From The Watch Tower

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 310, 22 March 1928, Page 8

From The Watch Tower

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

* * DANGEROUS CRICfKET

This game of “the flannelled fools,” called cricket, is becoming more dangerous than that of the “muddied oafs,” If bats were covered with thick layers of rubber, and cricket balls were made solely of that material, there would be far fewer sad accidents, and the game would certainly become more lively. “Safety first” seems to be the motto of batsmen in regard to the wickets they so lovingly protect, if we are to judge by the Immobile manner iu which they stand in front of them and “block” every straight ball. Let us have,“safety first” for the players, with a little much-needed exercise added. Has anyone noticed how adipose our cricketers are becoming? QUITE MAD When a vagrant presented at the Police Court on the lengthy charge of being “idle and disorderly” was stated to have expressed a preference for outdoor life, he was promptly remanded for a week for medical observation. His admission was plain proof of madness. The only sane men are those who sleep in houses, with every door and window shut to keep out the fresh air, and who spend their days In offices and factories away from the sunshine—-like moles. When they venture out into the open on a hot day their sanity is made apparent by the heavy clothes and high collars they wear. SLICK AUCKLAND It might have been true years ago, but who can now accuse Auckland of being slow? Up goes the great steel skeleton of a many-storied building. “It will be finished in about 12 months,” you say. And, lo! next morning you are walking past, and you see several handsome shops already completed on the ground floor and a petrol-driven roller running up and down a new pavement. In a day or two the shops are let at Queen Street rentals (a week’s rent would buy a suburban house), and trade goes merrily on below, while scores of builders continue working overhead. Auckland surely has become a slick city, * * * A STRICTER TESTING By some roundabout way, motorists come under or within the purview of the Public Works Department, which Is now circularising local bodies to urge that stricter conditions be applied to the granting of driving licences. Apparently the only condition imposed by some licensing authorities is that the driver seeking a “ticket” does not kill the inspector who accomiianies him on his “test.” The fact that no fewer than eighty drivers were prosecuted in the Auckland Police Court yesterday for breaches of the Motor-Vehicle Regulations and By-laws Is indicative that a little more should be required of aspirants for the right to increase the perils of the road. ... NO BONUS It is a wrong and a wicked thing to work well for your employer. Ask the Newcastle branch of the New South Wales Coachbuilders’ Union if that is not so. The union is going to prosecute the maangement of the Walsh Island works for paying a bonus for good work, and also prosecute those unionists who have been so shamefully industrious as to earn and accept the bonus. What the union should insist upon is high wages follow production and double pay for idle time. Workmen who show any inclination to work at a rate which threatens to earn their wage 3 should be expelled from the union and deported from Australia.

“APPALLING!” Mr. G. Brownlie, president of the Primary Schools’ Association, considers the apathy of annual meetings of householders to elect school committees to be “appalling.” Rather is it the failure of the householders to hold annual meetings that is to blame, for the reason why many districts do not elect committees is that they cannot raise a quorum for an annual meeting. If they do raise a quorum, the chances are that no candidates are offering for the honour of election. But, getting down to bedrock, this situation has arisen through the school committees having gradually been shorn of all their powers. It would be a bold school committee these days that would dare authorise the spending of half-a-crown for the cleaning of the school windows. Under the circumstances, it is not to be wondered at that householders become apathetic over what when totalled up amounts to nothing.