FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 671, 24 May 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

THE DEADLY SIN For introducing liquor at a banquet to Sir Josepli Ward, a committee of Invercargill citizens was yesterday fined £5. Here we troll the flowing howl In a most important toast. Fizz or gin? 11 cre’s luck. Chin-chin 1 How one loves to play the host, Especially at Invercargill, I Where I tis out of place to gargle. So we pass the festive glass (Rye or juniper or hops). Ain't it fine to ply the wine, Ear from sight or sound of cops, And. to toast our noted visitors, Safe from uniformed inquisitors. Thus by stealth they drank his health. *‘Cheers — bung-o — Here’s luck, Sir Joe!” Sad to say, but yesterday, They were fined five quid or so, For the law regards as sinister Folk who prime their own Prime Minister. XXX. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE People get curious notions of their importance in the general scheme. There is a well-meaning local motorist who reckons that a certain trafiic officer of judicial countenance has him “snouted,” which is a classical word meaning that the officer has him “sorted,” or, alternatively, has a “down on him.” In the fulness of his heart the gentle soul believes that every , time he approaches the point at which this efficient automaton is on duty, a halting hand goes out, so that there is a moment of delay. Worse still, there is the necessity to change down, with the possibility of stalling, which can be humiliating when a crowd of mere pedestrians is about to watch one’s discomfiture. In all probability the traffic officer who is the | target of this remarkable suspicion does not know his supposed victim exists. But such is the human constitution and the vivid quality of imagination that the suspicion will in ali probability linger long. THE KILLERS Revival of the ancient controversy concerning the right of keas to exist in the Southern mountains means the presentation of arguments that have been well threshed out in the past. Speaking as a member of a deputation to the Hon. G. W. Forbes yesterday, Professor Kirk said some keas were killers, and some were not. How the learned gentleman proposes to differentiate between the two types of bird is obscure. Anyone who has worked on a Southern sheep station knows that every kea is a potential killer, and a menace to the flocks. Friendly and amusing, the kea outside his capacity for destruction, is a likeable fellow, but he has a bad record. The price on his head lets shepherds at back stations of Canterbury supplement their incomes, but the writer knows of only one man who relies entirely on keatrapping for his sustenance. He is a queer old character, who disappears in the mountains for months at a I time. He comes out looking like the original Rip Van Winkle, and then surprises strangers by talking in the voice of an educated and cultured man. BREASTING THE COUNTER Another-of those trick prosecutions Government officials delight to bring has been laid in Dunedin, where a case brought by the Labour Department against a photographic firm for installing a film-vending machine on the pavement outside their premises has resolved itself into a question of whether the machine is or is not a shop, within the meaning of the Act, of course. If it is established that the machine is a shop, one will be able to enjoy the pleasure of “shopping” among the peanut and coloured lolly and chocolate machines in Queen Street on any old Sunday. The position is reminiscent of Mark Twain’s Neapolitan friend, who was manager of a fruit and produce business. He carried the business in a basket on his arm. BLACK RABBIT The rise of the rabbit from a humble i social and economic position is an interesting latter-day phenomenon. Attention was drawn to it by the announcement that a rabbit show is to he held at Onehunga. Time was when the promoters of a rabbit show would have been shot at dawn. It was while pondering over the change that a thoughtful citizen entered a cobbler's shop in Victoria Street and found a very tame black rabbit pottering around among the footwear. It could be held up by the ears and still preserve its placidity, a notable achievement in any rabbit. The popularity of fur coats of various breeds and highsounding Muscovite titles accounts largely for the rabbit’s rise to favour. There is also the economic possibilities of those pretty animals. Angoras and Chinchillas. Shearing or plucking time on an Angora farm will be one of the great sights to be yielded by the pastoral industry of the future. Indeed. base detractors of leading squatters have been heard to say that they are engaging in “rabbit farming" already.