WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 11, 8 October 1923, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

.(By

T.D.H.)

Hell must be a terrible place if there is the same trouble about the coal that we have on' earth. Lord Curzon inclines to the view that; France is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs—but Germany’s opinj ion seems to be that only a goose would lay golden eggs. The Chinese mandarins are giving the diplomats at Peking the pip. Two American ambassadors, we are told this morning, are resigning because they can’t afford the expense of sticking to their billets. No one but a millionaire can afford to be a United States ambassador, for in most of the foreign capitals there is no permanent embassy building, and each ambassador has to rent a home for himself out' of his £5500 a year. The late Mr. Joseph Choate, when out late one night in London was bailed up by a policeman who asked why he did not go home, and he replied: “I have no home. I am the American ambassador.” Americans on tour often cannot rely even on the latest directories as showing the addresses of the American ambassadors, and frequently have to drive around to the other embassies until they find some one who knows. If the ambassador is; very rich, a palace is rented; if he is poor, he lives in a humble lodging.

Mark Twain in his day wrote several biting criticisms of the way his country ran tho ambassadorial business. “A country,” he said, “which cannot afford ambassador’s wages should not have ambassadors. Think of a seven*-teen-thousand-five-hundred-dohar ambassador! Particularly for America. Why, it is the most ludicrous spectacle, the most inconsistent and incougruouß spectacle contrived by even the most diseased imagination. It is a billionaire in a paper collar, a king in a breech-clout, an archangel in a tin halo.”

One recent United States Ambassador in London. Mr. Davis, had to borrow £14,000 in order to accept the position. British and French Ambassadors receive about twice as much salary as the American ones do, with a free residence into the bargain. The American diplomats, moreover, are all amateurs, and when the war broke out in 1914 there was only one United States Ambassador in any European capital who had had more than 16 months’ experience of diplomacy.' Each President puts bis friends in, and each new Ambassador takes anything up to 18 months to reach his post after appointment, and is fired as soon as the new President is inaugurated. It seems a peculiar way of running foreign affairs—but the proof cf the pudding is in the eating, and Uncle Sam to-day has most of the gold in the world locked in his bursting vaults, while Europe, with its professional diplomats 1

“X” writes: “I see it has been suggested that Mr. Hickson’s faith-heal-ing patients should be examined by medical, men before and after _ treatment. 'Do you not think a reciprocal arrangement would be more beneficial which Mr. Hickson in his turn should examine the medical men’s patients before and after treatment? The two sets of statistics could then be compared, with due allowance in each for the patients who simply got well of their own accord?”—My qomfsponj dent would be well advised to refer this matter to the British Medical Association, as controversial matters cannot be allowed in this column.

“H.T.P.” writes asking whether anyone in New Zealand has ever attempted to make a dew-pond. The “Transactions” of the New Zealand Institute do not record any dicsussion on this mysterious subject, and I can find no record of any such attempt. It was stated in the London “Daily Mail” last year that the only people left in Britain who knew the art of constructing dew-ponds were two brothers living near Basingstoke, in Hampshire. Dew-ponds have existed in Britain since the Stone Age, and. are to be found chiefly on high land in the chalk country, where there is no convenient water at hand for live stock. Dew-pond advocates assert that such a pond properly constructed will remain filled with water through the driest seasons. Disbelievers in the dew-pond theory contend that all the water that gets into them is rain water, but Messrs. A. J. and G. Hubbard in their book, “Neolithic Dewponds and Cattle-ways,” state that they constructed a pond which collected hundreds of gallons of dew on a night when there was no rain.

Details as to the construction of a new pond were given by the agricultural correspondent of the “Daily Mail” in July of last year. He wrote: —“The earth is dug out to a depth of five feet in the centre, sloping gradually to the ground level at the edges, where it is banked up about 18 inches. The pond is lined with clay, which is covered with a layer of straw. The straw is covered with lime, and the lime must on no .account ba allowed to mingle with tho clay lining. With the lime a snecial substance is mixed, and it is in the constitution of this substance that the secret lies. On the top of the lime a coating of plain earth • is laid and hammered down with a special wooden tool. The pond is then finished. It takes probably six months to fill, but once full it never empties and requires no attention. It might be expected that the straw lining would rot. but, one of the brothers _ showed me the straw in perfect condition in a pond he was repairing made by his grandfather 84 rears ago.” Other descriptions of the method of constructing dew-ponds make no mention of anv secret substance, but state that the bottom of the hollow made is thickly coated with ■ dry straw, which in turn is carefully covered bv a layer of well-chosen, finely puddled clay, care being taken to cover the straw at tho edges of tho pool. The face of the clay is closely strewn with stones.. According to some accounts the pond must Ito filled artificially to begin with. The whole thing is very abstruse, and the scientists who believe in dew-ponds and those who don’t, usually become quite rude to each other before the end of tho argument is reached. The fact that it is eighty years this year since duelling received its quietus in Britain has recalled some duelling stories. One of the prime assets for a duellist to possess is self-confidence. There is, for instance the tale of two men who determined to fight a duel. The first took a return ticket to the place of combat, but tho second took a single only. He instilled his action to his friends on the following excellent grounds: “You see.” he said. “I shall Use the other fellow’s ticket for coming home with!” “PHYLLIDA, MY PHYLLIDAI” The ladies of St. James’s! They’re painted to the eyes, Their white it stays for ever, Their red it never dies : But Phyllida, my Phyllida! Her colour comes and goes; It trembles to a lily, — It wavers to a rose. —Austin. Dobson.