FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1041, 4 August 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOOK-OUT MAN." A LA CARTE! The Salvation Army’s kitchen in Melbourne has been declared “black” since the menu consists only of boiled mutton and potatoes.—News item. Eggs and bacon would do, or a sausage or two. Plus a good cup of tea and a bun: And a meal we could make of a tender rump steak (That’s provided it’s not underdone). We’d welcome a dish of fried cutlets or fish. And a chicken wc ?tll would applaud: A frittered rissole, with a coffee and roll: But potatoes and mutton—Good Lord! You’d gain our esteem with fruit salad and cream. While a whlsky-and-soda would pass. Wo would not complain of liqueurs and champagne. With a waiter to fill up our glass. A joint we could swallow, with trifle to follow'. And oysters served up in the shell: Then possibly we’d be content with our feed: But potatoes arm mutton—oh, er, no UiankSl TAHITI. • * * SUXSHIXE AX D KMX These impulsive radio announcers: Dunedin, it seems, has been smiluig at the expense of the Quecp City since the now historic occasion of the third test. According to a correspondent from the South, radio fans assembled in force to hear lYA's description of the game. To fill in gaps the announcer discussed the weather. Said lie: "The sun is shining and the weather beautiful —a typical Auckland day.” Five minutes later he observed gloomily: “It is coming down in buckets.” Something ought to be done about this. Such disclosures do not tend to enhance the reputation of Auckland. A more patriotic and, perhaps, a more discreet announcer, would at least have had the presence of mind to fall back On that good old descriptive term, "a passing shower.” A passing shower in Auckland may mean anything, but the point is that only Aucklanders know this. MEAT AXD PATRIOTISM When Messrs. Hall and Sous, of Buckingham Palace Road, London, supplied the Hon. Paul Methuen with n leg of “New Zealand” mutton and forgot to remove the Argentine brand, they performed an embarrassing feat known in polite circles as “crashing a brick.” This because the Hon. Paul happened to be a Government, livestock inspector. The offending butchery firm was fined £l, bui despite the justice of this, patriotic New Zealanders will find it difficult to be really angry with the Hall fan: ily. After all, it is a decided compliment to All Black mutton that a busi ness man should practise such a deception, and the advertisement derived from the court case is worth to the New Zealand Meat Board a hundred and one prime Canterbury legs. Perhaps there will come a time when the Dominion will have sufficient regard for goods made and sold within its borders to make possible similar' examples of genuine preference in our own communities. At present there Is not enough of it. Who, for example, could imagine an importer doing his best to convince a customer that a genuine Paris frock was “made in Auckland”? Yet, if common sense ruled, such cases would not be rare. We New Zealanders have some queer standards. A COX TEA,ST As everybody knows, this year’s fashion parade at England's Ascot was a dismal failure, thanks to a most inconsiderate weather clerk. Here is a first-hand description of the trek to shelter after a cloud-burst had struck the course:The long lines of luxurious motorcars had changed to so many mudbespattered objects, ploughing their way through water nearly two feet deep. Beautiful women' and faultlesslydressed men were transformed into shivering, dishevelled, miserable human beings. I saw men in mud-bespattered silk hats driving motox'-cars in their shirtsleeves. Their women passengers sat huddled together, crumpled picture hats in their hands, their hair streaked and dripping wet In one car I saw a girl wrapped in a bath towel. Her beautiful dress, a soaking mass of material, her stockings and her shoes were laid on the seat beside liei\ That is England in mid-summer; yet we gasp at a Kai'angahape Road snowflake in mid-winter! # >i« * THIS WEEK'S HOWLER A fifth standard girl in an Auckland school was instructed to write an essay on Queen Victoria. She began:— “Queen Victoria sat on the thorn for 60 years.”