From The Watch Tower

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 316, 29 March 1928, Page 10

From The Watch Tower

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

WHAT “ MIGHT ” HAVE BEEN British politicians are still holding inquests on the blunders o£ the war. At latest, Lloyd George was showing how the Gallipoli disaster might have been avoided. There was no co-opera-tion between the Navy and Army, he said. "If !” “If it hadn’t been . . O you knoio the tale Of the endless “If” that is never stale; The endless things that should “never have been”; And the after-knowledge that’s evergreen I The sailors who slumber beneath the waves ; The soldiers vsho sleep in their quiet graves, .Might never have suffered and died, you Mad everyone listened to you and me. ‘‘This move was wrong, ay, and that wasn’t right . . . If they’d chosen the day, instead of the night . . . I” The warriors slumber (their fighting is done !) Deaf to what “if’s” or what “might’s” might have won. But the critics survive: By Jove, they’re the chaps Who should have been there to deal out the raps! If they’d had the chance, they’d have soon won the war By their irresistible power of the jaw I CAUSE FOR THANKS While the British PostmasterGeneral is being vigorously criticised because his department continues to lose money on its telegraphic business, and Germany’s telegraph system has to be heavily subsidised (despite a minimum charge of Is 6d a message), New Zealanders are able to dispatch 12-word telegrams for 9d and enjoy the blessings of penny postage. Taken by and large, here is very little wrong with the Post and Telegraph Department of the Dominion, and very much to be thankful for. Its services are among the cheapest and most efficient known—and it pleaseth the L.O.M. to fling it this deserved bouquet. THE NEW TRAINING England is no longer England, surely, when the crews of the Oxford and Cambridge boats —“the idols of the girls”—become subjects for scoffing criticism. “Old fashioned and inadequate,” their training methods are called, and all because three lesser crews, who went direct from their office desks to the river last Saturday, lowered the Oxford crew’s trial time over the same course. Now the “idols” are described as pampered pets, and the hero-worßhipping they have so long been accustomed to is condemned. The new training must be preparation by study, without months of coaching on the river and idolisation on its banks. England, O England, to what hast thou come! * * * THE POULTRY FARMER Owing to the laziness of Auckland hens, 10,500 dozen Canadian eggs have been landed here and the price of the local product has fallen many pence, so that the soul of the poultry farmer is saddened. Yea; sick at heart is the fowl shepherd. Said one of them to the L.0.M.: “The Government sends us instructors to tell us how to tend our flocks, breed good strains, build proper hen-houses, and increase our egg production. Then it tells the wheat-farmers to hang on to their wheat until they can get higher prices, and the poultryman cannot get grain excepting at rates which far exceed any return it will produce in the way of eggs. And when we are getting a good price for the few eggs now being produced, the market is flooded by imports fi;om Canada. It’s a great game, poultryfarming—you try it!”

THE SERGEANT KNEW It’s very hard on members of the Force that they cannot have a drink even with a lawyer (after 6 p.m.) without breaking the law. One of the two Hamilton policemen who went upstairs with Mr. Northcroft and partook of his hospitality was excused by the court on the ground that he was there to discuss business. The other was convicted of being illegally on the premises, because, in the opinion of the magistrate, he was merely there to discuss a drink. It brings to mind the old comic song concerning the constable: —- 1 wonder if the Sergeant knows; 1 wonder if he’s found it outt He’s been in- the force Twenty years, of course, And he ought to know his way about. The barmaid's very fond of me fit must be my beauty, I suppose) There’s always half-a-pint. And p'raps a “nobbie,” for the “Bobbie.’’ 1 wonder if the Sergeant knows? In the Hamilton case, the sergeant certainly seemed to know—much too much.