FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 864, 7 January 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.” THE STRICTER STANDARD “They have to be pretty bad at Milford before we arrest them.” —Constable Woods, of Takapuna, at the City Police Court. I’d like to sing the praises Of Milford by the sea, Where golden sunshine blazes, And beauty bloweth free. At Milford life’s divested Of everything that’s sad, And men are not arrested Unless they’re pretty bad. If frenzy alcoholic Should overtake your soul In mad, abandoned frolic, Let Milford be your goal, For, justice being blended With clemency, my lad, You’ll not be apprehended Unless you’re pretty bad. The puritanic cities Intolerantly wait For carollers of ditties Who stumble in their gait. They’re promptly pinched and pilfered, Cast into gaol, begad ; But though that’s so at Ilford, And possibly at Guildford, It’s not the case at Milford Unless they’re pretty bad! * * * WHOOPEE The recent production of “Whoopee” at His Majesty’s Theatre implanted among those who had not already known of it the knowledge that a new name has been provided for the pretty pastime of dalliance between the sexes. It is not “making love” any longer, but “making whoopee/* Ushered in though it was by colourful cowboys and Indians in a wondrous panoply of feathers, it is by no means certaip. that this term will gain general currency. To begin with, it may be thought rather too American. It is supposed that this usage of the word “whoopee” was created by a New York newspaper columnist named Walter Winchell. It is wonderful what these columnists will do. But the fact is that a greater man than Walter Winchell coined “Whoopee/* It was first employed by Rudyard Kipling. The word, that is, was thus originated; but the pleasant arts it signifies had been practised long before. * ' * * MOPE ABOUT COATESVILLE Elusion was made recently in the column to Coatesville, which is a delightful rural centre, not far enough from the madding crowd to be totally inaccessible, but sufficiently aloof from it to retain its rustic charm. Our somewhat perfunctory explorations round Coatesville had revealed the fact that it has a hall and a post office, amenities which prompted the speculation that a prosperous future would see the successive arrival of a bowser station, store and hotel. A Coatesville resident, delighted with .the publicity, informs us that the store and bowser are already there. The fact is, they are slightly off the main road, and so escape the notice of any but a scrupulous observer. * * * THE PROGRESSIVE SPIRIT It might have been imagined that a little place like Coatesville, consisting of scattered farms, would have been content with its sequestered lot. That is not entirely so. The ardent springs which animate the boosting spirit may flow as strongly in rustic pastures as in the heart of a teeming city. Coatesville, at any rate, has an object in life. It solicits population. Already the green fields along the beautiful banks of the Rangitopuni stream must be numbered among the most important sources of Auckland’s milk supply. The tiny post office was originally furnished by the Postal Department on condition that the settlers took the risk of its not paying. Now, however, the postmistress is making a good salary on a basis of increased business, and it may be suspected that Coatesville already has envious eyes on its nearest neighbour and rival, Albany, which has an hotel and library of its own. WIIAT’S IN A NAME Coatesville owes its name, if not its existence, to the current practice of naming budding hamlets after the politically great. This engaging system of rewarding statesmen for their labours has put places like Ward and Seddon, in Marlborough, and Ballance, in the Pahiatua district, on the map. There are several others that could be mentioned, including the Mackenzie country, which proves on investigation, however, to have been named after a sheepstealer, and not a politician. By an ironic decree of circumstance these places named after important political leaders have almost invariably continued to languish in their original obscurity. We are quietly confident, however, that in the case of Coatesville things will turn out differently. For a start, the progress and welfare of the place are studiously followed by its moral and spiritual parent. The parting observation of the enthusiastic citizen who came in to congratulate us on our paragraphs was: “I must send one of those papers to Gordon Coates.”