FROM THE WATCH TOWER

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1043, 6 August 1930, Page 8

FROM THE WATCH TOWER

By "THE LOc4c-OUT MAN.”

THE TERRIBLE FLAPPER Newspaper readers have ceased to be astounded at the exploits of the Modern Young Woman. Miss Amy Johnson, who has reached her home tow r n amid a revival of enthusiasm, put an end to any thought of sex inequality. Now we are treated to the dare-deviltry of Miss Marjorie Cottle who, at Grenoble, competed in the international motor-cycle test and won the highest award. Clearly the girl flier must look to her laurels: Amy Johnson? Pooh, that’s nothing! Just you listen to my latest— Hose a high-power motor-cycle In a contest international, Passed them all anrl Won a medal. Very little To it really. Over mountains, Through their tunnels. Hit a car and smashed the headlamp. Nothing daunted, went by torchlight— Held the torch between my molars . . . That’s the stuff lo (Jive the troopers— Poor Victorian Amy Johnson! # * * GOLD HUNTING During the past few days vehicles of all kinds have been driven frantically in the direction of Bendigo, Victoria, all because an Australian trapper found a gold nugget. Such optimism is touching, and one can only hope that, by some strange chance, those who have taken part in the “rush” will be rewarded. Incidentally, one specifies Bendigo, “Victoria,” for there is a gold-mining district of that name in Otago; to be precise, in the county of Vincent. New Zealand has had its share of gold rushes but, generally speaking, the day of the frenzied trek, the staked claim, and the tell-tale pan appears to have gone by. It is commemorated in simple but effective fashion In Gabriel's Gully, Otago, goal of one of the greatest rushes, and the one-time camping spot of thousands of miners. There tn a lone creek-bed between two barren ranges of hills is a grave marked with a cross, and to the pillar of the cross is fastened a miner’s shovel. . “A GOOD BRIDGE" Modern gold-mining calls for capital rather than courage, although It is to be admitted that, in many cases, the act of contributing capital to goldhunting ventures demands a good deal of financial bravery. Take, for example, the Kawarau scheme which, after costing a mint of money, was opened in 1926. In brief the enterprise consisted of damning the turbulent Kawarau River that flows from Lake Wakatipu near Queenstown, and thus uncovering rich gold pockets said to lie in the banks below the river’s normal level. In 1924 the work was begun and, in 1926, the dam was completed. Within the hearing of the L.0.M., a Prime Minister, who was standing on its flat top that serves to connect the .eastern and western shores of that corner of fhe lake, said: “Oh, well, it’ll make a good bridge.” And so it has proved. The Kawarau dam is a good bridge but, in the past four years, it has failed to bring to light anything more than “the colour” of gold. * * # “ SERVIETTE ” The familiar controversy as to the correctness or otherwise of the word "serviette” has appeared again. “Why is it considered incorrect?” asks a correspondent in an English paper. “Table napkin” is ugly and too long. “Serviette” is not “incorrect,” but it has lost much of its vogue. The early use of the word was Scottish. Old forms are serviat, serviet, servitt, servet, etc. The New English Dictionary states that in the nineteenth century the word was re-introduced, with French spelling, but latterly has come to be considered vulgar. Personally I dislike the word as being a foreign name for a familiar everyday thing, and also as savouring of petty gentility. As for “table napkin” being too long, one usually omits “table.” Long ago in many households this article was called a doyley from the name of a tradesman who made its manufacture a feature of his business, “IT’, S' HOT DOXE" Clearly this correspondent is somewhat uncertain in his views, and no wonder, for the “serviette” problem is definitely in the category of social niceties for which there are no fixed rules but many rigid unwritten laws. However, it may be taken for granted that those who frown on the name “serviette” will frown also on a person who says “Pleased to meet you.” when introduced to a total stranger who, possibly, may not please at all; a woman who signs a formal letter “Mrs.” So-and-So; people who say “ladies” and “gentlemen” when they mean women and men; a dance invitation that announces, “Gents., ss”; a man who wears light tan shoes e with a black suit; a child who whines, “I want a ‘piece’”; a person who says “Go on!” when they mean, “Is that so?”; also, all who, while at meals, fail to conceal the butts of their table-knives in the palms of their hands.