RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 184, 2 May 1929, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

In every election some candidate finds he has the solid backing of all the people who didn’t vote. • * • A lady motorist informs us that the greatest menace of the roads is a dominating personality driving a heavy lorry on a narrow highway. * » » “The public always gets what it deserves,” declared both a successful and a defeated candidate last night. It is all a question of one’s point of view. A New York judge has ruled that a hearse is a pleasure vehicle. Some people have a distorted idea of what constitutes a good time. * * * The order known as Companions of Honour, of which General Booth has just been made a member, was instituted in June, 1917, at the same time as the Order of the British Empire. The membership is limited to fifty men and women who have rendered distinguished service of nati< \il importance. The badge, oval in shape, consists of a gold medallion with the design of an oak tree. From one branch hangs the Royal Arms and on the right a knight in full armour is mounted on a horse. The motto is “In action faithful and in honour clear.” The order carries no title of precedence and is intended to consist of an honour dissociated either from the acceptance of a title or the classification of merit The first seventeen members were appointed on August 25, 1917. Amongst others they included Lieutenant-General J. C. Smuts, Henry Gosling, president of the Transport Workers’ Federation, the Marchioness of Lansdowne and Lord Burnham, president of the Empire Press Union.

Australia’s fondness for “barracking” at cricket Tests appears to be creating some concern in England. It is interesting to note that while the word “barrack” is familiar to the average Australian and New Zealander, even the wisest of professors do not know its origin. The Oxford Dictionary does not mention the word. The nearest it quotes is “barrace,” mentioned by Caxton in 1480, and meaning, amongst other things; a hindrance, obstruction or delay. There is an Irish word “barrack,” meaning to brag or to be over-boastful of one’s fighting powers. It was a schoolboy term common in Belfast in the nineteenth century and earlier. Another similar word once common in certain districts of London was the word “barrikin.” meaning barking or chatter. From these somewhat nebulous beginnings, the word arrived in Australia almost a century ago. Before the days of cricket and when football was still an innovation this word meant the jargon or palaver used by traders before they struck a bargain.

We learn from the news that it is shortly intended to attempt a non-stop world flight in an aeroplane. If the venture is crowned with success, a new record will be achieved, for so far no person has gone round the world without a stop. Although it is, of course, possible for a steamship to do so, and perhaps some unrecorded sailing ships with luck in the doldrums, may already have done so, there are no records of such a feat. The contrast between our present aerial efforts to travel round the world without stopping and the efforts of the first man to circumnavigate the globe is astounding. Magellan, the first man to sail round the world, could not claim to have made the voyage without stopping. Amongst other things, there were constant interruptions to the journey to quell mutinies, clean ships or convalesce after disease. But the actual sailing was nothing compared with the difficulties of starting. Magellan was a Portuguese who turned Spaniard. He had to arrange an interview with the King of Spain before embarking on his perilous voyage, and persuade six Ministers, ponderous gentlemen who eared not a jot for such ideas, as to the benefits of his plan.

Besides, the times were not propitious for such schemes. The real ruler of Spain was mad, but might recover at any time. The acting '-’’ng, Charles, might fa'l a victim to the intrigues of his brother, and the King of Portugal was likely to marry Charles’s sister. The idea of sailing west and getting at Portugal’s trade in the East by the back-door, naturally made the situation somewhat delicate. After months of delay, ponderous manuscript “capitulations,” occupying reams of paper, guaranteed the explorers a twentieth share of the profits and possession of all the islands over the first six, “if,” as the capitulation remarked, “more than this number is found.” Magellan was about to explore the Pacific and with a little luck might have discovered a few thousand islands I In the middle of the proceedings he married, and his first son was born before the ships were even half fitted out. Eventually. Magellan selected the Trinidad as his flagship, and in company with four others, fitting out went slowly ahead, hampered at every turn by agents of Portugal who were for ever stirring up strikes and quarrels.

Considering the prevailing habit of aviators setting out with a couple of sandwiches and a full supply of optimism, Magellan's preparations were not a little surprising. After another live months of delay, he eventually set sail with every conceivable and inconceivable store It was possible to carry Amongst this collection were included such odds and ends as 61971 b. of bullets, 7 cows, 360 dozen arrows, 95 dozen darts, 10,500 fish hooks, 2 pigs, 20,000 small bells, 21,3531 b. of ship’s biscuit, 417 pipes. 450 strings of onions, 20 tambourines, and 5 drums. He set sail on Tuesday, September 20. 1519, with the certain knowledge that he would probably be away several years and that amongst his crew and even amongst his officers there were unknown traitors ready to creep upon him at some moment in midocean when he was off his guard. Secret agents of Portugal had conveyed this item of news to him at the last moment in an effort to frighten him from his project.

“I forward the following, which I am prepared to vouch for as true, and which I might describe as a ‘teacher’s howler,’ ” writes “A.E.W.” “In a very large city school recently, in the fourth standard, the lady teacher asked her pupils what was the meaning of the letters ‘K.C.M.G.’ after the name of * local knight. The pupils were unable to say, and she volunteered the information that they meant ‘Knight Commander of His Majesty’s Garter 1’”