FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 256, 19 January 1928, Page 10

FROM T HE WATCH TOWER

j By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN”

GOOD FOR THE RAILWAYS Time was wTien the Railways Department did not bother to advertise itself, or go out of the way to court patrons. But all is changed since it decided to be out for business. Now it studies the comfort and convenience of travellers in a dozen directions that had not occurred to it in the days of the past. The courtesy of the railway man was always notable, bis willingness to help passengers in any difficulty was a constant theme for thanks. Those personal relations with the public could hardly be improved on. There were other things, however, that were sadly needed. The businesslike management of recent years has seen to these, and as regards comfort in travelling, the service has almost been transformed. Nor does the department forget its patrons. This year it has issued a charming little calendar, bearing the motto: “The People’s Railways for the People’s Safety—The People’s Railways for the People’s Goods.” These are being distributed by stationmasters to regular patrons. It is a thoughtful gesture—and it is good business. Good for the railways!

HER PARTICULAR SPORT Seeing a young lady with the breast of her frock ornamented by a pair of embroidered tennis racquets (crossed) the thought struck the Look-out Man that it wouldn’t be a bad idea to extend this method of showing the individual’s sport preference—hockey sticks, basket-ball posts, croquet mallets, knitting needles, washing tubs—and men. Mere males could have their coat lapels embroidered with footballs, cricket bats, racehorses, tin hares, boxing gloves, yachts, swordfish—and girls. Talking of tennis, the number of young people seen carrying racquets along the streets at all hours is enormous. “My word, tennis has caught on here —almost everybody must play it,” observed the Look-out Man to a city friend. “Play nothing!” ejaculated our friend, contemptuously. “It’s swank—pure swank! Half those people carry their racquets into town to work and carry them back home again—they only see a tennis court in passing, arid very few ever even pass one. It’s the fashion, just like walking sticks and ladies’- canes used to be.” Dear me! Who’d have thought it?

THE CABLE MAN “Uneasiness Apia deportation Nelgursmy.” That’s Chinese to the uninitiated, but to the man who sits in a newspaper office deciphering condensed news by cable or wireless it means: “There is uneasiness at Apia on account of the deportation of Messr. .Nelson, Gurr and Smyth.” The cable editor is used to little things like that—it’s really easy to him. He often has them much less intelligible. That’s why he goes about with such an intelligent look, why he is always a champion chess player, and why he has solved the mystery of the latest and most baffling detective story before he has come to the bottom of the first page. The Cable Editor is never worried, never flurried, never tired of his absorbing work—well, hardly ever. His job is really a pastime and a pleasure to him. That is why he thinks it a shame to take the money, and only accepts his salary because he can’t do without it—and could do witli a lot more. And just here it is a shame to have to confess that all Cable Editors are not infallible. The gentleman down South who received the Samoan message must have been very abstracted, for he failed to dissect the code word, and he told his little bit of the world that there was uneasiness at Apia because of the deportation of “Mr. Nelgursmy!”

A “ BRIGHT ” SUGGESTION To the Look Out Man.—“l think the proposal to place a ‘Kia Ora’ sign on Campbell’s Point is good, only it doesn’t go far enough—not nearly. For one thing, the multitude and variety of utilitarian monstrosities now cluttering the shores of the Waitemata would render the proposed sign as conspicuous as a Ford in Detroit. If we are to have publicity, then by all means let’s have the arresting kind; the sort that will compel the most apathetic of world-worn tourists to sit bolt upright in their deck chairs and fairly ‘gawp’ in amazement. So, without discarding the Campbell’s Point idea, but in order that interest in our fair city may be stimulated among incoming sea travellers, I suggest that our publicity people immediately acquire two large, modern and up-to-the-minute electric signs appropriate to the object in view. One to be installed at Cape Maria Van Diemen, the other on Rangitoto.-—Why Not.2,’’ y