RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 95, 16 January 1929, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Cosmos.) There is a move afoot to abolish the word “waiter.” At long.last the restaurateurs have realised that it is the diner who does the waiting. « * ■ • Mussolini has designed a costume to be worn by women. Now he’s got to make them wear it. » » • Someone has suggested that raising bees will help the farmer. He might try it, and if he fails, it will not be the first time he has been stung. So many men insert notices in the newspapers these days to the effect that they will no longer be responsible for debts contracted in their name by so and so, that a correspondent suggests it is high time some silent sufferer responded with something like this: “On and after this date I shall not be responsible for the idiosyncrasies of my husband.”

A British social worker who has been pleading with women to throw more work in the way of the woollen mills, recently drew attention to an interesting biological fact, viz.: “It used to take the wool off two sheep to clothe a woman each year; now, they say, a few silkworms can manage the job with ease.” After reading the foregoing, some people may reach the conclusion that our sheep have adopted a go-slow attitude, or that the silkworms have gone in for mass production; neither theory is correct. Abbreviated garments account for the change.

“There is no accounting for tastes” is a proverb as old as history itself. . No more convincing demonstration of the truth of this adage has been given in recent times than that presented by a Mr. Conway, a foreigner, who ate a package of razor blades. Mr./Conway not only ate the package of blades, but therefter sallied out upon the highways and by-ways of his city in his pyjamas, assuring all and sundry that he had eaten a razor blade. Even one razor blade is a lot to eat; so somebody took him .to the hospital, where it was decided to operate on this man of unusual tastes. Then it was revealed that he’had eaten a whole package of these delicacies. He had already digested the package- and envelopes, as well as the. oil-paper wrappers that normally protect the blades from moisture; but the blades themselves were not yet digested. To the epicure of normal tastes it is unlikely that razor blades, even taken singly, will ever have a wide appeal.

Sharks, generally considered denizens of the sea, are by no means confined to salt water. The fact that two bathers in a tidal creek near Auckland were recently attacked by a small shark cannot be considered unusual. In Fiji, dangerous man-eating sharks infest all the larger rivers for considerable distances inland, making even river-bathing highly dangerous. One species in India normally ’ lives high up the rivers many hundreds of miles from the sea, whlist in Lake Nicaragua and Rio San Juan a species of shark seems to have taken up permanent residence in fresh water. Altogether there are over 200 species. Most of them are harmless to man, as they include many small sharks such as dogfish and angelfish, only a foot or two in length. Perhaps the commonest shark is the Tope. It attains a size of some six feet and is found all over the world, including New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain. The most dangerous shark, unceremoniously called G. Rondeletii by scientists, grows to a size of. forty feet or more. Fortunately, it is becoming extinct, for, with a mouth over twenty inches wide bristling with razor-like teeth two inches long, this brute is capable of biting a man in half at one snap.

An extinct ancestor of this shark grew to "over ninety feet long, and the Challenger once dredged up a tooth four inches wide and five inches long. To-day, the largest shark is fortunately a vegetarian. The Rhinodin by name, this monster has been found to measure fifty feet in length, and others have been estimated to be over seventy feet. Sharks have always had a certain commercial value, and the fashion for shark-skin shoes has given an additional fillip to the shark industry. A crude oil is still made from the liver of a shark. Cabinetmakers have used shark skin under the name of “shagreen,” for polishing and smoothing since time immemorial. In China and Indian shark fin is an accepted article of trade. Gelatin is obtained from certain fins of special species of sharks, mostly in Japan. One of the most curious trades where sharks are concerned occurs in Florida, where huge deposits of fossilised sharks are actually quarried. They are sent to England and converted into artificial manure.

Nobody knows when the most noble Order of the Garter, which is to be conferred on the Emperor of Japan, was actually instituted. It is thought that some time in the 14th centurj’ marked the beginning of this ancient order, but, unfortunately, all original records prior to 1416 have perished. Probably 1350, or thereabouts, is somewhere near the correct date, for it is known in that year the wardrobe account of Edward 111 mentions the word “garters,” with the motto embroidered. Letters Patent relating to the preparation of the Royal Chapel at Windsor are dated August, 1348, v hilst in the account of the then Prince of Wales there is an entry in •November, 1348, of “twenty-four garters for the knights of the Society of the Garter.’ Legend has it that Richard I, inspired through the instrumentality of St. George, animated his fatigued army by tying a leathern thong about the knees of a chosen number of his knights. This may have caused Edward 111 to fix upon the garter as the emblem of the Order; on the other hand, there are all sorts of rumours on the subject. Some say it was a garter belonging to an unnamed Countess of Salisbury that inspired the name; others declare that some lady dropped her garter at an assembly; it was taken to Edward, who placed it upon his own knee, and exclaimed: “Dishonoured be he who thinks ill of it.” Originally, the Order consisted of the Sovereign and twenty-five other Knights, but it has been greatly exceeded since then.