FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 923, 17 March 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

THE AVENGER An Austrian husband, who killed his nagging wife, begged for the death sentence, that he might kill her again in the beyond.—Cable. ’Twas not enough that once on earth he slew her; A warrant for himself he now desires, And fain to other regions would pursue her Before his lust for vengeance expires. She paid hex' debt, she joined the great departed, A homicidal husband—it was tough! Alas, his grim revenge was barely started. One penalty with him was not enough. Before he gets his final euthanasia He’d chase that phantom shade to almost—well, Further away than even Australasia To hear her yell among the asphodel. POSTAL PUZZLE The latest instance of the pitfalls the city holds lor strangers is the case of the visitor who scouted round one of those green iron electricconduit boxes on the kerbside, looking lor the place to post a letter. It might have ' been worse. There are also book bins, iron rubbish receptacles, and the discreet little shelters which conceal tramwaymen’s wash basins, as counter-attractions to the kerbside pillar box. * -it * HOUR OF TRIAL The sympathies of all will be extended to Mr. Pete Sarron in his hour o£ trial, but at the same time the demonstrations of grief with which the young man greeted his disqualification in his fight at New Plymouth on Saturday are hardly a shining example to a generation whom the country wishes to raise in the ways of stoicism and fortitude. A strong man’s tears are always bitter, even to the beholder, hut if Maurice Brownlie had wept when the All Blacks in South Africa lost that fatal third test, or if Tom Lowry had snivelled even a wee bit into his sleeve when the M.C.C. was going through the New Zealand eleven in the first test at Christchurch, our respect for these rugged athletes could hardly have been enlarged. A foul is not improved by lachrymose recriminations. Mr. Sarron might have done much better by rendering “Singin’ in the Rain.” THE LUSITANIA The Lusitania argument has been revived again, this time by a German naval captain whose patriotic enthusiasm seems to have outrun his better judgment, as his observation that the Lusitania was a British armed cruiser carrying ammunition and naval men has been disproved by an independent commission of inquiry, and the idea that the submarine captain might have mistaken her for an armoured cruiser is disproved by a note in Schwieger’s diary, which read: ‘2.20 p.m. Directly in front of us I sighted four funnels and masts of steamer at right-angles to our course, and going toward Galway Head. She is recognised as a passenger steamer.” From his own log it is clear that Schwieger, in committing an act of barbarism by which 1,152 men, women and children were lost, neither gave warning nor took the trouble to ascertain the identity of the ship. As to the story that the Lusitania was armed and carried explosives, this was investigated by the United States Federal authorities, and as a result Judge Julius M. Mayer, in August, 1918, handed down his judgmen, in which he said: “The proof is absolute that she was not and never had been armed, nor did she carry explosives.” Schwieger, of course, perished later, when his submarine, was lost with all hands. TO ICY MOUNTAINS Sir John Hanliam, the likeable-look-ing young man who arrived yesterday to start his duties as aide-de-camp to Lord Bledisloe (pronounced “Bledsler”), hopes to indulge a taste for botanising, fishing, shooting and perhaps one or two other pursuits, So admirably equipped with the kind of hobbies every young man should have, Sir John should have no difficulty in occupying his afternoons off. If he penetrates remote parts in his quest of botanical specimens, it will not be his first experience of the great open spaces, for it is reported that two years ago he was a member of the Oxford University oecological expedition to Greenland. After prolonged research among the “O” and “EJ” sections of the dictionary, we discovered that word oecological masquerading as “ecological,” but this was only the beginning of our difficulties. It was defined as “the branch of biology which deals with the mutual relations between organisms and their environments,” but this wasn’t altogether helpful. Notes to the definition added that “physiographic ecology” deals with edaphic plant societies, and that “ecological phytogeography” has to do with leading plant formations from the climatic aspect. Botany may be an admirable hobby, but one is still rather in the dark about what Sir John went to Greenland for.