FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 837, 4 December 1929, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

THE CALL OF THE SEA If you're pining- for fun and are fond of society, Fond of the water and fond of variety, Look upon beauty with pleasure and piety. Go along down to the sea. If you feel overcome .by December humidity, Long to be free. of all worldly cupidity, And are fed to the teeth with life's general stupidity, Get along down to the, sea. If you feel that you’re suffering from too much monotony, Yearn for the open apd yet haven’t got any . . . Passionate love for the cow or for botany, Go along down to the sea. In fact if you’re ready for any inanity, Feel you’re about on the brink of insanity, Follow the path of perspiring humanity, Run along down to the sea DICK WHITTINGTON. LIFE ON THE DEEP Sixteen hours ago the passengers on the Malolo were hanging over the rails and looking with perhaps mild surprise on the upturned faces of the local enthusiasts who had gathered on the Queen’s Wharf to say farewell. That was 16 hours-ago, and what will they be doing now? Perhaps doing crossword puzzles, reading the “Saturday Evening Post” or the “Christian Science Monitor,” gossiping about one of the “57” merry widows, or querulously complaining to the steward that the Pacific breeze is a trifle too fresh this morning. After all, millionaires are no different from any other people. They feel the cold, the heat and the motion of the sea. May be they will even find a use for some of the punnets in which they took aboard that big shipment of local strawberries. ENVY Hoodoo or not, the Matson liner is a fine ship, and who among the thousands of Aucklanders who watched her departure last night did not wistfully yearn to be somewhere behind those bands of blazing lights, perhaps lying in a luxurious lounge reading an irreverent limerick about American ships that do not observe prohibition, or playing bridge with the rabid enthusiasm of the average traveller, or pressing a button and having a servile bell-boy take an order for an egg-nog. Yes, it would be a wonderful thing to ride down the channel on a ship like that —even a hoodoo ship. There is a romantic magic about the brilliant spectacle of a big ship slipping out of harbour at night, gliding along in a glimmering golden emanation that lights the dark harbour waters and yet conceals the funnels, masts, and boat decks that go to make the familiar daylight image of that complicated creature, an ocean liner. SIX TRIPS American shipbuilders are thoughtful people. They put into the Malolo a lot of little devices for the comfort and pleasure and satisfaction of the passengers that the normal shipbuilder of oul- somewhat limited acquaintance would not have bothered his head about. For instance, there was on that spacious promenade, “C” deck, a brass plate to this effect: “Six times round this deck makes one mile. Each circuit is 293yd5.” Thus inspired, no self-respecting oil-king or millionaire could afford to dispense with his morning blow, even if he had to cover the appointed distance in a special ship-board motor-car. There was another interesting little notice away down in the beautifully-appointed swimming bath. It read: “Passengers will please take a shower before entering the baths.” That was quite a home-like touch. It seemed almost like Parnell or the Tepids. * * * WINGED WEAPONS A subscriber at Paeroa sends word confirming the reports that a strange insect has taken the blackberry pest in hand. The next important step will be for a Government department to notice what is happening, though this mark of official interest should not be expected in unseemly haste. Incidentally, the Paeroa subscriber tenders the Information that the Insects referred to are liable to bite human flesh. They are evidently not as discriminating as might be wished. The Cawthron Institute, to which specimens of the insects and of their work have been sent, should be able to identify them, or state whether they are a new manifestation. At the Cawthron Institute the cinnabar moth for dealing with the ragwort first showed its utility. Cinnabar moths are now being liberated and encouraged in all parts of the country. There are only a few thousand less acres of ragwort than of blackberry. It Is perhaps fortunate that these obliging insects cannot be aware of the magnitude of the problems they are to deal with.