FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1012, 1 July 1930, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

s<jUTHERN ADVICE “What could they expect with Nicliolls out?” said Petone, home of Mark Nicliolls, when the result came through that New Zealand had lost the first Rugby test. Nicholls will play ! as an All Black on Saturday next. — : News item. At a street corner: First Petonean: “1 thought as much." Second Petonean: "... They lost the TeM Because they failed to pick the best, And now, foi* brains behind the pack, “Pis glad they are to get him back.” First Petonean: “Selectors erred:” | Second Petonean. i Perhaps they’ll take a tip from us j And recognise, for Rugby st rs, The place o! rugs and motor-cars.” i Both (singing lustily): j “When ’Blacks’ are blue and teams are phoney Mark the talent in Petone. And, to remove you from a pickle, j Count upon the name of Nicholl.” ME. j VNTI TEED K XI<HTs Duties ecclesiastic and “side-lines” | journalistic keep Dean Inge a busy I man these days, but he has now the j full satisfaction of knowing that the performance of his tasks and hobbies have met with Royal appreciation. “The Gloomy Dean,” so named by a London newspaper man who earned a degree of reflected glory in k moment of sub-editorial inspiration, has had a knighthood conferred upon him. However, he may not become Sir William Inge, or “Sir Gloom,” as jhe might be titled by the jesting throng. Church tradition compels him to remain Dean Inge, K.G.V.O. In many lay instances knighthoods have been conferred upon men who j are unable for various reasons to as- | sume their titles. Foreign subjects honoured by the King are thus placed. Admiral Sim, commander of the United States Atlantic Fleet during the Great War, was knighted in recognition of his great services to the Empire but. as an American citizen he was debarred from becoming “Sir.” Paderewski, pianist, composer, politician, and diplomat, was knighted in 1925 as a mark of the King’s and "the Empire's appreciation of his work, but he is still plain Ignace Jean despite his Grand Cro3S and half a dozen international decorations. He is obliged, and, doubtless prefers to remain as he is—a pianist and a Pole. MUSSEL NURSERY The announcement that the clusters of mussels adhering to the shell of the old Rewa, now beached along the East Coast, are taboo to the public because they have been claimed by the Fisheries Department as the nucleus of a “mussel nursery,” raises interesting conjectures. Is it illegal, for instance, to kick a stray mussel or two off one of the piles of our harbour wharves? For all one knows they, too, may be included in the department’s growing list of arbitrary claims to all marine creatures who have edible value, yet are immobile. If they are not, the authorities are missing a great opportunity, for there are enough infant mussels in Auckland Harbour to populate the largest depleted bed imaginable. A COPPER CANARD » This new mussel move raises another question. In his youth the L.O.M. was warned repeatedly never to remove, cook, and eat a mussel growing on a wharf pile. This was in the days when concrete piles were unheard of, and the wooden piles exclusively in use were sheathed with copper from the high-tide mark down. The metal was said to have an unpleasant effect on parasitic shell-fish, and a still more unpleasant effect on anyone who devoured them. The assertion may or may not be true, but the fact remains that no one in any part of New Zealand seems anxious to remove the millions of mussels which grow on thousands of harbour piles, and even in a concrete age this aversion remains. Now there is probably a good deal of copper plating about the hull of the Rewa, and the question is: will this be harmful to the inhabitants of the nursery? If not, then an ancient warning becomes an old wives’ canard, and generations of young New Zealanders who have played near wharf piles have missed countless succulent opportunities. NURSERY POLITICS (No. 2) There are whisperings in the lobby of the House of Representatives that Arapuni will be the subject of an attack on the Reform Party’s past administration. Mr. Coates is advocating that the question should be lifted out of the realm of political controversy.—News item. Arapuni slander. Whither shall it wander: Upstairs or or to a party To make an accusation not a member dares. So at present it's a whisper heard upon the stairs.