WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 174, 11 April 1923, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM (By T. D. H.) The Soviet intends to try the Pope in absentia. —As cleanliness comes after godliness, Lord Leverhulme may be next on the list. Mr. Kipling considers getting the change out or Germany’s pockets is better than waiting for the change in. her heart. A great boom in wireless is expected, in Australia now that it is possible to listen to sermons by radio.

Tjlie charge of witchcraft brought against an Italian woman at Milan, as reported in to-day’s news, is a reminder that belief in witchcraft is still widespread in Europe. Two years ago an old woman was hass-ied at Naples as a witch, and a sheep’s head found in her possession, wrapped in human hair fastened with forty-three large nails, was seized by tho police and burned in a church at the request of an excited populace. In ISO 6, at a Thames police court in London, a reputed witch was convicted of obtaining money by means of a trick. At Baltyvaden, County Tipperary, a woman named Bridget Cleary, aged 27, was burnt to death as a witch as recently as 1895, an occurrence which resulted i;i several persons being sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Numbers of cases hc.ve occurred in England during the past half-century, where reputed witclies have died after having been ducked or otherwise maltreated. The laws against witchcraft in Britain were repealed m 1736, on an ignorant, humble justice in a Surrey court finding a bill against a poor old woman for bewitching her neighbours.

Sealing on New Zealand’s southern islands is on a very much reduced basis from the indiscriminate slaughter of a century ago. The Tutanekai, back from the Campbell Islands, reports that the sealing party there 'has not even secured tho full four hundred skins for which it received| al license. Captain Cook saw sea lions in Queen Charlotte Sound, and tile Brothers Rocks used to be a favourite haunt, while seals were reported even as far north as Poverty Bay in the thirties. The rate at which the sealers killed the animals in the old days soon made an end of the business." Vessels used to take into Sydney cargoes of from 10,000 to 15,000 skins at a time, and in 1815 a ship named the Pegasus took 100,000 seal skins from the Antipodes Island to London in bulk, only to find that they had heated during the voyage and were saleable for manure only. In those days the sealers sold their skins in Sydnej for about 15s. a piece. The skins in a cargo seized by the Customs in Dunedin two or three years ago fetched over £l4 each at auction.

One of the most interesting accounts of the habits of our seals ana sea lions ever published was written by Captain Musgrave, who was shipwrecked on the Auckland Islands in 1863. and during his eighteen months, as a castaway there kept a journal, in which he set down all that, he was able to learn about the seals. Of the seals on land Captain Musgrave said: "They go roaring about the woods like wild cattle. When they' are on shore they can run surprisingly fast; on the smooth, hard beach the.v can run nearly as fast as a man, and in the bush or the long grass faster than a man. They are able to climb up rocky cliffs and steep, slippery banks that would be inaccessible to men. The bulls are very bold and will come out <.f the water and chase us.”

Like young human beings, young seals do not love the water, and Captain Musgrave tells us: “It is only ivith the greatest difficulty, and a wonderful display of patience, that the mother succeeds in getting her young in the water for the first time. I have known a cow to be three days getting her calf down half-a-mile and into the water, and, what is most surprising of nil, it cannot swim when it is in the water. This is the most amusing fact; the mother gets it on her back and swims along very gently on the top of the water; but the poor little tiling is bleating all the while, and continually falling from its slippery position, when it will splutter about in the water precisely like a boy who eets beyond hi 3 depth and cannot swim. Then the mother gets beneath it, and it again gets on her back. Thus they go on.” The little seals are frequently badly thrashed and bitten by their parents before they learn their lesson. Perhaps the aversion of the little seals to the water is a survival from a day when seals were land animals like the rest of us.

Air. Leo B. Buckeridgo has sent in this acrostic on the name of NewZealand’s leading public man: — Man of metal, true and bright, Assuredly your cause is right: Sincere as friend—or foe in fight; Sustained in honour, great your might : Esteemed .undaunted, ZeaLnndia’s light Youthful in spirit, victor-dight.

When we should be having our Indian summer we are haviny winter. In the depth of this zero chilliness I am reminded by a lady correspondent of a certain perfect night lass week. It was no longer ago than Thursday. She writes: “Do you remember how perfect that night was? What a beautiful twilight closed a sunshiny day. Did you .see the golden light which illumined the sky in the and made all hills stand out in clear line? From the hay the spectacle was sublime. 1 looked across at the wireless and was suddenly startled. What I saw seemed a true representation of Calvary, with the three crosses on the hill. Against the golden background of sky it"sfood out remarkably clear and realistic, a strange and wonderful sight.”

A traveller passing through HongKong wished to call on the Bishop. Ha hailed a rickshaw coolie, but could not make him understand, so a passing local resident assisted. “Coolie,” he said. “Yessir.” “Yow savvee?” “Yessir.” “Wantchee catchee topside jossman Number One.” The translation of this fine specimen of “pidgin English’’ is “Top-side” equals “heaven.” “jossman” stands for priest or minister, and so “tep-side jossman” means “Christian missionary.’’ “Number One” is, of course, the chief “topside jossman”; in other words, the Bishop! HUMOUR. It should not bo a harsh and cruel thing That only makes of life a mockery. Bruising' with jest some cherished sympathy. Or tainting with its touch the blossoming Of minds as delicate and shy as spring; Nor should it with derision drive away Ideals that any alien breath may sway: Nor vet make sport of hapless blun- ‘ dering. . . . But it should have a mission km to love, Finding continual and gay surprise In dull, familiar tasks, and warning of What loneliness in frigid wisdom lies, And what delight, ’mid even worn discard, . One may discover in cue’s own ciooryard. r 3