From The Watch Tower

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 300, 10 March 1928, Page 8

From The Watch Tower

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” HIS HARD LUCK

How unlucky some men are! A motorist who collided with a train at Khandallah Crossing was fined £5 for having failed to take proper precautions. If he had been killed, he would have escaped the infliction of such a severe penalty. * a* * DEAR DUCKS AND CHEAP DUCKS A man was yesterday fined 30s for taking a duck from the Domain. This pught to teach ordinary people that muniicpal duck is a delicacy reserved for our extraordinary councillors. A certain ratepayer, however, says he is positive that those councillors who had tame wild duck for Christmas will be afraid to look a duck in the face at Easter. The L/.0.M. thinks that if these councillors are to be denied duck, tbe least the ducks can do is to provide them, with Easter eggs. SLINGS AND SPLINTERS Reports concerning strained relations between the St. John Ambulance Brigade and the St. John Ambulance Association should not cause any real alarm. Any personal injuries inflicted can be attended to on the spot. In fact, a physical encounter tietween these bodies should be welcomed as an excellent opportunity for practice, especially in view of the serious decline in motor manglings during the last few days and the comparative slackness in the bone-set-ting industry, which is an unfortunate accompaniment of the off-season in football. THE INSEPARABLES The Mayor and the Chairman of the Harbour Board enjoyed the cricket at Eden Park yesterday. It is delightful to notice the manner in which the beads of Auckland’s two greatest local bodies go about together, a highiv commendable example to lesser dignitaries who lower the status of office by unseemly civic squabbling. The frequent sight of Mr. Baildon and Mr. Mackenzie together reminds the L.O.M. of that sweet song in “Maid of the Mountains”—“Always Together in Every Sort of Weather.” By the way, Mr. Mackenzie is leaving Auckland next month for an extended tour a,broa,d. YOUTH MARCHES WITH HIM A correspondent to The Sun is indignant that magistrates should blame moving pictures for the delinquencies of youth. When he was a boy, he says (and that was before the “movies” came into being), he belonged to secret societies, played pirate, and signed communications with skull and crossbon.es, a dagger dripping blood, or a black hand. Now he is a cinema proprietor. How fortunate, how delightful, to be able to select a career in which the innocent joys of youth may still be relished!

THAT WICKED GAME The law displays its force and majesty even unto the Supreme Court, to prove that euchre, as played at tournaments, is wicked, sinful and subversive to the morals of the community. And in the lower court a magistrate implies that he cousiders “the law’s a hass” by remarking that he has not the slightest intention of penalising the defendant in the case. All the same, the defendant had to pay the costs of the successful appeal to the Supreme Court of the "Crown against a magisterial decision that euchre was not an illegal game. While they are at it, our highly moral authorities should pursue the gambling evil even further. The L.O.M. is informed that at some of these suburban dances they play the demoralising game of “Monte Carlo.” A heart, a diamond, a club and a spade respectively is placed in each of the four corners of the hall, and the demoralised couples waltz round until the M.C. cuts the pack and calls heart, diamond, club or spade, as the case may he. Then all the couples who have halted in that particular section are “out.” And so it goes on until the last couple is left. .The lady receives a sixpenny box of chocolates and the gentleman a packet of cigarettes. It is gambling in its most insidious form, exceedingly sinful and soul-debasing, and it is simply scandalous that the Government does not crush the monstrous practice.