FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” SPORTING NEWS Thistle played its first game under the new association on Saturday, defeating Eon Accord by four points to two. We can imagine that playing against a team with a name like that, Thistle players would find conditions more harmonious. TENNIS FOR TWO After a stirring fight. Professor A. P. W. Thomas drew with Archdeacon Mac Murray 10-10 at table tennis on Saturday evening. The game was played at the Dilworth Old Boys’ clubrooms amid scenes of unparalleled enthusiasm. It was fortunate that the game was drawn, as it allowed the signal on The Sun tower to announce the results of the ping-pong contest and the All Black game simultaneously. RATEPAYERS JOINING HARPS Will another suburban ratepayers’ association be formed in Auckland? An Epsom resident has pointed out that there is room for such a body in his locality. There are people who have scoffed at ratepayers’ associations, but it is a fact that they have done much good in centres outside Auckland. After all, the ratepayers want to assist in administration which should be for their own benefit. It is a hard thing to please everybody, and even a City Council in Utopia would be sorely tested in giving allround satisfaction. Constructive advice can be helpful. * * * G.B.S. AND SOCIALISM “As big as a brick and as clear as crystal,” is how Rebecca West describes Bernard Shaw’s newly published book, “The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.” This work has been long awaited, and now it comes—a simple exposition of the most difficult of subjects. The book owes its existence to a sister-in-law of G. 8.5., who asked for a letter explaining Socialism. There are 500 printed pages in the “letter.” QUESTIONS IN THE HOUSE Questions are going over in batches in Parliament, mainly from the Opposition side of the Chamber of Representatives. ’Twas ever thus. In the days of Seddon and Ballance, and, later, in the hectic stages of Sir Joseph Ward’s regime, with the late Mr. Massey leading a strong Opposition party, questions were fired at the Government with uncompromising exactitude and with monotonous precision. So it is to-day, and so it will be. Whatever the Parliament of the future, the Opposition will he the questioner, and the Government the defendant. Yet how different are things when the Opposition is elevated to the Treasury benches. Then it is that answers have to be formulated to answer the very questions which were carefully drawn to puzzle the previous Government. But, just as always, most of them will remain unanswered. And so the good work goes on.

ALL FOR NOTHING Perry passengers lived in a little world of their own in last morning’s heavy fog. Apropos of ferries and fogs, one is reminded of the good story of the perspiring traveller who rushed to the edge of the wharf one foggy day. Seeing a ferry a yard or so from him, he threw his hag on board and tools a flying leap to the boat. He landed in triumph, flat on his back. “What did you do that for?” asked a passenger. “We’re just coming in t.o the wharf!” JAPANESE BREVITY Aucklanders who visit the Japanese warships which are due in the Waitemata in a few weeks’ time should bear in mind that there are some things that even Oriental politeness will not permit. A Japanese cruiser which visited Port Melbourne about four years ago was thrown open to the public and the crowd swarmed over every accessible part of the vessel. Some even climbed up the masts. This apparently was “tabu,” or its Japanese equivalent. At a sign from the officer of the watch a seaman shinned up the other side of the mast, and came down on the heads of the adventurous ones, forcing them down to deck level. The sailor’s knowledge of English was limited, but to make certain that the breach of regulations would not be repeated, he stooped and chalked four letters on the deck at the foot of the mast—-“NO UP.” The crowd took the hint, and for the remainder of the visit nobody “upped.”