FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.

ROBES 1 OF OFFICE To reinforce his authority the traffic inspector at Glen Eden is to be fitted with a uniform. A uniform takes giris by storm, Thut axiom's admitted. See, then, the traffic expert's form In gaudy trappings fitted. So buxom, blithe and. debonair. The answer to a maiden’s prayer. But. not for tender sentiment . Are gloves and gleaming buttons. Their proper mood is grim intent In hot pursuit of gluttons For speed, and let. all such feel shivery Who sight Glen Eden's martial livery. Let guard, hussar and. grenadier Meet, maidenly petitions. Glen Eden needs its chevalier For sterner expeditions. Beware ye maids, the road a-ourning. He answers not your tender yearning. ROAD-HOG. \ * * A NEW'TURN “Australian Economics —Fuller Control Suggested.” The Implied subtle flattery o£ this newspaper heading will no doubt be graciously accepted by the lords o£ the St. James., WHITE AS MILK In the category of| crimes, one that is held to stand 1 out in greater enormity than others is the theft of milk. This occurs with irritating regularity (to the victims) in such establishments as have their front doors light on the street. Nothing is easier to gentry with a taste for milk and larceny than to lift the bottle from an exposed threshold. Victims at times contemplate doctoring their milk with noxious ingredients . to teach the thieves humility, but this remedy is made difficult by the uncertainty about the mornings on which the thieves will practise their shameful arts. If a specially doctored bottle came back on the family, so to speak, there might be discomfort for the menage. It is difficult to padlock a milk bottle, or to keep a watchdog on guard beside the tempting flagon, so the only hope for the afflicted is that the criminals will repent. When their black souls are as white as milk, there will be no more thieving. POPPING THE SOVEREIGN The regrettable oversight of a burglar who failed to notice £2O in sovereigns in a Symouds Street shop which was the object of his amiable attentions causes profound economists to wonder why it is that people keep sovereigns. A friend who is sometimes penurious supplies the answer. He lias a sovereign that he cherishes with abiding jealousy. When people tell him that the interest on it, if it were placed in a bank, would be sufficient to buy bis great-grandson a packet of Woodbines, he just laughs heartily. “There is a shop in the Great North Road,” he says, “where I can deposit this sovereign whenever I am hard up, and raise a pound note on it. The shopkeeper thinks the security is all right, and I always get my sovereign back. Four times now it has helped me through. No, I’m not putting it in any i>ank.” GIVING SYDNEY THE SLIP “A.W.R.S.”: The fuss which is being made about the reception due to the German warship Emden recalls a happening at Sydney just before war broke but. The steamer Seydlitz, owned by the Norddeutscher Lloyd, had arrived at Sydney from Hamburg on the Friday afternoon before war was declared. As usual, the vessel berthed at Circular Quay, next to the ferry steamers, and cargo operations were proceeding. Just before noon on Saturday the captain was seen hurrying back to his ship. A few minutes after boarding his vessel, she was seen backing out from her berth. The wires and ropes which had moored her were cut, instead of hauled aboard, and the first information that the officials had that the vessel was proceeding to sea was three blasts of her siren, denoting that she was going astern. What a commotion there was, with the crowded ferry boats arriving and departing from Circular Quay! Whistles and sirens blew, and the noise was terrible, yet the Seydlitz moved on her way. Something must be .wrong, as it was against all harbour regulations for an oversea boat to move during th(s rush of the ferry steamers. Yet the Seydlitz was doing it, and nobody seemed to knowwhy, nor took the trouble to find out why. As the Seydlitz turned and steamed to sea, she passed H.M.A.S. Australia at anchor. She dipped her flag to the warship, which duly acknowledged the salute by dipping hers. Merrily, with her band playing, the Seydlitz steamed away, and, although she had no clearance, no one thought to stop her, and her next appearance w-as at Valparaiso, where she was interned until hostilities ceased. She is still owned by the Norddeutscher Lloyd.