FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 601, 1 March 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

THE DEUCE! The suggestion that there are Mussolinis in the Public Service is absurd, says Mr. Verschaffelt, Public Service Commissioner, who said none of the departmental heads is absolute. Through pillars of the State, We are far from absolute. We can hire a man, or fire him, Raise his mages or retire him. But with dignity sedate , I confess it is the truth We arc none of us a teeny Bit like Signor Mussoliiti. We are not like the Duce. What if one of us should crasht We could not excuse our failure In the “Popolo d’ltalia/* We can’t play fast and loose with our country’s hoarded cash. So you'll realise how mean is He who calls us Mussolinis. ' The monstrous charge dismays Democratic men like us. Hoarse-voiced, with vision misty. We deny that we're fascisti. Why, on Roman festal days Anti-fascists make a fnss. Throwing bombs! No thanks. We keenly Feel distinct from Mussolini. TONIO. THE GREAT DAY To-day’s great. events —the announcement of the New Year honours and the matching of Heeney and Maloney. * * * HARSH It is suggested that the S.P.C.A., which, at its conference at Wanganui, moved to have steer-riding prevented, should take measures for the punishment of people who whip the cat. MODESTY “I am no more en Australian than a rat born in a fowlhouse is a spring chicken,” stated a visitor to the Methodist Conference yesterday. He explained that he was born in Auckland. The D.O.M. has been puzzling this out. Was the remark intended to be complimentary? * * JiS BOSTON PLEASANTRIES Heeney and Maloney are to meet at Boston. We hope Maloney will not apply the ‘‘Boston Crab.” * * * TRICKLES Hedgehogs are so common in New Zealand that it is refreshing to find a Mr. W. H. Course, of Hamilton, reported in a contemporary as being surprised at finding one. When they brought goldfinches, sparrows, and other familiar objects of their own land to this country, the early colonists did not forget the friendly and eminently useful hedgehog. Though hedgehogs do not. unduly advertise themselves, they are nevertheless sufficiently common, and some parts of the country, notably Hawke’s Bay, almost swarm with them. It is on record that a housewife in Hastings once went out to the coal-box for a shovel of coal, and returned wide-eyed from the outer darkness to find that she had a couple of hedgehogs on the shovel. There is a vague suggestion of a tremendous biological mystery in the fact that Mr. Course “could not account for the origin of the visitor.” Well, of course! ■(- (c r|- -j- -I- rlj yr

&at■¥ at at at ft- -a ttt GIANT OF THE BENCH Mention of the late Judge Ward by a Sun correspondent recalls memories. While acting Supreme Court judge he tried Caifrey and Penn, the Great Barrier murderers. Judge Ward (who by the way nursed a grievance against the Government to the end of his days, because he never received a permanent appointment to a puisne judgeship), was a man of giant stature. The Union Company had a special cabin constructed for him on the old Wainui, by which he travelled to the West Coast to hold sittings of the court. He was fond of delivering homilies from the Bench and excelled himself when called upon to pronounce a death sentence. Most judges find it a painful experience to don the black cap and tell a prisoner that he is to be hanged by the neck till he is dead. They get through it with few words and as quickly as dignity and decency will permit. Not so with Judge Ward. With great deliberation he composed himself for the task, and proceeded to address the trembling wretch in the dock in the grand manner of judges In bygone days, when every word that came from the Bench was intended to assert the majesty of the Law and strike terror into the hearts of those who transgressed it. After commenting on the trial, he would expatiate on the enormity of the crime, and work up in rounded periods to a climax which came in a pronouncement of the death sentence as if the Day of Judgment had arrived. It was all tremendously impressive and calculated to reduce the victim to a state of complete collapse.