gas meters and taximeters, all is not meet that meets the eye. In fact, as it appears to be the metier of the meter to deceive, and even the meter-reader cannot understand the meter, fitting advice lies in the “Gipsy’s Warning”—“Trust him not, now, gentle lady!” WAS IT SUCTIONf

In the “Scientific American” of last month, published of course before the dreadful accident in Sydney Harbour, there is an article on a physical phenomenon known as “Bernoulli’s Principle,” which may have a significant bearing on the cause of the Tahiti-Greycliffe collision. The article deals with the condition of water pressure between two adjacent floating masses, and proceeds:—Dynamically it will be the same whether the boats are moored in a stream or are moving forward side by side, for in either case the space between the boats is at reduced pressure. In naval manoeuvres it is not an unknown incident for the navigating officers to neglect to take such forces into account, whereupon the boats collide.” The conditions described appear to be strikingly analogous to those of the recent tragedy. Might there not have been created by the Tahiti a suction so tremendous that the little Greycliffe, so close at hand, was irresistibly drawn across the bows of the big steamer?