From The WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 717, 17 July 1929, Page 8

From The WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

THANKSGIVING A wagon load of beer turned turtle in Cadman’s Road, Te Aroha, but not one bottle was broken. Though as a hard, perhaps I am. Addicted to the dithyramb — And dithyrambs, I might explain. Are songs in the ecstatic strain, Whose rhapsodies at times exalt The juice of hops, combined with malt — Though thus addicted, please excuse My otherwise unblemished muse If here I raise a hearty cheer, Or may he three—they saved the beer. Had yellow ingots, staclced in hars, And escorted hy armoured cars; Had priceless rooofs or fabrics fine, Or cobwebbed caslcs of Spanish wine; Had these or any other treasure That gives us wordlings simple pleasure, Made up the substance of the load That overturned at Cadman’s Road, No more would overpowering fears Have given way to joyous tears . ... Gone are the sickly petrol fumes. In Cadman’s Road a pale flower blooms. Excuse me if I grow too lyrical, But here occurred a noted miracle. XXX SAY IT WITH MUSIC Through, the good offices of the talking pictures, notable exponents of such soulful Instruments as the mouthorgan and saxophone may now he seen and heard. The new phase of the cinema, presenting as it does a show of almost revue character, has aptly been termed the “song and dancies.” But this overlooks the primary requisite that a screen hero must be a gentleman. And the best recent definition of a gentleman is that a perfect specimen is one who can play the saxophone, hut doesn’t. ROLL CALL, The fact that Chinese are intensely patriotic is often lost on unobservant New Zealanders, but is recalled on the festive occasions when flag-decked lorries hear Celestial celebrants to the picnic grounds. In the case of the current argument between Russia and China, it is timely to wonder if a resort to arms would be followed by a roll call among this Dominion’s Chinese populations. Would a new spirit brace the bearing of our somewhat unsoldierly laundryman, or the club in Hobson Street become a centre of violent preparation against the departure of the next boat for China? Probably not, because Chinese seem to have an admirable faculty for staying put. It is possible that not many of them know what the present dispute is about, that Russia built a railway through part of China at her own cost, and now wants to retain control of it. As a sage friend remarked, brother Ivan is like a tenant who has put a new range into his house. When he leaves, he can’t take it away. HOME MADE AVhile enterprising young men are betraying evidence of a passion for building airplanes, thus possibly initiating a promising local industry, no one seems to bother much about building motor-cars. There have always been enthusiasts ready to purchase an ancient car and deck it out in a strange rig, hut to start from scratch, without even a chassis, is rare. Thus there is not even the germ of a New Zealand car-building industry. Australia is trying to develop an Australian-made car, and so is Japan. In Italy the Dictator has decreed that the names of those who buy foreign cars shall be published in the papers. The prospect of anything like that happening here is remote. And yet we are almost, if not quite, the most car-absorbed people in the world. A new car of imposing appearance comes to town, and the word quickly goes round. There is a danger that, as in America, great names may be confused. An American newspaper recently spread itself about a concert given by the noted violinist, Fritz Chrysler. GIPSY'S WARNING Families of the Romany persuasion are not always so agreeable to being photographed as the Xurys, Avho left .somewhat reluctantly by the Niagara last night. In fact, a local press photographer recalls with bated breath that he once approached a gipsy for a photograph, and narrowly escaped being knifed. Perhaps he didn’t hold that against the Xurys, who posed very nicely. But the New Zealand Customs Department has no fancy for gipsies, some of whom have given lots of trouble in the past. For instance, there was a nasty shooting affray down near Invercargill. Refused a permit to land in New Zealand, the picturesque roamers may suffer the same experience in Australia. Then if America, too, turns on them, they will become wanderers on the face of the Pacific. Any way, people with a name so hard to pronounce have no claim on the sympathy of an intelligent Customs service. Exit Xury.