WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 185, 1 May 1924, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

The present trouble with the Imperial airship scheme is that no one can bring it down to earth and when it gets going, probably, no one will be able to keep it up in the air.

The American Church is having such hard work deciding what religion is that it can’t have much time left over for teaching it.

Mr. Snowden, who has just brought in the first British Labour Budget, is the inventor of the phrase, 4 ‘the icilo rich,” and it has been a life-long ambition of his to tax out of existence that section of society known to its friends as “the leisured classes. A rose by any other name may smell as sweet, but in the opinion of those who have this commodity on hand there seems to be all the difference in the wide world between “leisure and “idleness.” Mr. Snowden was long ago marked out by public the Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer, but as there is no love lost between him and Mr. Ramsay MacDonald there was some doubt as to whether ho would get the post. He is the son of a Yorkshire weaver, gained a Civil Service post, was crippled by an accident early in life, and during a long period on his back developed the ideas that made the prophet of Socialism in Britain. He has a very bitter tongue, but of late years has mellowed much. Mrs. Snowden, who is an exceedingly able lady, went to Russia a while ago to see Bolshevism in being, with the result that neither she nor her husband has the least use for it.

Some time ago I wrote about the ancient helmet dredged up from Wellington Harbour many years ago and now in the Dominion Museum. It has been suggested that the helmet is a Spanish morion, and T.D.H. indulged in some speculations on a suggestion thrown out by Mr. Elsdon Best that Juan Fernandez, who claimed to have discovered a continent somewhere on this side of the Pacific, might actually have been in Wellington Harbour long before Tasman ever sighted New Zealand. Mr. Hamilton, of the Museum staff, it is interesting to learn, has been looking up such works on armour as are to be found locally, and states while it needs an expert to place the morion definitely it certainly appears to belong to the sixteenth century. There is no doubt that unless Juan Fernandez was a first-class liar he did arrive in 1576 at some spot that sounds remarkably as though it must have been New Zealand, and if he reached here it is quite feasible that he may have come into Wellington Harbour.

The mysterious disappearance of Lieutenant-Colonel Jarrott, who. a few , months back resigned the chairmanship of the British Automobile Association, recalls the fact that it was while staying at Oaklea, Wimbledon, last year as the guest of Mrs. Jarrott, that the Duke of Orleans, according to the London “Daily Express,” went off his head and had to be removed and placed under restraint, and was reported to be . moodily complaining that “I, the King of France, am a prisoner.” It was explained that the Duke had suffered an attack of malaria and dysentery, causing delirium, as a result of his last expedition to Africa in search of specimens for his famous natural history museum. Colonel Jarrott was educated as a lawyer, but became one of the pioneers in the British motor industry, with which he has been connected ever since 1896, and in 1908 was the holder of the world’s motor-car speed record over 50 miles.

By his marriage to the ©x-Oountess of Rosslyn in 1903, Air. Jarrott became connected with a large slice of the peerage. Airs. Jarrott was originally a Miss Vyner, of Gautby Hall, in Lincolnshire, and was closely related to both the late Lord Lucas and the late Alarquis of Ripon. One of her nephews is heir presumptive to the Marquis of Nothampton who was m New Zealand about eighteen months ago, while another nephew, Mr. Clare Vyner, put through one of the largest property deals recorded in Britain for some time past by paying £250,000 last December for the Studley Royal estate of his kinsman, the late Alarquis of Ripon. Included in the purchase were the remains of Fountains Abbey, one of the most beautiful and romantic monastic ruins in Britain. Airs Jarrott’s first husband was that happy-go-lucky peer, the Earl ofßossIvn, whose impecumosity led to his appearance in all sorts of roles, including a career on the stage as Air. Erskine.” Early in 1902 he divorced h’s countess, who soon after married Mr. Jarrott, while the Earl wedded an American actress, who, in turn, divorced him after two years of married life, upon which he courageously made a third venture into matrimony.

It was in 1846 that the New Zealand Government made its first venture w th a naval craft of its own. This was the long boat from the Tyne, a barque which had ended a voyage on the rocks off Sinclair Head. A carronade was mounted aboard her, and also a brass gun. and was sent ud to Porirua under Midshipman AlcKillop, who soon afterwards disunhimself by effecting the arrest of the redoubtable Te Rauparaha: at Plimmerton. This energetic officer was rewarded for these services bv beino- promoted to a lieutenancy, and appointed to H.AI.S. Driver. In a naner written some years back, Mr. Herbert Baillie told the story of New Zealand’s connection with the Navy in its infant davs of settlement. It was Seaman William Odgers, of H.M.S. Niger who, in 1860. won the first Victoria ’ Cross awarded for service m New Zealand. He was the first man to enter the Maori pa at Waireka, which was assaulted and captured by fl party of seamen from the Niger, ana he hauled down the Alaon flag.

“A PAf ” writes: You might add to your list of peerage pitfalls that of Lord Wemyss, holder of an ancient Scottish earldom, and Lord Mester Wemvss, a distinguished admiral ana post-war baron of Great Britain. Many )wople appear to find a difficulty in distinguishing between them

Have vou heard this version of the story of the Scotsman’s nose? Two old friends in the Land o Cakes met after some years, and one looked crito callv at the other’s highly coloured nose. “Jock.” he said, “I’ve been thinking it must have cost you a great deal of money to have got your nose into this condition. Aye, it has, Sandv,” said the other, but its no so much the initial expense as the upkeep.” YOUNG AND OLD. When all the world is young, lad. And all tho trees are green; And every goose a swan, lad, And every lass a queen; The hey for boot and horse, lad, And round the world away; Young blood must have its course, lad, And every dog his day. When all the world is old. lad, And all the trees are brown; And all the sport is stale, lad, And all the wheels run down; Creep home, and take your place there, The spent and maimed among; God grant you find one face there You loved' when all was young. — Kingalv,