FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 331, 17 April 1928, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By '

“THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

PACIFIC INTENTIONS Lieut.-Colonel S. S. Allen, the newly appointed Administrator of Western Samoa, was presented at the last meeting of the Morrinsville County Council with a pipe. The obvious hint, of course, is that he should smoke the pipe of peace in his Pacific appointment. “I SECOND MR. HUGHES!” Mr. Hughes' is saved the necessity of replying to the strictures of the Italian Consul-General on his recent speech on the Italians. An Italian has saved him the trouble by sticking a knife into a Chinaman at Pomona, in Queensland. The Italian ConsulCeneral reminded Mr. Hughes that without the Italians there would be less sugar produced in Queensland. Mr. Hughes could retort that there would also be fewer murders. THREE AT A TIME Germany hasn’t it all on her own. Last week The Sun .published a picture showing two proud Teutonic mothers nursing two sets of triplets —all boys. On Saturday New Zealand responded to the challenge, for, at Te Puke Maternity Hospital, triplets, two girls and a hoy, were born to Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Fenton. All doing well, thanks! Parliament is to be asked to grant the mother a bounty—and so it should. These are the right sort of “assisted” immigrants. FAMOUS TWINS Reference to triplets naturally brings to mind the matter of twins—a much more common event. There were 301 cases of twin births in New Zealand last year, but only two of triplets. Contrary to popular belief, twins and triplets live as long as singly-born babies oijce they pass childhood. Brighton, England, recently lost one of its famous twins, Mark Bray Gunn, who passed away as the result, of bronchitis a few days after celebrating his 94th birthday. Matthew and Mark, as the twins were called, were the survivors of 13 of a fishing family, all of whom were named after characters in the Bible. They remembered Brighton as a fishing village. A year or two ago, on the occasion of a visit by the Prince of Wales to Brighton, the twins rvere introduced, and he chatted to them and offered congratulations.

BLOW FOR REFORM At the caucus of the Parliamentary Reform Party to-day wise counsel was lost, unless Mr. Harris, the member for Waitemata, changed his mind overnight. Mr. Harris had fallen out with the party—or the party had fallen out with him—and Mr. Harris has since stood aloof. This notwithstanding, the caucus extended the open arms of reconciliation by sending him an invitation to attend its meeting to-day. Mr. Harris merely remarked that he would not be attend-

ing the caucus. What a blow for the party! Its deliberations must have suffered considerably this morning owing to the absence of Mr. Harris—the only real statesman of the party, If you will believe it. Well, if Reform “comes a cropper” it will be a lesson to all and sundry that the powers and personality of the member for Waitemata should have been more properly appreciated. ON THE QUARTER-DECK

Collard-Dewar-Daniel affair on tlie Royal Oak recalls that tile Admiralty used once to regard it as shocking etiquette for senior officers to air their quarrels in public, or before the lower ranks. How does it view Admiral Collard? The fierce row between Beresford and Scott was made a fleet matter —with “the devil to pay.” Scott, tremendously keen on gunnery (and presumably tremendously contemptuous of the Kaiser), was exercising his cruisers at target practice, when he was ordered by Beresford to spend three days painting and cleaning, preparatory to receiving Wilhelm 11., who was paying a visit to England. Scott signalled to one of his ships outside Portland Harbour: “As painting appears to be of more importance than gunnery, you had better come inside and make yourself look pretty.” The message being duly repeated to the Commander-in-Chief, an awful row resulted on the quarter-deck of the flagship, and Beresford ordered the signal to be expunged from the signal logs as “contemptuous and insubordinate.” Though the Admiralty inquiry was in camera, it was understood that Scott was reprimanded for having been “flippant” (to give it no worse a term), and Beresford, for having publicly reprimanded another admiral—even though it was on the quarter-deck of the flagship, and only in the presence of flag officers. Neither officer received further naval promotion, though, upon retirement, Scott was rewarded with a baronetcy and Beresford with a peerage.