FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 963, 5 May 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By “THE LOOK-OUT MAN.”

“HEADS IT IS.’’ “Use your heads. Don’t be guided by prejudice.”—Mr. T. Bloodworth. Make your choice with calm precision, Use your head! Save a hasty, rash decision, Use your head! At the coming by-election Wise, unprejudiced reflection Will ensure a sound selection. Use your head! Don’t rush off and vote at random. Use your head! Keep this timely memorandum, Use your head! Weigh the pros and cons astutely. Choose your member resolutely, Exercise your vote astutely, Use your head! Though the party pundits yammer, Let them fizz! There is quite sufficient clamour As it is. But in meeting this condition, That you play the calm logician, What about the politician Using his? PAKITI-’ * * * KING COTTON Women are the innocent victims of the scheming manufacturer’s ingenuity. This conclusion is formed after a reading of the cable stating that a campaign Is afoot In England to Introduce huge wide cotton hats for the benefit of the languishing cotton industry. A deliberate onslaught is. planned against the neat little felt hats which have had so many advantages, among them their value as playthings for either the dog or the baby. In their place (if the scheme noted comes to anything) will rule immense creations with synthetic ostrich feathers drooping over the brim. Some of these hats will be three feet across—all cotton and a yard wide. * * * PHONY Citizens may have noticed that a vigorous campaign to advertise the telephone system is at present being conducted per medium of franking stamped on mailed matter in the post offices. A few representative selections read: “An extension telephone costs but a penny a day”; “A telephone protects the Home”; “Telephone your friend in the other Island; ordinary toll rates”; “Save time and effort—Telephone”; and so on. As slogans these franked messages are not especially bright; but there is one which reveals a trace of Irony. A business man received a letter the other day from an acquaintance who unfortunately is just at present in Mount Edeh gaol. The recipient was particularly struck by the franked message, which read: “A telephone by your bed will banish loneliness.” maritime glories

Every new building raised on the waterfront makes it more difficult to realise that early Aucklanders commanded a good view of the Waitemata from the corners of Shortland Street and Fort Street. Nowadays the waterfront is being blocked out by buildings. Architectural glories like the new “Port Building,’’ which is to have specially tinted window frames as a mark of artistic development, will accelerate this excellent movement. Citizens will recall that there was a mild protest against the erection of the Ferry Building, on the grounds that it would block out the view. The Port Building, however, will be accepted with equanimity. People are more passive these days or else know better. * * * “HAMER'S CHAPEL ” Though the Ferry Building is admittedly a passable' piece of work, dignified by its heavy stone arches on the harbour side, the general evidence available on tbe waterfront confirms suspicions that architecture fs not tile Harbour Board’s strong point. Even Its head office, with its quaint pseudo-Moorish turrets, is a slavish imitation of the Union Shipping Company’s old head office in Dunedin. The two buildings are almost identical in every respect. Quainter still is the little wooden building known as “Hamer’s Chapel,” opposite the Queen Street entrance to the wharves. Apparently the spire was a .? d^ d . to t - his Elding as a final touch ot distinction. As the headquarters of the waterfront police, the chapel is not given over to worship. THE GLORIOUS FIRST Photographs having depicted his Excellency the Governor-General ducksliooting at Te Aroha in the specially cut tweeds ordained for such oecasions, it will be interesting to see if this influences the sartorial habits or Zealand sportsmen, who usuallv attect incredibly ancient trousers, shirt and hat, the tout ensemble being completed in the best circles bv (no pun intended) a hooped football jersey Sometimes the sportsmen are hooped, too; but that is beside the point. One of these days the men who go forth on the Ist of May will realise that part of the pleasure of any sport is dressing for it. The next step will be movable luncheon booths as employed on the English grouse moors, where a bottle of “bubbly” Is as essential to a day's shooting as the ammunition. They have a lot to learn yet in the Waikato.