FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 344, 3 May 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

ARE THEY TO FREEZE? Five hundred men have been “thrown on the labour market” owing to the reduction of operations in various freezing works. Having frozen the season’s kill, they are to “do a freeze” themselves. , * * A SUCCULENT BIVALVE A resident of Mount Tower, having dug a “fossilised” oyster out of a block of mountain limestone, informed a newspaper that “the oyster was as clean and fresh as one taken freshly from the sea.” This notwithstanding, we prefer our oystdrs off the rocks. The Mount Tower resident is welcome to continue eating the mountain variety. RAIN AND MONEY The rain falls literally in torrents; there remains a long-lasting warmth in the atmosphere, and the soil; the grass grows by inches, and stock wallow in lush feed, while the milk yield increases ever. It rains money, too. London has just lent New Zealand £5,000,000 at only 45 per cent, interest, showing the faith that British investors have in this fertile country. The fact should spur local confidence to rise again to full stature. Everything is with us. March on! HARDY OLD MEN The case is reported of an 84 yearold man who gaily walked the 11 miles track from Arthur’s Pass to Otira and then declared he was as fit as he was 70 years ago. Very interesting: but English newspapers would have exploited the feat more fully. The hardy ancient would have been asked: (1) How far did your father walk when he was 90? (2) Do you smoke? (3) Do you drink beer or spirits? (4) Did you attend Sunday school in your youth? (5) To what do you attribute your goatlike activity at such an advanced age? The answer would probably be that his father died at forty; that he smoked, drank, never went to Sunday school, and never beat his wife. Thereafter he would draw a handsome income by permitting the publication of his photograph, showing him smoking Tugg’s Tobacco, drinking Blinker’s Beer, and carrying a banner advocating rights for women.

NO MONEY FOR TEET3Altliough the residents of Waihi have raised a considerable sum of money toward the provision and equipment of a dental clinic, the Ministry refuses to consider establishing a clinic before next year. There are 250 applications for school dental clinics in hand. Are they all to be put off for a year? Teefh that have commenced to decay make fast progress toward uselessness in the course of 12 months. Perhaps a choir of 1,000 children suffering from the toothache outside Parliament House would move the Ministry to find funds for these clinics. SEPARATION DAY Probably there are some among the present generation who do not know that New Zealand was formerly a part of Australia, in a political sense. If we had just one more public holiday in Auckland, we might be celebrating it to-day, May 3, as “Separation Day.” Prom the date of Governor Hobson’s proclamation, taking possession of the North Island, on May 21, 1840, until the following year, New Zealand was a “dependency of New South Wales.” It was created a separate colony on May 3, IS4I, by Royal Charter, dated November 16, 1840. Seventeen years, later (at the first census recorded in the Year Book), the white population of New Zealand was under 60,000, or very much less than the Maori population. Now it numbers over 1.300,000. It is interesting to note, as an instance or the vital revival of a native people, that the Maori population, which in 1896 had fallen to 39,854, is now 62,784, including half-castes, who number under 10.000. EARTHQUAKES IN N.Z. New Zealand being classed as an “earthquake” country, has earned a reputation among timid people abroad which it does not deserve. The earthquakes of America and of Europe slay their thousands, but in New Zealand there have only been seven deaths from earthquakes in 75 years. The tourist authorities should fairly blazen this fact abroad. The little list so far is: The shock of October, 1848, threw down a wall in Wellington and three people were killed. On January 24, 1855, a death occurred at Wellington, recorded as “accidental death from the falling of a chimney.” A severe earthquake was felt on the night of January 23. On November 16, 1901. a child was killed by the Cheviot earthquake. On April 12, 1913, a Maori was killed at Masterton by material falling from the post office, due to an earthquake. ONLY TWO "REAL QUAKES On October 7, 1914, a shepherd was killed by the Gisborne earthquake. Since the ’quake of 1855, which raised the level of the land in the neighbourhood of Wellington Harbour by five feet, there has been no shock in the New Zealand region proper which has at all approached the destructive phase. Of the 2,000-odd quakes recorded as having origins in or near New Zealand., that of 1848 is the only other comparable in intensity to that of 1855. The average intensity of all the other earthquakes recorded was just sufficient to make pictures hung on the walls move a little, and to cause doors and windows to creak or rattle. In about 20 cases chimneys (for the most part badly constructed ones) have been overturned and walls and ceilings cracked in buildings of faulty design. In about 50 other “shocks” such “phenomena” as the stopping of clocks has been noted, without any other damage. But the great majority of “shocks” have passed unperceived by the ordinary observer and been recorded only by means of instruments.