From The Watch Tower

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 442, 25 August 1928, Page 8

From The Watch Tower

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

PROBABLE It is possible in Glasgow to travel 23 miles on the tramways for two pence. No doubt the inhabitants have experimented with all the possibilities. SYNONYMS “Was it an oral notice?” asked Mr. J. S. Barton, S.M., of a witness ill the Wanganui Magistrate’s Court last Tuesday. “No,” was the reply, “it was verbal.” Then, of course, it must have been given by word of mouth. BARBERS' TROUBLES We learn with interest that there are 70 hairdressers in Dunedin. Cut prices are worrying them considerably, and half of them make a living by a close shave only. Of course they get an occasional extra bawbee by trimming sporrans. LACK OF FORESIGHT According to a message from Melbourne, a jockey who had three small dry-cells under his saddle was able to put a charge of 800 volts into his mount. What a pity this battery had not been discovered before the Arapuni scheme was embarked on. HAIL AND FAREWELL Asked the reason for his reluctance to enlist legal aid in a Court case, a New Plymouth Maori said: “Lawyer he cost too much.” Then raising his hat politely by way of illustration —“Good-day, Mr. Lawyer, 7s 6d. Good-bye Mr. Lawyer, 10s 6d.” He did not know, of course, of that famous charge: “To perusing my bill of costs, 7s 6d.” A “SPLITTING ” HEAD Musicians in general, and saxophone players in particular, whose harmony is not of the best, should avoid West Africsa in concert tours. We read in a Capetown paper that splitting the mouth of musicians faulty in this regard is a favourite practice among savages in the Cameroon country, West Africa. QUIET —PERHAPS “Golf is a game that one can play quietly and without annoying anyone,” was the opinion expressed by Mr. E. Hickson, president of the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association, in the “Sporting Sunday” controversy. To-day opinions were collected on this statement from representative golfers: Major Fitz-Wise Chumley said: “It is absurd!” Handicap Twenty-Four said: “I have often thought that the people behind me were restless.” The Rev. Cyrus Snugglefield said: “After years of rigorous self-control it is possible to play fairly quietly.” CAPTAIN COOK'S OVAVA Apropos of the celebrations in Hawaii in honour of Captain James Cook, Mr. J. D. Whitcombe sends us this photograph of Cook’s ovava tree at Alaki, Tonga. Cook landed under this tree on June 26, 1777, on his third visit to the Friendly Islands.

The tree has lately fallen into the tide and rotted with age, but another has been planted by the natives to mark the spot. “It is a pity,” writes Mr. Whitcombe, “that some monument is not erected here, as it was from Tonga that Captain Cook left for Tahiti. “A land tortoise that was given by Cook to Pau, the then Tui Toga, is still alive and may be seen strutting round Queen Salote’s palace grounds at Nukualofa. Though 151 years have passed since the gift was made, the veteran must be much older than that there is a legend that he was quite a large fellow when Cook brought him to Tonga. LOST AFFECTION This was the substance of a remarkable agreement read recently in a London Divorce Court: “I, Frank Charles Henley, herewith freely give my wife, Helen Maria, and our three children to Vernon Martley on his signed agreement to keep them from this date and for ever, and I will not molest them in any way.” Frank Charles is something new in dissatisfied husbands. Can it be that he has lost his love for his wife? CHEWING GUM Very few of the great race of human ruminants know what they are chewing when they are indulging in their favourite gum. Neither do they know the origin of the delicacy. The substance in its raw form is known as “chicle,” a product of a South American tree, and the man who set the world’s jaw wagging was Thomas Adams, of course an American. About 60 years ago young Adams -met a stray Mexican general, temporarily out of a job owing to a revolution. The gallant soldier had managed to save from the wreck a stick of some gummy stuff which, much to Adams’s surprise, he began to gnaw with evident relish. The American tried it —with less relish. But he saw possibilities in the stuff, though, quite pardonably, he at first experimented with it as a rubber substitute, more particularly for dental purposes. It would not vulcanise, however, so he began to exploit the stuff for the purpose to which he had first seen it put. Flavouring was added, a mai-ket was created by the distribution of enormous quantities of free samples, and when Mr. Adams died only two years ago the chewing-gum industry had a turnover of some £9,000,000 a year.