FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 208, 22 November 1927, Page 10

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN” THE SPEED TRACK Yet another motoring accident on the Great South Road. —News Item. He who would cross over the coxicrete strip Where speeding chariots dash amain, Must take due care that he makes no slip, Else in this world he will not remain. For many a man who to cross essayed, Hacking the aid of a pair of icings, Has gone where the wings are ready- ' made — Hark , while the road-killed chorus sings! * * * You need the leap of a Spring-heeled Jack, The lightning's pace, no second sloxced, If you’d keep alive on the speedsters 1 track, Otherwise known as the Great South Road. 9 9 • LESS ELECTRICITY Daylight-saving has also resulted in a saving in electric light, a fact that pleases Paterfamilias considerably, especially as electric current is twice as dear in Auckland as anywhere else. How feelingly has the family man recited “The Charge of the Light Brigade”—with particular emphasis on the line, “O what a charge they made!” when perusing the charges for his electric light. Now lie is able to save at least an hour’s burning, even on the consumption which is naturally diminishing with the longer hours of daylight, and Mr. Sidey’s name will be included among those for whom kind thoughts are vouchsafed this Christ-mas-tide. * * * DIG DEEP Watching some workers excavating through solid rock to a depth of eight feet —the job took many days and involved the use of gelignite —the L.O.M. asked whether it really was necessary to go so far down to run a sewer pipe through private property. The reply was that four feet would be “any amount deep enough.” To a further inquiry as to why, in such case, the excavation went so far, the answer was that when you went deeper than four feet you encountered the rock. This necessitated such an amount of drilling and blasting that it took ten times as long as merely digging through the four feet of soil, and it provided ten times more employment than would otherwise be the case. Further than that, it cost the ratepayer ten times more than it ought to—which was the factor really responsible for the glorious success of local body government. • * • AN EXTRAORDINARY PROPOSAL The proposal emanating from the Canterbury Law Society was certainly an astounding one, and it was pnly to be expected that the Auckland Law Society would turn it down flat. Some defaulting solicitors having robbed their clients, it was suggested to protect the public against such embezzlements by establishing a sinking fund out of which to repay people who might be swindled—each- member of the legal fraternity to contribute £5 5s a year. To ask 99 honest men to pay annual toll to guarantee, the public against one possible dishonest practitioner was to ask something that no really legal mind could approve. Rather than prevent embezzlement, it would tend to encourage it, for the dishonest solicitor could soothe the remnants of his conscience by whispering that his client would not suffer by his defalcations, and that a fine, big healthy fund could stand the strain. The Auckland Law Society rejected the proposal almost unanimously. Those Southern lawyers really ought to have thought of a better scheme.

fit at -If & % f|- f|- jfc r£ * & -> rr HANDY COURTS The holding of a court at Alexandra Park immediately after the arrest of two women charged with bookmaking opens out many possibilities. Apparently a J.P. can hold a Police Court anywhere. Far better than hauling ypung Johnny Jones before an already busy magistrate would be to lead him to the nearest telephone box and therefrom summon a J.P. to come along and try him right there for having wheeled his trolley on the footpath. A motorist who has just knocked somebody down might be escorted into to the chemist’s shop or the doctor’s surgery in which his latest victim is receiving attention and there dealt with on first-hand and red-hot evidence. When Burglar Bill is caught at midnight in the act of rifling a jeweller’s shop, he could be tried iii that very shop (nearly all jewellers are J.P.’s) and taken straight to Mount Eden, so that the arresting constable could go straight to bed when he goes off duty, instead of being required to write a tedious report about the affair. In fact, the burden of costly court buildings may be abolished. All we need is a suflScient supply of J.P.’s, and these can be had for the asking; ~