From The Watch Tower

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 772, 19 September 1929, Page 8

From The Watch Tower

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

BOX OX Referring to wrestling in Auckland, Mr. H. G. R. Mason has asked in the House if such exhibitions, involving infliction of pain, cannot be stopped. When the wrestlers blithely grapple With each other's Adajn’s apple, Or dexterously use the Boston Crab, Their expressions bad and baneful Show there’s something very painful About the merry dalliance of grab. So' noble, so heroic, The Spartan and the Stoic Bad nothing on these giants of the mat, But though no doubt it’s cruel Yet they seem to like their gruel, Or else—why should they lap it up like that? To suffer so for money Is unquestionably funny. But men will go to any lengths for gold, And though they pose as foemen. Just suppose they’re only showmen, As members sometimes are—or so I'm told ! THE FRUGAL CITY Chimney-sweeps in Dunedin must lead a wretched existence. It is noted in a Press wire from that quarter that Dunedin leads all the rest of the Dominion in chimney fires. The Southern city’s tally is 124, followed by Wellington with 65. Of course, Dunedin, being down there so near the Antarctic Circle, must needs maintain fires pretty consistently. But that cannot be the only reason. Evidently this is one direction, at least, in which the community’s well-known capacity for thrift is exercised. ROOKS AHEAD There is scant hope for people who seek to alter Maori names unless they go steadfastly for simplicity. The name of Takanini, which is reasonably euphonious, is to be changed to “Takaanini,” a word with an awkward double vowel sound that will be a hurdle for even the most well-mean-ing. If such changes can be brought about without laying further pitfalls, the L.O.M. is all for them. For instance, there is nothing wrong with the proposal to change Wiri to “Waiwiri.” The one is as easy to say as the other, and if any carping critic asks why Wiri should be changed to Waiwiri, the answer is obviously: “Why Wiri anyway?” , * * RULED OUT In sending a telegram recently, the Look-out Man noticed with dismay that telegraph forms are no longer ruled. Thus a penurious Government takes another step on the road to national economy. Many and various were the ways of writing out a wire in the days when the forms were ruled. One either wrote on the lines, between the lines, or blithely ignored them altogether. Perhaps the percentage of those who ignored them was high enough to justify the belief that they can be done without. Now one is confronted by a blank yellow sheet, and at any rate there is no obligation to be meticulous. Uphill, downhill, let the pencil wander. The operator pays. TUMULT AND THE SHOUTING Rounds of applause are stated to have greeted Mr. H. G. R. Mason’s success with his Marriage Amendment Bill, which represents one of those rare Parliamentary phenomena, a successful private member’s Bill. But the rounds of applause always conceded by the Chamber on these occasions are not as disinterested as they might seem. A private member who pilots his Bill through successfully has to pay much the safne penalty as the golfer who holes out in one. The applause of fellow members is therefore in part anticipatory, and though the tumult soon fades in the august precincts of the Chamber, it is usually some time before the shouting dies away in “another place.” HE WAS SO APT Jasper’s Better Times Bazaar is exercising a strong allure in the interests of a worthy cause, and the Relief Ship, fully manned, well found, and a sturdy craft to boot, is headed before a fair wind to the welcoming haven of prosperity. There is nothing like an apt name or two to draw public attention to efforts like this, and often there is no one like an imaginative clergyman to furnish just the right name. In announcing the subjects of their sermons, ministers of favoured sects can make even the most hardened Sabbath-breaker sit up and take notice. But no local example has yet threatened the supremacy of the church notice published once in a small Kentucky paper:—“Solomon a Six-Cylinder Sport. Could you keep as many wives and concubines as this old bird? Rev. B. G. Hodge will preach on this subject Sunday.”