FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 450, 4 September 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN." I i PUBLICITY FOR TOT I | Sydney cables inform us that Toll dal Monte, who was recently married in Australia, is surprised at the publicity given to all details of the ceremony. Probably the famous prima donna did not wish to make a song about it. NO RESULT The Hon. K. S. Williams, Minister of Public Works, arrived in Opotiki on Saturday night to switch on the power for a portion of the district that has been recently reticulated. Owing to the fire at Hora Hora there was no power to switch on. From this we gather that the ceremony was not a success. PASSIVE RESISTANCE A cow at Hairini has been occasioning its owner some alarm by having violent fits every day. Possibly this is the beginning of a general protest by the cows of Auckland against the reduction in the price of milk. NAUGHTY! NAUGHTY ! We understand that a boy who tried to wreck the Launceston to Hobart express in Tasmania has been severely reprimanded. Quite right, too. Someone ought to point out to him the foolishness of wrecking trains. Of course, it was only a lad’s prank and we all know that boys will be boys—but somebody might easily have been hurt. A FLIGHT OF FANCY While flying I,oooft above the Alps, Captain R. H. Mclntosh, the wellknown air pilot, encountered a flight of 20 storks. Captain Mclntosh said that he was flying an air liner from Switzerland to London when the storks appeared flying in formation. It is thought in some quarters that the birds were proceeding south for a conference with Dr. Truby King. NOT OUT OF THE WOOD There were 141 marriages solemnised in Auckland during August, compared with 160 for the corresponding period last year. Bachelors may be inclined to regard these figures as a sign that the hunt is not so fierce as of yore, but, lest they give way to undue jubilation, we would point out that the number of young men who just escaped is greater than ever this year.

THEY APOLOGISED Local bodies the world over, appar ently, make an occasional faux pas. The Leicestershire County Council recently asked a woman peremptorily why she had not notified the birth of a son, and received this significant letter in reply: “I am sorry if there has been any neglect on my part, but it is news to me that I had a son born on March 6. X have two daughters, one born in ISS7, and the other in 1897, but I can’t recall having had a son. I do not think it is likely that I shall, as I am 63. Should such an event occur, you will be notified immediately.” Abashed councillors decided to send an apology. “WHERE IS THY STING f” A Birmingham brewery has lost beer worth about £I,OOO through a mishap to a cat. The animal was found drowned in a vat containing over 7,000 gallons of beer which was ready to be casked, and the beer had to be thrown away as waste. We understand a number of Birmingham’s would-be suicides are complaining that opportunities of this glorious kind should only be open to cats.

ON BEING FIRST ' The worst of stunts like Atlantic flying is that they upset the plans of other people so seriously. Miss Barhart, having occupied the cockpit of an airplane while it was piloted across the Atlantic, has achieved once and for all the proud distinction of being the “first, woman to fly the Atlantic,” and so has closed down prospects for various other women aching to sit in the cockpits of other airplanes and to be piloted across. No one, presumably, will be very much excited by the arrival of another woman by air from America, and so it is reported that certain plans have had to be cancelled and that other members of Miss Earhart’s sex who had been intending to fly over are reconsidering their plans. Atlantic flying, in fact, is settling down into its place among stunts. The mere crossing no longer suffices; but it would be a pity to give up heart. There are still things to be done. No doubt mobs of admirers are waiting to greet the first child to fly the Atlantic, the first grandmother to fly the Atlantic, an* so forth. The really important thing is to be the first something. One of these days someone will claim to be the first person to dance in the air without stopping from New York to Croydon, and what a reception she will have'