WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 260, 3 August 1928, Page 10

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

NOTES AT RANDOM

(By

T.D.H.)

One good thing about the halfwidening of Lower Taranaki Street is that before it is all over it will probably make Wellington’s ratepayers forget the Northland tunnel job. Last week when the cargo steamer Waltomo broke down in the Tasman Sea she sent out a wireless message and another steamer went straight to the spot and picked her up. The Waitomo’s trouble was a broken tail-shaft, but it was not ever thus when tailshafts broke in mid-ocean, a thing they have a way of doing now and then. Thirty years ago when the Perthshire broke her tail-shaft in the Tasman she drifted about for 47 days before she was found by the Talune round about Christmas, 1899. In the same year the Waikato, when bound from London to Wellington, broke her tail-shaft after leaving the Cape, and drifted about under such sail as she could hoist for 103 days until finally picked up and towed into Fremantle. Two years later the Monowai had a similar mishap on a voyage from the Bluff to Melbourne, and was eventually' found and towed to Sydney by the Manuka.

Both the Perthshire and the Monowai were tracked down by Captain Spinks, though a lot of other ships were searching in each case. As a commander in the Union Company Captain Spinks had made a hobby of studying ocean tides by throwing bottles overboard at various points in his voyages. These bottles contained* papers giving the position of the ship and requesting _ the finder to forward them to Captain Spinks with particulars as to when and where found. The captain got a good number of his bottles back again, enough to form fairly sound opinion as to the direction in which a broken-down ship would drift in the Tasman Sea. At any rate, it was he who commanded the Talune which picked ap the Perthshire, and he was in command of the Mokoia when she found the Monowai, and in both cases he was acting on what he had learnt from his bottles.

The year 1909 was another bad year for tail-shafts. The cargo liner Port Stephens broke down in the Tasman in that year and drifted south down towards the ice until the ship Ravenscourt sighted her 35 days later. _ The Ravenscourt took the crew off" and landed them at Otago Heads, but nothing was ever seen o.t the Port Stephens, a Newcastle tug searching in vain for her after her abandonment. The Union Company’s Hawea had 28 days of it adrift off the New South Wales coast that year, but finally made port under her steam the engineers having managed to effect temporary repairs. An ' Australian coastal steamer, the Pilbarra, was also 13 days adrift in 1909, as was the Federal liner Norfolk for 13 days in the Indian Ocean. It was not until 1909 that wireless first began to save the situation in this sort of mishap. One of its notable first uses at sea was to land the notorious wife murderer, Dr. Crippen, when travelling in disguise across the Atlantic with a lady friend dressed as a boy. The same year that saw the Port Stephens disaster also saw the Republic-Florida collision in the Atlantic, when help vas summoned by radio, an event which brought the wireless operators well into the limelight as the hero of the day.

A typographical error in one of the principal morning papers of Rome, “Il Messaggero,” caused the loss of their jobs to several printers who were held responsible for it. In describing the .Latin Press Conference recently held at Havana, the “Messaggero” concluded the article with the words: “The meeting ended with shouts of Viv a I’ltalia!’ ‘Via il Re!’ ‘Via il Duce!’” Whether purposely or unintentionally the printers had omitted the second “v” from the Italian word “viva,” which means “long live” —the word “via” means “away with.” Readers of the “Messaggero” regarded the omission as a mistake, but the authorities took a different flew. As. soon as tne error was noticed the police gave orders to seize the paper, and an inquiry was opened. So far the cable news has contained no word of any executions.

A deputy sheriff in America was sent to levy on some household furniture to satisfy a judgment. He began by making an inventory of the contents of the dining-room. His written list was found a little later. It read: “One dining-room table, six diningroom chairs, one mahogany sideboard, one decanter whisky, full.” The word “full” was crossed out, and at the bottom of the sheet of paper could be made out the words, “One revolving door-mat.”

Ballplayer: “We gave the umpire fifty bucks to let us win the game. Friend: “And still you lost?” Player: “Yeah—the umpire was crooked.” SILHOUETTE. Of course, J thought I’d never let him stay," ■ But, anyhow, I’d save him from the street Aud dreadful woes that might befall a cat So very small and. wabbly on Ins feet. He was a kitten black as licorice From spiky tail to wee, shoe-button nose. His eyes were blackish gray, and dark as soot Were all the cushions underneath his toes. I’d bought him from an urchin for a dime, And, for another dime, when day grew dim, I’d buy a vial of chloroform, I thought, And put a swift but gentle end to him; Or send him to a shelter for stray This might be kinder. Then I looked, and, oh, He made the quaintest little silhouette Against the kitchen surbase, white as snow! A week.before I’d seen some silhouettes Bring forth, at auction, bids absurdly high, And these weren’t soft and cuddly ana alive; , These couldn’t give a wlnte-tootbed, pink-mouthed cry! And so, I thought I’d name him “Silhouette,” But call him "Silly,” almost all the time, For silhouettes are quite the rage just now And one can't often buy one for a dime! —Violet Alleyn Storey.