FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 272, 7 February 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN” POOR FI HU! Such is the fraternal loyalty of blackfish that a school of 37 followed its leader ashore, and so to death, at Whangarei over the week-end. One which was pushed back into deep water promptly returned to expire with his expiring associates. In certain other “schools,” the sense of loyalty is not so highly developed. When trouble threatens a New Zealand two-up school, for instance, the accepted principle is “every man for himself.” .4, SCOTSMAN’S HAZARD Sir John Simon—said to have tossed with Lord Birkenhead (F. E. Smith) that the spin of the coin should decide the political allegiances of two men too big for one party—is the son of a Congregational minister, and an old boy of Fettes, the famous Scottish Rugby school. It would be interesting to know who kept the coin. SOLDIER-YEOMAN Sir Andrew Russell, who on Saturday unveiled Marlborough’s war memorial clock tower, is these days so much in public demand, what with war memorials and the New Zealand Land Settlement League, that he must have little time to spare for the big Hawke’s Bay sheep run. The Russell estates, Tunaunui and Flaxmere, are legacies from a long association with the Heretaunga Plains, which many years ago were split into immense tracts by a syndicate termed, rather paradoxically, the Twelve Apostles. Sir Andrew was at Harrow with Winston Churchill, and at Sandhurst at about the same time as Earl Haig. BOARDWALK CIVILITIES How much time is wasted by the street-going public in the congestion that occurs where pavements are narrowed through building operations in Queen Street? The delay is Inevitably aggravated when some fascinated rustic stops a stream of one-way traffic by halting to peer through the palings into the bowels of a concrete-mixer. Stepping lightly on the planks usually laid at these places, citizens are reminded of the “board-walks” in Western American film towns. It is time a code of hoard-walk civilities was drawn up for Auckland. * * * VOLTS AND VODKA While the Soviet Government is abolishing its State monopoly on foreign trade, it shows no sign of relinquishing its highly profitable monopoly on vodka. Pale and waterylooking, vodka is a deceptive liquid. It has properties, evolved in some mysterious fashion from its parent, the homely potato, that make Ivan and Serge forget their woes in short order. Even to experienced drinkers it is sudden death, and to the blissful unlnitiate a mere soupcon means oblivion. HELD IN RESERVE The popular notion that the gifts poured upon touring royalties are later presented with due formality to the court washerwomen is disposed of by the news that Queen Mary has reappeared with the Maple Leaf given to her when she toured Canada 27 years ago. Accordingly there is a distinct prospect that the Duke of York, when in 1960 or thereabouts he extends a royal welcome to a party of Auckland Rotarlans, will be carrying the Auckland City’s gift casket (paid for}. under his arm.

TO THE COURT OF ‘-KING BILIY’ The appointment of an Italian “Minister” to the Court of Big Bill Thompson in Chicago will be received with amusement throughout the British Empire. Italians in the Middle West sent Mussolini a heavily-jewelled gold wreath recently and, in return, he has sent to Chicago Signor Zuinini. The message does not state whether he is “heavily jewelled.” This may create a precedent. We wonder what would happen if King George sent an Ambassador Extraordinary to present his credentials to Mr. Thompson. Apoplexy, probably. • * * AN ABSORBING SUBJECT Profound are the uses of advertisement. They have even penetrated to the sacred austerity of the Auckland Post Office, where arvertisements are now writ plenteously across hosts of blotters. Sending away ponderous sums in money orders, or raiding an already emaciated bank account, the client of the institution can now, as he writes, dwell pleasantly upon the plea, “Ask always for Jlggs’s Gargle,” or similar solicitations. If the pad is torn (as often) he can perceive, in its depths, a furrowed vista of the same entreaties. Next they will be sticking bills upon the hitherto inviolate telephone posts controlled by the same department.