FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1011, 30 June 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

By

IYUItSERY POLITICS “If you sing out loud enougli you will get an increased petrol tax.”— Mr. G. W. Hutchison, secretary of the Auckland Automobile Association, in an address at Franklin. Sing: a song- of fourpence—that's the petrol tax, All the harassed owners paying out their whacks; When the coffer empties the Government decides To gain a little extra profit from our motor rides. George is in the Treasury counting out his money, The Cabinet in its parlour dreams of milk and honey, The voter in a quandary is pegging out his woes And waiting for a Budget to .wist at his nose. M.E. ROY A LTY’S INFLUENCE Although English newspapers have I been dwelling recently on the democratic attitude of the Australian cricketers, and chiding them for failing to remove their caps in the presence of the King, the cabled description of the second test proves conclusively that the Commonwealth i men are susceptible to the influence |of Royalty. Before the arrival of the 1 King at Lord's on Saturday, to quote I the report, “it was dull cricket and the crowd became restive and barracked Woodful 1. All but the Australian spectators were left cold. . . Play was very slow.” Then King j George arrived, and the rival cap- I j tains were introduced. So stimulat- j | ing was the presence of his Majesty that the Australian batsmen excelled themselves and secured 404 for the loss of two wickets. Clearly the visitors were inspired and, in view of what happened, Chapman may con sider it advisable to request the King to save the Ashes by appearing only when England is batting. N TILL r A RR YING O.V Fliers may come and fliers may go; treaties may be signed and navies re duced; Parliaments may open and power stations fail; but Chinese civil wars go steadily on. For the past five years they have continued with only the briefest and most transparent of intervals, and when it is considered that the war lords have a population of 445,000,000 from which to draw their cannon fodder, there seems no particular reason why the ghastly business should not go on indefinitely. With this prospect in view the cable agencies of the world might be well I advised to ignore the native names or I Chinese generals and, as it were, lium- | her them off from the right. How much ! easier it would be for long-suffering students and casual readers if Chiang Kai-shek was given the title of, say, “A,” Chen Tiaoyuan “B” and so on. It would then be possible to radio war news from the Orient. Listeners couiO he provided with little maps of China divided into numbered squares, and the announcer would simply say: “‘A’ is in number 7 and moving to number S. ‘B’ and ‘C’ are perched on the bor der of number 9.” IYA might consider* this. THROUGH THE PLAGUE So well organised, closely guarded, j and highly respected are his Majesty s mails today that the average man unconsciously reposes as much faith in a paper envelope as he would in a private steel safe. Because of this, it is well that postal irregularities and thefts such as that reported from Wellington, are infrequent; in fact, exceedingly rare. Modern postal ethics are admirably based, and the good traditions of the service within the Empire date from the time when the post office in London and England was privately conducted, the lessee j being the Countess of Chesterfield. ! with one Sir Philip Frowde acting as j her agent and supervisor. The post j master in London was a man named ' James Hickes, who earned fame by | keeping his office open throughout the Plague and managing to save most of the letters on the night of the Great Fire. Hickes’s biography, if such a thing exists, should be read to every I delinquent postman. | SPY MACHINE *

Associated with the eary history cc that London post office are references ; to a curious and remarkable machine, lost to the world in the Great Fire. It was invented by Sir Samuel Marland, who gave great and imperishable i service to shipping the world over by devising the speaking-trumpet and the | capstan. it was an apparatus for opening private letters and copying them with great rapidity, and was intended for use in conducting a censor ship of the mail of the King’s enemies Charles 11. once spent three hours seeing “with admiration and great satisfaction,” the machine in action Unhappily, it was destroyed in the fire and, tcruse the words of a recent commentator, “as Morland had not submitted it to the inspection of ; Samuel Pepys, only a scanty account { of the marvel survives it.”