RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 83, 2 January 1929, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmo*.) “What is the solution of the reckless driving problem?” asks a pedestrian. It can be given in a sentence. « » • Now that the holidays are over we can expect some fine weather to assist us in settliug down to another twelve mouths’ work. • » • \ We are told that there are 20,000 useless words in the E' -rlish language. Somebody must have been cheeking up Hansard during .he holidays. For the next few weeks no man should be criticised for the ties he wears or the cigars he smokes. It takes some time to work off those Christmas presents. • » • Who says we have no ancient history ? We refer to motor-cars .in terms of horse-power and the front of a locomotive is still called a cowbatcher. • « • One of the reasons why Lyall Bay was selected as Wellington’s airport was the proximity of water for the take-off. of seaplanes. It is therefore interesting to learn that Montreal will soon have a special harbour for seaplanes when the project approved by the Harbour Commission and National Defence has been carried to completion. The seaplane harbour’s location is considered ideal. Two breakwaters 300 ft. lon- will be built out into the St. Lawrence and will enclose a stretch of calm water of 4000 ft. by 2000 ft., enough to provide dequate space for the aircraft to take off from and land in. In addition to providing mooring facilities and two flor. ' ~ platforms at which aviators aud passengers may embark or disembark.. there will be Customs, and immigration buildings and restaurants and waiting rooms. Flood lights and aerial beacons will also be installed for night flying. New Zealand politicians have reason to feel thankful that they have no diamond difficulties.to add to the other problems of State. In South Africa, the story of its diamonds has been its history, and the problems inseparable from the control of a huge gem industry are many indeed. We read in the news last week that the South African Government’s prohibition, of diamond prospecting is causing much dissatisfaction, and the outcome will be watched with interest in all parts of the world. For sixty years the great diamond country which has overshadowed all other gem-producing areas, has been South Africa. Tue diamond industry was born in 1867 when a Boer child playing on the bank of the Orange River picked up a pretty stone and took it home. The pebble turned out to be a diamond worth £5OO. It was nearly a year, however, before other gems were found. One of these, now known as the “Star of South Africa,” was found by a native and was eventually sold for £25,000. ’After that the rush commenced, and men of every nationality made the weary journey across the barren lands to the diamond fields. By 1870 there were- 10,000 miners at work. After the first twenty years of diamond-mining in South Africa, the control of the industry was obtained by the Consolidated South African Mines, but this combination is now threatened with serious rivalry. For the past two years new alluvial deposits have occasioned rushes which have brought back -the days of 186 S. The diamond yield of other newlydeveloped mines is also threatening an increase. The Belgian Congo, the Gold Coast, and other areas which have been producing for but a few years, have recently doubled their output. South Africa is faced with the problem of protecting herself against her own riches. She is endeavouring to lock up her latest treasures to shield the world from too many diamonds. She is safeguarding her own mines, and has legislated against .the production of too many gems. The trouble, however, lies in the fact that where a year or so ago diamonds were placed on the market by agreement of a few companies, to-day thousands of small owners, who raced across the veldt in the rushes of recent years, are independently marketing their winnings from the earth.

Once again the question of reforming the House of Lords has arisen; it is a problem that has always proved a difficult one, as the House.is not founded on any principle. It is not even known when the House of was established. Rumour has it that Edward I intended to create a number of hereditary peerages, and historians have spent the intervening time in discussing whether a summons to b-s Parliaments in 1283 and 1290 did, or did not, establish the House of Lords. From such vague beginnings the Jn; stitution originated. It was in loto that this body of peers, created to advise the King and representing the landed wealth of Britain, received its first warning of impending trouble. Learned judges declared that the presence of spiritual lords was not essential to Parliament, and this decision started a conflict between the spiritual and temporal forces that culminated in the dissolution of the monasteries, and the dividing of their lands among the few lucky temporal lords. The spiritual lords were then reduced from 47 to 21, and to-day the number is only five more than that.

For the first two or three hundred years the House of Lords numbered over eighty peers. James I added another 54. and the Tories added another 16 in order to pass the Treaty of Utrecht through both Houses. At the accession of the House of Hoover, the House of Lords consisted ot 230 peers, manv of whom had considerable power. By the time Queen Victoria ascended the throne the House of Lords had grown to a strength of 600. but conditions were chaotic. Some peers sat in the right of their fathers, others in the right of their mothers, wives, or even sous. Many peers were unable to sit in the House of Lords at all, and some of the lords who sat were not peers. In 1832 an obstinate House of Lords was forced to pass a Bill by the creation of many new peers.' Lloyd George did a similar thing in 1911. Thus it became more and more evident that the House of Lords was stripped of its powers, and since 1911 its fate has been in the balance. This then is the tangled skein that some Prime Minister will have to unravel before the reform of the House of Lords can be effectively dealt wiife