FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 474, 2 October 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” FISHING AT TAUMARUKCI Reports tell tts that good sport is to be bad at Taumarunui, where the fishing season has just opened. The fish are rather small. Anglers will keep small fish at arm's length, however, and those that “just got away with the bait” will he as huge as ever. HOPELESS! The most extraordinary person we ever met was a woman who ■would not go on a world tour because travel was so broadening—and she wanted to keep “those schoolgirl lines.” AN ASTOUNDING STATEMENT “Motorists have no royal right to the road,” said Mr. E. I). Moseley, S.M., in the Christchurch Magistrate’s Court, yesterday. “Pedestrians have just as much right on the road, particularly at intersections.” We understand that the combined Automobile Associations of New Zealand are determined to refute this outrageous statement. They are disappointed to see Mr. Moseley so hopelessly biased. We can only suggest that Mr. Moseley sometimes walks. GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE The Marlborough Aero Club has been put to considerable expense over the departure of the Southern Cross, states a telegram from Blenheim. They have had to erect a hangar in addition to paying for the military guard that surrounds the machine. It seems remarkable that the expense of maintaining a guard should constitute a debit item on the Marlborough Club’s balance sheet. Can it be that the Government’s avowed intention of fostering aviation in the Dominion will mean, in the main, moral support? It certainly seems unfortunate that the Marlborough Aero Club, a young organisation -which has had sufficient enterprise to order two planes and is trying to raise funds for a third, should have to meet the Defence Department’s account for “military attendance.” THE CHASE “The Old Man was Chasing his Son Round the Room” was the title of a war-time ballad. It seems to have been reversed in the case of the Duke Zelich Miloch in Paris. The duke whose family once reigned in the picturesque land of Bosnia —one of his ancestors was Bosnian Ambassador at the Court of Napoleon I. —recently received a visit from his son-in-law, M. de Place, who demanded 100 francs. As de Place had armed himself with an oriental dagger, taken from the wall, the duke offered to oblige. When he was asked to part with his pocket-book, however, the duke held that even fathers-in-law have some rights, and said so. M. de Place then sought a larger-sized dagger and indulged in a little practice on the cushions. Following that, he chased the duke round the room for three-quarters of an hour, at the end of which time he chose a larger dagger, a sword this time, and pinked the Bosnian aristocrat in the hand. The cries of the duchess attracted a gendarme and M. de Place was gently removed. It’s a hard life for kings in exile these days.

GLADSTONE LISTENS IN The death of Ellen Terry brings back the great old days at the Lyceum and what must be the last case of a statesman having his seat in the wings of a theatre. Certainly no London theatre has had that distinction at all regularly since the days when Gladstone used to see Shakespeare given by Irving and Ellen Terry from that vantage-point. Lady St. Heller tells the story of an occasion when the great man played truant from an important debate in the Commons to see Irving and Ellen Terry (perhaps in “The Merchant of Venice,” which he admired most of the Shakespearean plays they did). In those days Lady St. Helier’s children were young and were admitted to the wings. Next day at lunch there was a good deal of discussion among a big party as to what could have happened to Mr. Gladstone the previous evening, whether he had been taken ill, and so on. Presently one of the children solved the mystery by a little “indiscretion.” “Mr. Gladstone? Why, Mr. Gladstone was with us at the Lyceum behind the scenes; he was sitting in the big chair, and each of us had a little chair at his side.” Mrs. Gladstone hovered in the background on these occasions, making sure that “William” was not in a draught.