FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 928, 22 March 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN." UTILITY FIRST “The boots . . . were well suited for members of the Force, being a good heavy pair.”—Counsel, at the Court yesterday. When constables their boots select There’s one condition dominates. The weight must first be quite correct The well-dressed Cop abominates The showy shoe, the modish wear For carnival or tournament Is not for him. He loathes the pair That’s merely made for ornament. Let others favour patent builds That mark their false gentility. The constable his presence gilds With true respectability. He does not seek to glorify His feet with shining trashiness. To keep one’s understandings dry Is better far than flashiness. THE DIRECTORY The boon conferred on the public by the new telephone books with their better arrangement of names and figures is greatly appreciated by the public, but here and there a little element of uncertainty mars our gratitude. The books are models of compression, and to get the lettering into less space, Parnell at times becomes “Parnl,” Karangahape Road becomes “Khape,” The Drive masquerades as “The Drv,” while Onehunga becomes extremely unfamiliar as “Onhga.” Perhaps it is only strangers, and not many of them, who will be puzzled by this artistic condensation. Even the cryptic siV. ’s “Mthdst Prsnge” will be readily interpreted. But when a tradesman is defined as a “Plstrg ctrctr” the exercise of ant abbreviations seems carried a little too far. FAUX PAS CLASSIC London “Daily Herald’s” unwitting reference to Mr. Ramsay MacDonald as the “honest wrecker,” instead of “honest broker,” recalls the celebrated error perpetrated In a report of a laudatory dinner to a retiring general. A morning paper the following day referred to the toast of the evening as the “battle-scared veteran,” and in Its rush to make a correction in the next issue made him “bottle-scarred,” which was even worse. This Is by way of being a chestnut among printer’s errors, but it is well authenticated. Like the copy of “The Times,” in which a singular misdemeanour was attributed to a reigning monarch as she crossed Westminster Bridge, the historic cuttings are enshrined in many an anthology of published errors.

RAGWORT WORRIES The advantages of being motheaten will commend themselves to farmers now that the anti-ragwort insect, tyria jacobia, is to be made available for distribution. This golden ragwort, which at times spreads a golden carpet on hill and dale, is such a nuisance and a menace that sturdy husbandmen, considering it, have no inclination toward poetic appreciation. There is an unconfirmed report that ragwort first emanated from Taranaki. If that is so, it has been beautifully cosmopolitan in its subsequent tastes, as it is now to be found from Cape Maria Van Diemen to Palliser Bay, though in some places more than others. Perhaps the true stronghold of the ragwort Is now the Urewera Country. There the valleys about this time of the year, or may be a little earlier, are literally ablaze with it. POOR RELATION The method of introducing the moth among the ragwort is to place its eggs among the herbage and leave the moth to do the rest. Great hopes are entertained for the success of this I method, but after passing through some of the best ragwort country in the flowering season, one reaches the depressing conclusion that to wipe out the ragwort the moths will have to be just about numerous enough to blot out the sun. From the Latin name of the moth, and that of the ragwort, which is called secedio jacobia, there appears to be ’ some family connection between them. Apparently the principle on which the moth works is that it feeds on the plant. It is a poor relation. 4 * * BEAT THE BAND Had every public figure caricatured by Gilbert and Sullivan been as sensitive as Prince Danilo of Montenegro, who has collected damages from the producers of the film version of “The Merry Widow,” those noted collaborators would have had to fight some pretty libel actions in their day. Behind their whimsical jingles and graceful songs was some of the most satirical burlesque ever presented on the stage. Enlarging on the note about the Lord Chamberlain’s restrictions on the production of “The Mikado.” which he feared might offend the Japanese Royal Family, a contributor writes to say that this ban continued in one form and another, until a Japanese fleet came to England. After that it was discontinued. Tire tunes played as the ships berthed had beeD recognised as selections from “The Mikado.”