FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 247, 9 January 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

SPEED MAKES SPEED A motor-cyclist travelling at SO miles an hour on Muriwai Beach came a crash. The ambulance travelled to the beach and back to Auckland again in under three hours. Thus does speed make speed. It’s a great principle! „ TEN PER CENT. Those who do not pay their rates to the city before Monday next will be penalised to the extent of ten per cent, interest. This will be imposed if are made even a day late. It works out at 3,650 per cent, interest in the case of a ratepayer one day in arrears. After that Shylock may be considered to have been a philanthropist, and Auckland money-lenders are to be regarded as charitable institutions. * * * THE “ SHICK ” TEST It is interesting to note that the Auckland medical authorities are combating diphtheria by the use of the Schick test. It should be understood that this is an entirely different procedure to the “shick” test, applied at the police station. There the police use a chalk-line, along which the “patient” is requested to walk. If he can walk It without wavering (thereby proving he is not overcharged with alcohol) he is immediately charged with something else. * * * WELLINGTON’S WORKLESS It is stated that there are 1,000 unemployed in Wellington, where the position is as bad as it was in the winter. Under the circumstances the plan of the Government to provide employment by preparing the gum lands of the North for settlement seems a very good one—as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough. If there are 1,000 unemployed in the capital, and a proportionate number in the other cities, at this time of the year, when productivity should be in full swing, the Government will need to acquire more land than is available in New Zealand. The unemployed caused the Government a great deal of worry last winter. It might consider the idea of deporting a few thousand of them to Samoa. There is plenty of unused land there, and they would fill some of the gaps in the Samoan population caused by the deportation orders of General Sir George Richardson. TAUMARVNUI AND LONDON The man from Taumarunui was very agitated. He had been told of the floods in London, and atop of that calamity came news this morning of a fire at Taumarunui, in which damage estimated at £5,000 was caused to two shops. “Must be the end of the world cornin’—like that prophet bloke talked about,” he said. “Fire in Taumarunui and floods in London—an’ £5,000 damage in Taumarunui!” “Go on!” said his city friend. “All the shops In Taumarunui aren’t worth £5,000.” You go to h—11!” said the Taumarunui man, seizing the sugar sack which contained his wardrobe and making a bee-line for the door. Thus was another friendship .fractured through an ill-timed joke. This evening the man from Taumarunui is catching the express for the metropolis of the King Country. They lliink a lot of their city down at Taumarunui.

DYNAMITE AND RAIN It sounds quite simple. All you have to do to produce rain is to send up half a ton of dynamite in a balloon. It would cost £3OO or £4OO, but when the dynamite was exploded by a timefuse it would precipitate moisture worth untold wealth on a droughtstricken land. This is the opinion of a German geologist at present in Auckland. He thinks two hundredweight of dynamite, exploded 14,000 feet above the Waitakeres, would All the dams and enable the citizens to use their hoses again. The geologist knows more about geology than he does about meteorology. The rain-making “stunt” has been tried in various parts of the world. There was enough artillery fire on certain days during the war to equal the reverberation of many tons of dynamite, but there weren’t any deluges precipitated therebv. Besides, imagine the horror of half a ton of dynamite drifting about aloft with a time-fuse that refused, so to speak. It might tumble down on the Town Hall. There are some people (those who have seen their beloved gardens wither before their eyes, for instance) who could perhaps suggest a better use for half a ton of dynamite —-under the Town Hall, preferably during a sitting of the Water Committee. A near inspection of the heavenly- reservoirs might convey some really useful information to the .committee.