FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 605, 6 March 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN."

RULE BRITANNIA The olcl ferry-boat Britannia has been converted into a house-boat, and is the home o£ workmen employed on the roads in the vicinity of Waiwera. It was a summer evening, Young Jasper’s work was done, And he before his cabin door, Lay basking in the sun. Expectorating in the tide , "This is the life for me,” he sighed. Upon this most palatial yacht , I feel the pleasure’s mine To say: “Rockefeller, have a spot, Before we go to dine. Then after a perfunctory peck We’ll stretch our legs upon the deck.” Thus Jasper mused. Alas, the ship Britannia yclept Is not the craft where kings have laughed And millionaires have slept. Yet life afloat, though hardly gay Is great on fourteen bob a day. ASTOR. * * • CLEMENCY There is a touching sidelight on j Mexican wars in to-day’s cable news. | A palpitating dispatch brings the in- | formation that Monterey has been j captured. Since the movements of j belligerent armies in Mexico are not uncommon, there is nothing strange in thftt. But the overwrought cableman has sent further cause for comment: “All the prisoners’ lives were spared.” The Mexicans must be losing their dash * # * BARRACKING ' “Aussie”: I notice that the cables ■ referred to the recent Melbourne in- ! cident as “the blackest page in the history of the matches between England and Australia.” That could hardly he correct, when among the first engagements was a tour by a team of Australian aborigines. If there could be anything blacker than that, I would like to know what it is. LETTERS FROM MAE * Dearest Phyllis: I was SO intrigued to see that the BOYS out in the gulf have caught three barrels of SARDines. I suppost they would get the BARrels out there too, as there should be plenty about. You know, PRECious, some of those yachting BOYs do drink a lot. Perhaps that little Danish SHIP the Dana, put the SARDines out there for them to CAteh. You know, HOney, I was awfully INtrigued by the Dana. Her officers were such Nice looking boys, but there was no place to DAnce on tlieir shippe at all. Not a bit like the Plßate Shippe. TO think they Should Go round catching SARDines and things when everyone knows you can Buy Sardines in TINS LOVe, MAE. XXXX. * * m COSTLY RANK Neither the Australian nor the New Zealand honours list recently issued included a baronet. The New Zealand list, at any rate, has not included a baronet for a very long time, and such rewards were commoner in the early days than they are now. A new baronet has to advance proof that his income reaches a figure that will allow him to preserve the traditions of his rank, and prevent his descendants from becoming penurious. These high ideals, unfortunately, do not always fulfil their object. It. has been stated that the income required before a baronetcy is granted is £9,000 a year, and his contemporaries asserted that one early pastoralist so elevated only satisfied the authorities by having an accountant to brighten up his books.

SABOTAGE A sabot in the pants could be an unpleasant means of suffering personal injury, a wooden sabot with a sharp toe being calculated to inflict a much greater degree of acute pain than the mere leather boot, even if the boot be of the hobnailed variety. At any rate, it was the playful French custom of kicking with the sabot-shod foot that gave rise to Sabotage as a general term used when strikers damaged their plant or materials. News comes that the timber strikers in New South Wales have now resorted to these methods, and recalls a case in which a young blood in a New Zealand city found himself arraigned on a similar charge. The young man was an oarsman, and his crew had participated with success at a local regatta. As every oarsman knows, that is sufficient excuse for a celebration. So in the grey dawn of the following morning the inebriated reveller wandered home. He had still some exuberance left, which he proceeded to demonstrate by climbing a telegraph post. While thus exalted he did no harm whatever, but the elastic minds of the local police contrived to get him prosecuted on a charge of sabotage. Two pounds and costs was the dire result.