FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1023, 14 July 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By

"THE LOOK OUT MAN."

-L PROTEST When a queue formed during the week-end to book seats for the forthcoming Rugby test in Auckland, its members found that they had been forestalled by another queue to which special priority chits had been issued. A booking method that is new Has been announced today: They hand each person in ihe queue A chit, and to him say: “Come hack and make selections at your leisure, any day.” But where will suoh a system end If early queues may crib? For we who lack spare time to spend Must soon begin to jib At queues for chits, fresh queues for queues, and so on—quite ad lib! t M.K. I 7 U HUMBLE TH HE EPEXCE A strong ecclesiastic attack nas been launched against the humble threepenny piece on the grounds that its value as an offering is negligible. Of course the principle behind thv arguments advanced is plain, but the fact remains that If a threepenny piece is inadequate, a pound note cau be inadequate too. It all depends upon the extent of one’s proposed e< penditure. Personally the L.O.M. has found that the principal disadvantage of the threepenny piece is the ease with which it can take more or less permanent refuge in an uncxplorable corner of one’s pocket. He would hesitate to call it "useless.” Think of tile myriad children who are pleased on Saturdays to cut “morning wood” Tor this modest sunt. If threepenny pieces were abolished parental bribery would be twice as costly! I.east of all would he call it “valueless.’’ Are spiritual leaders aware that a brown and frothing glass, complete with handle, is still to lie obtained in Auckland for our smallest silver coin? COP If A AXD COfXS Incidentally, the threepenny piece problem is by no means a new one. Some years ago a young trader began business on a small Pacific island. He found that no silver coins smaller than a shilling were in circulation and when paying the natives for copra, other traders made up odd pence by handing out boxes or matches. Determining to alter this the newcomer sent, to Suva for £2O in threepenny and sixpenny pieces. He began paying these out. but for some unaccountable reason they did not remain in circulation. He sent for more, but these, too, disappeared rapidly and mysteriously. The natives' capacity for the absorption of small change seemed to he limitless. One day the puzzled trader visited a priest at his mission church and outlined the position. The priest who had a keen sense of humour, laughed loudly. Said he: “1 have your small silver in my safe. Up till a few weeks ago my native congregations filled the plates with florins. Suddenly I was flooded with threepenny pieces, so I have instructed my ’hoys’ to round up every small coin they can find,” Said the trader: “Let me buy them from you.” The priest shook his head. "No fear.” he replied. “Then I’ll send for more,” said the trader. “And I’ll round them up and send them away again. You'll soon get tired of paying freight and duty,” said the priest. The priest won, and matches returned to currency. * * * WHO LAV GHP Of R: Says the “New Zealand Worker,’’ quoting Sir Oliver Lodge on war and disarmament: “Mutual laughter is not our proper business; it has had its day and must now cease to be.” This is not the first occasion on which the omission of the letter “s” has caused a newspaper some embarrassment. A leading article once asked the rhetorical question: “Why should we lay our instincts?” and a heroine in a serial is said to have picked a “prig t’rm a schrub.” Then there was the Russian officer who was found dead with a long word sticking in his' throat .<?/?!VICK PAJt'l’Y University students are seekers after the unusual in entertainment. One reads that a Mr. Hugh Speaighr. whose name has a familiar New Zea land ring about it, was the student host of a freak party held in the sewers of Oxford. Mr. Speaight previously achieved lame by organising a body known as the Oxford Balloon Union, the members of which carried out an exciting flight. On the more recent occasion he induced his friends to don nautical garb and tour through the city sewers in canoes front East Oxford to the Thames. Six cano ts were used, and their occupants in eluded Peter Howard, a Rugby blue, and A. Hopkinson, editor of the well known undergraduate newspaper, “The Isis.” Having led his followers to ward the heavens and into the bowels of the earth, Mr. Speaight must pause and wrack his brains for fresh inspiration. It may be that he will now set a fresh record In originality by organising his fellow students lor the purpose of study.