FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 869, 13 January 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN." CENSORED The W.G.T.TJ. o£ Lyons, Kansas, ; U.S., believe that Nursery Rhymes shciuld be censored, and all passages relating to liquor and tobacco expunged. J.. Old King Cole Was a moral old soul. And a holy old soul was he; He called for his milk And a cinnamon roil And enforcement officers three. 11. Sing a song of sixpence, A pocket full of pop. Four and twenty white doves Purchased at the shop. When the pie was opened The doves sang gospel hymns, And all wore broadcloth pantalets To hide their lower limbs TED ROBINSON (U.S.A.) WORSE WINTERS After a doubtful sort of day yesterday—one of those uncertain days on which It is difficult to decide at 9 a.m. whether to get up or stay in bed—the barometer again rose rapidly in the evening. The barometer appears to be developing this practice as a habit. There is only one thing worse than a wet week-end, and that is the saddening irony of a fine Monday straight after it. Last Saturday afternoon, we recollected was the third wet Saturday afternoon In succession. But there is a message of good hope in a note from of Epsom. “Cheer up, he says, “We’ve lived through worse winters than this.” PURPLE PRES&. Having heard a lot at various times about the yellow press, we beg to introduce a purple one. It happens to be the latest number of that fiery little newspaper, the “N.Z. Samoa Guardian,” which has its recent issue printed right through in purple ink, the royal purple of the Mau, out of respect to the memory of the late chief, Tamasese. The “Guardian” makes no secret of its mission in life —and that mission is not to hand bouquets to the Government. Hence such sharp thrusts as this one: “Administrator Colonel Allen has recommended the native heroes of the Norwich City wreck to the notice of the Royal Humane Society. What about starting a branch of the Royal Humane Society in Samoa? —it is badly needed there.” There is, at any rate, nothing insipid about the “N.Z. Samoa Guardian.” Not all of our contemporaries are worthy of that'compliment. SPEED KINGS Ninety-mile beach as a natural speedway has been given a good testimonial by Mr. Wizard Smith’s performance on Saturday. A beach on which a modest 160 miles an hour can be registered cannot have too many potholes in it. Hence we may one of these fine days have Segrave and Malcolm- Campbell landing their mammoth speed machines on the quay at Auckland. Campbell is at present trying to promote a speedway on the banks of the Wash, on the East Coast of England, and Segrave has said that he is through with speeding. But there is £I,OOO a year and perquisites worth as much again attached to the world’s speed record. Added to that is the subtle and often fatal magnetism of speed. Some men have speed in the blood. They live for it, and perhaps die for it. So if Wizard Smith can demonstrate conclusively that the Ninety-mile Beach is the world's finest speedway, the magnetism of three and four miles an hour may draw them hither. * * * CHALLENGERS Kaye Don, the English track racer, is at present seriously engaged on preparations for an attack on the existing speed record. His attempt, to be made with a Sunbeam now being built, will be made on Daytona Beach, the scene of nearly all the historic speed performances. It was at Daytona that Milton in his Duesenberg achieved the honour ten years ago of being the first man to drive at 150 miles an hour. Before that men like Eldridge, Keech, de Palma, Burmau, Bowden and Vanderbilt, at the wheel of the Benz, the Mercedes, the Packard, Napier, Stanley, or any of the several other famous speed cars, had all tried their paces on Daytona. Ten years ago 160 miles an hour seemed an impossible speed. Yet now 230 and a little to spare is on the books. It may be that the Ninety Mile Beach will be the scene of the first 300-mile-an-hour drive — with the toheroas under the beach quaking in their burrows in the knowledge of some strange doings overhead.