FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 290, 28 February 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN

j NEW ZEALAND The New York “Saturday Review” having offered a prize for the best j lyric beginning “It ? s daffodil time in New Zealand, one competitor responded with a limerick: j Just where in the world is New Zealand, . That great big surrounded-by-sea land? i I have a faint notion It’s out i?i the ocean. j I learned all about it at Leland. And that was as much as any of the competitors knew about it. But a clever New Zealand rhymster, “K,” . of Christchurch, corrected them: j The eland's not found in New Zealand , j Nor yet is the spry kangaroo. The gnu is not new in New 2ealand, i There’s a lack of a faunal “Whose Zoo.” The daffodils went to New Zealand , Which told them to grow and they grew, There’s always new zeal in New Zealand, But hardly a rhyme that will do. EYES ON SAMOA To-day is a critical day in the his- : tory of Samoa. The Samoans (or most ; of them) did not pay their head taxes, | medical taxes and dog taxes, amount- | ing to 36s for each man, when they I fell due, and they were given until | February 28 to do so. (The Adminis- ! tration must have overlooked the fact iof this being Leap Year, with a “February 29.”) If the Samoans won’t pay—and the indications are that they will not —what is going to be done about it? OFFICES TO LET “This building in the city is very i much overdone,” was the opinion exj pressed by a well-known lawyer to | the L.O.M. “Very soon there will | be more oflices to let than there are j people, judging by the way they are j going on. How do they expect to | let all those offices? I have /been 38 | years in Auckland, I have had a lot [ to do with land transfer business and city property, and I tell you some of these people are going to burn their fingers.” “1 hope not,” said the L.0.M., less pessimistic. “I say ‘yes/ ” replied the lawyer. “It’s all very well to build ahead, but they are building too far ahead. I heard yesterdav 1 that a big financial institution had ! advanced £25,000 on the security of some Queen Street property. They ought to be ashamed of themselves. If they had a proper realisation of what is required to advance the pros- ! perity of the country, they would use ! it to aid the development of lands ; and increase production.” j THE CHURCH AND PEACE i One speaker at the Methodist Con- | ference in Christchurch, during a | noisy debate on pacificism, declared i that he had never known such a dis* I orderly scene to promote peace. Laughter followed and harmony was 1 restored. Nothing like a hearty laugh to turn away wrath. But not* i withstanding wordy warfare regarding i peace, the Church has the sane idea | of it. If the nations would see eye j to eye with that great church body j in England which recently condemned | armaments as provocative of war, j there would be little fear of another ; human holocaust. When rival nations I race to arm, mutual suspicion is bred j and there arises in each a boastful ! longing to try its strength. So it ! was with thunder-proud Germany, | armed to the teeth. Now, her teeth | drawn, Germany is having artificial i dentistry, and the indications are that j if she is allowed a complete set, she ; will try another bite at the vitals of* j civilisation. The nations are like j boys with wooden swords. The only way to prevent them smiting each j other is to take the swords away.

IK Hi Hi * rK * 3K & * '■& IK * r\- & ir BOERS IN PORTUGUESE W.A. The 400 Boer families who trekked from the Transvaal to Portuguese West Africa, largely owing to discontent with life under the Union Jack (which some of them still hate with an hereditary and inviolable hatred), have not found the Mecca they expected In fact, like Lane’s Paraguayan party, they have been bitterly disillusioned. Now they accuse the Portuguese administration of breaches of faith in connection with titles to land, the education of children, and the language question, and they are threatening to return to the Union. Another instance of “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t know.” And in any case, the “devil” that in the mind of the Boer irreconcilable is England gave the conquered South African Dutch their Union and kept every pledge made. The experience of these famiilies under Portuguese rule shouid be valuable in that it will show them things in their real perspective. The most probable end is that they will trek back to the Transvaal and thereafter be more satisfied citizens of the Union.