FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 386, 21 June 1928, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

By

HEENEY'S LITTLE LAMB Gisborne farmers have shipped tlie carcase of a lamb to Tom Heeney, hoping be will be able to eat it before he “eats” Gene Tunney. If Tom eats too much of that lamb before he enters the ring, he will be a sorry man, for he will find no lamb In Tunney. ■■TAKEN AS READ ” The popularity of the Auckland Hospital Board will still further be enhanced by the sympathetic and attentive consideration it gives to the representations of ratepayers. When seven protests from local bodies were received concerning the increased hospital rate, the chairman immediately moved that they be “taken as read.” The motion was passed, and the board dismissed the annoyance from its mind. A FOUR-INCH LEASE The Auckland Harbour Board has just leased a strip of land, a little under four inches in depth, at a shilling a year rental. The tenancy is to be terminable at six months’ notice. It is to be hoped the lease carries compensation rights. If the lessee were to erect, say, a large motor garage, or perhaps a picture palace, on the ground, it would be very unfair to him to be called upon to evacuate the territory at such short notice. EXCUSE ME! A man at Ngaruawahia, due to appear at Hamilton Supreme Court for trial, sent the Crown Solicitor a telegram: “Sick, can’t come; kia ora!” This is distinctly good. If a man may be excused for not keeping a business appointment, why not for a legal one? Take the case of a professional burglar, out on bail and awaiting trial. Is he to sacrifice his material interests merely to assist in the execution of the law? No. He will wire the Crown Solicitor: “Please postpone trial. Regret unable attend court to-day, as verdict may mean incarceration. Cannot afford time, as have made arrangements profitable burglary to-night.—Bill Sikes.” * * * SINGLE MEN There is a dangerous precedent in the decision of the Glen Eden council to dismiss all single men from its employment. Some single men have more dependents than some married men. It Is quite conceivable, also—although it is not suggested in this case—that a married man may to-day hold his position because he took the job of a man who went to the war while he stayed at home among the “indispensables”—and. perhaps took not only the job, but the girl, of the absent soldier. Two of the men dismissed by the Glen Eden council are returned soldiers. It may be that they are single because they were soldiers, and having lost the opportunity of marriage, they now lose their jobs. WIND UP Au apprentice electrician to a Newmarket firm had his dinner hour rudely interrupted by continual ringing of the office phone. On investigation, he was astonished, while listening to a suburban householder, to hear that gentleman describing how he could smell rubber burning. The householder, fearing something amiss with the wiring of the house, said he had cut off tlie switch, and done this and that, in terms known only to electricians. The youthful listener, somewhat bored, advised him to go outside and cut the wires—in the meantime, he would inform "the boss”; that personage, no doubt, would, when convenient, send a man out. Some minutes later, over the same phone came the reassuring message that the cause of all the trouble had been located. A neighbour was burning rubbish! CANCER “CURES" Every now and then the hopes of humanity are raised by some premature announcement of a cure for cancer. The latest is an “improvement on the lead treatment,” consisting of a preparation of metal suitable for injection into the blood. The nature of the metal has not been divulged, on account of “the danger of its use by inept persons.” Ept persons—which includes doctors —may use it, of course. A doctor is licensed to experiment. It is almost certain that some form of lead, or a metal with similar reactions, is used in the preparation of the new colloid. , Lead has been proved to cure cancer. In an inquest on a woman who died under the lead treatment recently, it was found that a large cancerous growth she had suffered from had almost entirely disappeared. Her death was due, not to the caner, which was “cured,” but to lead poisoning—which just shows you how far medical skill triumphs over difficulties. NOT SO GENTLE “Aussie.”—“Your note regarding aboriginal cannibalism was interesting. The Australian black is by no means as gentle a person as is sometimes pictured. He has a dirty past. I remember a case in Northern Australia. Constable Richardson, accompanied by Pigeon and Captain, blacktrackers, no doubt serving a period of sentence probably for killing somebody, was sent out to find and arrest natives in the Fitzroy district for cattle spearing. Richardson reposed full confidence in these two blacktrackers, both of whom were noted athletes. On their way back with IS prisoners chained together, Pigeon and Captain killed Richardson in his sleep j and released the prisoners, and with ! the arms secured formed a constantly I increasing gang of formidable ‘out-1 laws,’ which terrorised the district, ■ waylaying and killing teamsters, pros-! pectors and station owners, and ! thereby acquiring more and more rifles and ammunition. The task of finally breaking up this band, including the shooting of Pigeon and Captain, was entrusted to Inspector Craven B. Ord, who organised a large expedition for the purpose; but it took Ord 18 months of hard and dangerous work in most difficult country before the job was completed.”