FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 515, 19 November 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

GUN-SHY! Mr. Currie, a Wanganui lawyer, says the system of serving summonses by post is spoiling the registered letter system among the Maoris. “They Avon’t take a registered letter.” he says . . . Said Hori unto Henare, “The postman’s coming up te hill. Kapai te Cristmas postcard, and te letter from te wife.” Said the postman unto Hori, “Just sign this slip of paper.” But Hori rolled his eyes and murmured: “Never on your life.” Said the postman: “But it’s registered. It might contain a legacy. You’ll turn away a fortune when it’s knocking at your door!” But Hori looked it over: “0.H.M.5., Official.” “No tank you, Mr. Postman. I’ve seen those things before.” * * * MORE STATIC From “Busy Bee” (Devonport): The paragraph about the people who took static over the air for a fire-engine siren recalls an experience of my own. I was tuning in at Hamilton when only Dunedin was on the air. The announcer said: “By special request of the lighthouse-keeper at Puysegur Point, Ave will now have a bagpipe solo.” The bagpipes started with a wail, and next moment my wife was out on the verandah, asking where the fire was. • * * RULE BRITANNIA The new London weekly, “Britannia.” which has engaged the services of Lord Birkenhead’s pen, has not won unanimous approval as a model of journalistic propriety. It recently attacked the distinguished editor of the “Observer,” Mr. J. L. Garvin, who retorted in biting fashion: “The thing I am asked to touch with the tongs is a new and rather garish weekly, called ‘Britannia’ —which aspires, it seems, to churn the waves, and certainly lacks nothing of froth. . . . Britannia used to be thought a majestic and truthful female. It would be better in this instance to substitute as a title the name of another female, ‘Mrs. Gamp-with-the-Trident.’ There is not a decent journalist or politician in the land who will not repudiate these methods.” It seems a strange alliance that the noble earl has made. * * * BROAD ACRES Reported, on Saturday, the sale of the Te Mahanga estate, a few miles from Hastings, marks the end of another great property that made pastoral history In its day. Doubtless the homestead, a beautiful place, set among trees, will still remain In the hands of the Douglas family, which has held it for generations. Like nearly all the Hawke’s Bay stations. Te Mahanga was originally of great extent. In that part of the country noxious weeds are almost unknown, and the runs, once broken in. were amazingly productive. Some of the old squatters had more land than they really knew what to do with. One used to pay his ploughmen by handing over the titles to an acre or so when he was short of ready cash. On the famous Maraekakaho estate, originally covering 90,000 acres, the Highland shepherds brought out by the owrmr. Sir Donald McLean, were rewarded for faithful service with large slices of land which are now among the best runs in Hawke’s Bay. Of one property it was said that the first owner bought it from the Maoris for a Avhite horse, which they regarded with veneration. The custom of “selling a horse” has persisted in Hawke’s -Bay (as elsewhere) ever since.