RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 33, 2 November 1928, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) Judging by the way it accepts dictation, Italy must be a nation of stenographers. • * * Dean Inge, whose gloomy utterances are again appearing in the Press, once coined the aphorism that “a wise man, like the moon, shows his bright side to the world.” One shudders to thinlf of the worthy Dean’s other side. * * * The'weather man was slightly out in his forecast last week when he pu'dicted a stormy week-end, but haven’t we been paying for it since! A correspondent who takes strong objection to the very damp seating accommodation of the tram ears during wet weather, suggests that a system ofjlrxiug should be evolved to ensure patrons a safe aud dry seat on all occasions. Personally, we have but. a passing quaint.-nice with tram seats in any weather, being ou much more Intimate terms with the hanging straps. Corp sequently we have not been affected by the prevailing dampness. We have noticed, however, that quite a number of people have been endeavouring to pick “safe and dry seats” which will offer a measure of security ou November 14.

The centenary of the “Spectator," which is referred to in the news today, gains added interest for New Zealanders by virtue of the fact that its founder, Robert Rintoul. after whom a street is named in Wellington, was a colleague of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, promoter of the New Zealand Land Company. Both these gentlemen took a leading part in expounding a farseeing Colonial policy in their day. Rintoul established the “Spectator” in 1828, and edited it for 30 years. Reference to the history of the journal was made in “The Dominion’’ recently.

The establishment of a refrigerated Pageant, of History amid the frozen wilds of Siberia is a novel, if, as the cablegram remarks, a gruesome pi?oject, and no doubt ought to provide a great attraction to the tourists of posterity. Occasionally there are found embedded iu the ice towards the extreme north of Russia the perfectly preserved carcasses of mammoths dead thousands of years, and this has probably given rise to the idea. At least twenty frozen mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses have been discovered by Russian scientists, and some have been shipped on ice to the capital. How these great beasts became extinct is a mystery. Some, no doubt, by reason of their weight were held prisoners in quagmires, but the others ? In the stomach of the Beresovska mammoth, discovered a quarter of a century ago, were found species of modern Arctic vegetation, which exclude the theory of climatic change. The splendidly preserved flesh of this monarch was described as resembling beef, and dogs accompanying the expedition ate as much of it as was thrown them. The trade in “fossil” ivory, brought from Siberia to China is at least a thousand rears old, and several thousand pairs have been marketed within the last .couple of centuries. Ancient Eastern 'traders believed them to be the tusks of a monstrous rat which dwelt in the dark Arctic caverns, one shrewd old theoriser going so far as to advance the belief that their sub-soil manoeuvres were the probable cause of earthquakes 1

The announcement of the sale of five hundred Soviet art treasures in Berlin on November 6 is causing controversy owing to the doubt as to their legal ownership. Now that some order has been established out of the turmoil a. few of the princely families are endeavouring to recover through the lawcourts possessions which were con cated from them at the time of the Revolution. In February, 1917. when the conflict was at its height, the private enterprise of a group of Russian artists, art historians, and amateurs, under the presidency of Maxim Gorki, succeeded in carrying out effective measures to forestall possible vandalism. By far the most important of these measures was the transformation of the erstwhile imperial palaces into national museums. Later, in the Bolshevik coup d-etat of October, a cer tain amount of damage was done, but thn Winter Palace, which suffered most, did not contain any really firstclass works of art.

The specialists who undertook the lenair of the monuments damaged iu the bombardment of Moscow, Kiev, .tnt Jaroslav, profited by this opportunity to make a deep study of l ' ie (I scu ’ pt " r f H.‘ aud admirable frescoes ot the twelfth century were brought to light at the Cathedral of Dimitri at Vladimir. were discovered in Moscow 1,11,1 frescoes at Tcliernigoff. In addition the Russian Government created special commissions for preserving the palaces and museums of Petrograd, and in the other great centres as well as near the imperial residences, and these accomplished much good work. Not only did these save from destruction historical relics and works of art, of which thev assumed the guardianship, but thev made a general census of the art treasures contained in the buildings, and this task, meticulously carried out, revealed the existence of a quantity of rare objects which had been forgotten for many years. Even Hie personal apartments ot the Tsar Nicholas in the Alexander Palaeo at Tsai’koe-Selo were kept intact, and all buildings of historical interest were transformed into museums and placed under official protection. In this manner were saved (he palaces of the Counts Sclieremetieff, Strogonoff. Bobrinsky. Sehonvaloff. ami others at Petrograd. Ostroukhoff, at Moscow, and Khanenko, in Kiev.

Air Commander C. 11. Samson, " ho has just been reappointed to the Royal Air Force, had a. distinguished war career in the Royal Naval Air Service. During the war he bombed Brussels, and commanded combined seaplane awl aeroplane attacks upon Ostend. Bruges, ami Zeebrugge. besides serving in Belgium. France, Egypt, and at the Dardanelles. He was mentioned in dispatches five times, was awarded the D. 5.0., the A.F.C.. and in 1919 was created C.M.G. His foreign decorations include the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre. Comiimiiiler Samson also developed many improvements in aircraft, winch were adopted by the British Government.