WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 192, 9 May 1924, Page 6

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By.

T.D.H.)

A church congress at Philadelphia has been much disturbed by differences on the prohibition question.— Drink is evidently not the only thing that breaks up happy homes. Dr. Bumpus heartily supports Dr< Allan 'Thomson’s proposal that the first thing to do with the Dominion Museum is to set up a Wellington board of trustees to run it. Once the chilly hand of Government control is removed the Dominion Museum must make the same rapid progress as the War Memorial and the Art Gallery. Dr. Thomson yesterday compared the Dominion Museum with the New York Museum. Unless it is considered injurious to local civic pride to dwell on the fact, T.D.H. would point out that Wellington is still somewhat smaller in size than New York. Nevertheless, they do regard museums differently in America from the way the Government regards the Dominion Museum. In our local institution one gets the impression that the city has been bequeathed the eifects of a deceased rag and bone merchant. In reality, there are all sorts of interesting things there, but they are not displayed, and cannot be displayed in the space available. An American museum expert, with some money to spend, could make out of our collection an exhibit that people would come from far and near to see. In Washington, for instaince, one can see nearly all the strange races of the world in life-size groups in glass cases engaged in all sorts of characteristic occupations with their implements about them. With every exhibit there is the fullest explanation, and the visitor who wants to know more finds standard reference books at hand where he can sit and read in comfort. An afternoon iu an institution laid out on these lines is real painless education.

“Good heavens 1” said the fair visitor, “you call this a Parliamentary library 1 What on earth do menibers of Parliament want with all this fiction?”

“A most essential study for a political career,” replied Dr. Bumpus, who was showing the young lady the sights of the city “These volumes, also,” added the Doctor, pointing to some shelves full of Hansard) “come under the heading of imaginative literature, though not to be recommended for inclusion in a library of entertaining knowledge.” “But who pays for it at all?” asked the young lady. “Ah, madam,” said ,the Doctor, “why ask such questions? Think how little it costs the country to have its legislators reading novels compared with other things they might be doing in the public interest.”

It is rarely that a merchant ship gets a whole book to itself, 'out everybody interested in ships and the sea will bo interested to learn that Mr. Basil Lubbock has written a fine, big, fat volume about the history of the .famous old Cutty Sark, about the finest sailing vessel that ever took the water. Mr. Lubbock tells some racy yarns of the Cutty Sark and those that sailed in her. It used to be said, for instance, that Captain Woodgett, her most famous skipper, carried so much sail and handled her in such a wav in dirty weather that even hardbitten old hands would start to pray. Captain Woodgett. noticing this one day, got out a Prayer Book, and said that as the hands seemed to want to pray, he would hold a prayer meeting. The men were kneeling on the deck when one of them opened his eyes and looked round on tihe ship taking enough water to wash them overboard. “Now then. Bill Jones, roared Captain Woodgett, “shut your damned eyes and let me finish tins prayer.”

Commodore Sir James Brisbane, referred to by “H. 8. . yesterday is not to be confused with General Sir Thomas Brisbane, after which Brisbane is named. General Brisbane had retired from the Governorship of New South Wales a few months before his namesake arrived in H.Af .8. A\ arspite. It was he who sent Oxlev to explore the coast northward from Sydney with a view to finding a sit© for a new convict settlement and the result was that Oxley found a river which he named after the Governor. General Brisbane has his niche in history as the first Australian administrator to encourage th© immigration of free settlers. ue.. was also a very keen astronomer, and' sot up the first observatory « Australia, where he catal r A<i<l /Soo . hitherto scarcely known to astronomers, for which work many honours were conferred on him in England. It is said that when he sheathed his sword after the Battle of Vittoria in the Peninsular AVar. his first remark as he surveyed the battle-field was Wh at a beautiful site for an observatory. As General Brisbane was more fond of looking at the stars than counting the cash the Imperial Government in 1825 sent someone else out to govern Australia.

There are fashions in forgery, it seems, according to an article in tho Philadelphia “Saturday Evening Post. Forgery of signatures has largely gone out” the expert criminal who used to another man’s name to a cheque has given this up; he now gets a genuine cheque and devotes his art to “raising” the amount or changing tne name of the payee. , The ingenuity of such “artful dodgers” almost passes belief. They fill perforations tn cheques with pulp; take out ink with acids: iron out corrugated figu.es, retint and resurface the paper and put in a larger amount with the same maonin© that was originally used to defeat their nefarious efforts. One ot these gentry could even tear a cheque in two and then restore it so that detectives failed to find the break.

Air. Balfour Brown in his reminiscences tells a story of George Bubb Dodington. the eighteenth, century diarist, who was very lethargic.. allin" asleep one day after dinner with Sir Richard Temple and Lord Cobham. the latter reproached Dodington with his drowsiness Dodington denied having been asleep ; and to prove that he had not offered to repeat all Lord Cobham had been saying Gobham challeged him to do so. Dodrngtoii repeated a story, and Lord Cobham owned he had been telling it. “And yet,” said Dodington I did not hear a word of it, but f w ®nt to sleen because 1 knew that, about this time you would tell that stoiy. BOND STREET. So w© meet again, after Tho years—the long dead J ears. So we meet again. Laughing such silly laughter. Speaking such trivial words.. Speaking of sunshine and rain. . And towns, and books and things-— , . . Down by the water still th# poplars wave, And the chestnut swings Tn the wind. And in the night Sometimes, the dead leaves Patter like falling tears! This vear they lie. a little heap, all piled Beneath the trees— So we meet again And part, after the years. If you had held your hands out wide To me, I think I should have cried Like a foolish child! •—Lady Irene Butler,