WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 8, 5 October 1926, Page 8

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By.

T.D.H.)

The operations at the Kent Terrace reserve remind us once more thaA trees don’t grow in Wellington.—The City Fathers always cut down or dig them up when they start.

General de Rivera has been telling the Spaniards what, sort of a Government it is that they like.—This is really very considerate of the General, as nobody else in the country is free to talk on this particular topic.

It is an open question whether Admiral von Tirpitz in his new book is engaged in “torpedoing” the ex-Kaiser or in trying valiantly to whitewash him.

The other day Mr. Bernard Shaw had his seventieth birthday, and the German Minister of Foreign Affairs sent him the congratulations of the German Government. Mr Shaw in writing back to tlie Minister expressing his thanks contrasted the German action, with the indifference of his own Government towards himself, for official Britain seems to have been totally uninterested in what precise age Mr. Shaw may have reached. A German correspondent has since cruelly hastened to point out to Mr. Shaw that the German Foreign Office is frequently too glib and does not know the value 'of silence, as Hie British Foreign Office does. Hence, lie says, Britain is great, and Germany is small. However, every little dig Mr. Shaw has at the foibles of John Bull alwavs rejoices the heart of Fritz in the Fatherland.

The other day Mr. Shaw and Mr. H. G. Wells took' part in a controversy in the London “Daily Herald,” and this has recalled how, a good many years ago, these two knights of the pen joined issue in a great to-do that upset the Fabian Society. Mr. Wells was all for pushing out the “old gang” in the society, and Mr. Shaw happened to be ope of them. In a debate on the situation Mr. Wells had complained about the long delay of the “old gang” in answering his memorandum. “Mr. Wells was very slow in completing his own memorandum,” replied Shaw, “but we do not complain. In the midst of it he went to America and wrote a book about it. And a verv good book, too. But whilst I was drafting the ‘old gang’s’ replv I wrote a play.” Here he paused, look round the room in a bewildered wav, and seemed to have lost the train ’of his speech. The silence was really painful. Then he said: “Ladies and gentlemen, I paused there to give Mr. Wells the oppor-. tunity to exclaim, and of a full heart, ‘And a jolly good play, tool’ ”

Do mosquitoes prefer blondes? A suggestion to this effect was made recently bv a correspondent of the London “Observer.” Sandflies, so far as we know, are not particular, but it mav be that the mosquito is hypercritical about his victuals. One devastating gentleman has declared that bugs of all kinds are partial to blondes, from the domestic flea down to the tuberculosis bacillus. The result of .this alleged universal affection of bugdom for blondes is asserted to be that the blondes are going under and being killed off ab lib. As the true Nordic is a blonde—whatever else he tnav be—those who believe in the Divine mission of the Nordic races to boss the earth might do well to look into this important bug question.

Talking of mosquitoes, by the way, we wonder what happens to the mosquitoes that bite Signor Mussolini. .. . But a well-bred Italian mosquito, doubtless, wouldn’t dare to do this.

They have been carrying out some alterations to the drains at Buckingham Palace, and the ' English papers arc hoping that no discoveries will be made like those reported by Str Robert Rawlinson, the sanitary expert called in to inspect Windsor Castle after, the death of the Prince Consort. “Cesspools full of putrid refuse and drains of the worst description/ said Sir Robert, “existed beneath the basement. . . . Twenty of these cesspools were removed from the upper ward, and twentv-eiglit from the middle and lower wards. Little wonder that the tvnlioid germ, like Solomon’s spider, ‘took hold with her bands and was in King’s palaces.’ ”

The museum at Lloyd’s in London, the headquarters of marjne insurance, has lately received a copy of tbp first known marine insurance policy, drawn up in 1584 in respect of the St. Uary of Marseilles It has been remarked that this seems to indicate that the business, of insuring both ships and lives came into operation about the same time, for the first known "personal” assurance policy was taken out by a William (ribbons in 1583. By 1650 life assurance societies had come into existence, the members—limited in number —paying a certain fixed contribution in respect of each death, the last survivor taking the balance. When the Amicable Perpetual Assurance Society received a royal charter in 1/05 the premiums were fixed at £6 4s. P« r an,lu "’’ irrespective of age, though a little later it was stipulated that new members must not be over 45. There were no medical examinations. Those who wished to join bad to appear before the d'rc* l ?" —who wore scarlet fur-trimmed, robes for thfe occasion—and furnish particulars on oath as to their health and age.

A Press message received in from China a few weeks back told that pirates boarded a steamer in the Canton Delta and forcibly removed 0000 cases of oil into waiting boats, but added: .1 ie crew were not molested, the only incident’ being the handing of his personal card by the pirate chief to the captain of the vessel.”

The wife of a dying man sent out for a preacher to come to the bedside of her husband, who was no better than he should have been. The preacher came and said, “Yon had, better renounce the devil, my friend. “Renounce the devil!"’ exclaimed t ie dying man. “Why, I am not m the position to make any enemies now. MINISTRATION. Let me remember, now, how day by These loved, familiar, constant thing* return t , . The morning at my door, end the stow wav . , . _ Of dusk that kindles »he low stars to burn-. Beyond my window, summers changing round . . ... Of early bloom and late will come and go. . . And winter evenings ending wrtn sound, . .», ■» Hushed in the wide, wrote snenoes of snow. So, dav bv day . - And some nnreckoned year Will find me standing as a lover stands, Waiting a twilight that will touch me, liere, Familiarly, like tender, straying hands . - • And in some secret way I cannot tell. It will be well with me . . it will he well. —Dawid Morton » “sOadnak.'’