RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 109, 1 February 1930, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

SIDELIGHTS ON CURRENT EVENTS LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Cosmos.)

Be they ever bo humble, there's Embody stays home. • • * Familiarity breeds contempt—except among those who are on good terms with themselves. * * * The wife of an aviator is the only woman who is glad to see her husband down and out ■ • • “Can one hear colour?” asks a contemporary. Naturally, when it’s loud enough. » • • In Guayaquil, Ecuador, the doctors of the Civil Hospital have developed a novel treatment for paralysis. They loose, a boa contrlctor in the ward. Most of the patients go out of the windows, since the majority are either malingerers or have a form of imaginary paralysis which can be overcome by shock. The genuine paralytics are reassured as soon as possible. * • Now that the Naval Conference is in full swing It is interesting to see just how our Navy has managed to grow in such a surprising manner. Up to 1683 there were no naval estimates at all.- A reigning monarch just set to and built a fleet when he felt he wanted one. Alfred was the first to do this, when, in 897, he ordered a fleet of galleys. The number was greatly increased under Edgar, who proudly proclaimed himself Lord of the Ocean surrounding BritainSome fifty years afterwards the idea of a navy had caught on, and we see the first effort to tax the good citizens of Britain to keep it going. In the days of Ethelred II a formidable fleet was equipped by contribution from every town in England. When ready, it was ordered to rendezvous at Sandwich to oppose the Danes. From then onwards fleets were intermittently equipped and re-equipped to meet the Danes or the Normans at intervals of some fifty years. • • • Although all these collections of undoubtedly warlike vessels had their use, there was no question of there being a Royal Navy. Fishing and fighting presumably went hand in hand. Whilst' good King Alfred, one of the best advertised monarchs of Britain, may be said truthfully to have started the first navy, it was left to Henry VII to start a Royal Navy,, as we know it to-day. The Royal Harry, built in 1488, is considered to be the first ship of the Royal Navy. By 1512 the Royal Navy consisted of the Great Harry, 1200 tons, two ships of 800 tons, and six or seven smaller craft Trinity House and the Navy Office came into being, and early In the eighteenth century Britain was spending over a million pounds a year in her naval estimates. There were no fewer than 272 ships, with a total tonnage of 159,000, a muster roll of 40,000 men, and uniforms were introduced towards the end of the century. In a hundred years the personnel had only increased by about four times; but the naval estimates had risen no fewer than eighteen times.

Dr. Oliver Mitchell Sprague, who has been appointed statistical adviser to the Bank of England, is now 57 years old. He has spent most of his life in the United States and has been interested in economics since he first studied at Harvard University as a boy. By 1895 he had annexed a long list of degrees and later in that year was awarded the coveted Ph.D. After his student days at Harvard he took up a position as Professor at that University, which he held until 1965. In that year he married and shortly afterwards left America to take up a professorship of economics at the Imperial University at Tokio. He is the author of several weighty books on finance and banking, including a book much discussed in American banking circles, “Banking Reform in the United States.” ; During the last year or so he has made a name in connection with the League of Nations, where his life-long experience in money matters has served him in good stead.

Towards the end of last year, he was, amongst other things, a member of the League of Nations Gold Inquiry Delegation. The object of that delegation was to discover the best method for the economising of gold for monetary purposes. It was hoped that this would assist towards the smoother working of the gold standard. Not many months ago, in conjunction with the United States Federal Reserve Agent, he published a joint investigation into “Money and Credit and their Effect Upon Business.” This publication is particularly interesting to-day in view of the feverish operations that have occurred on Wall Street Sprague remarked in this publication that “A stock market demand for loans which seem without limit cannot fail to affect the development and functioning of the New York money market as a reasonably stable world financial centre.”

Truly film stars are passing through troublous times, Recently Juanita Hansen, formerly one of the most beautiful actresses on the screen, was awarded £33,500 in one of the most unusual suits for damages ever heard in an American Court. According to her story in Court she took a bath at a hotel during a heat wave in June, 1928, and turned the shower handle marked “cold.” Scalding water poured out, and for several days sh" -as at the point of death. Her back was disfigured, she coul. not raise her arms, arid she spent thousands of dollars on medical treatment. The accident, she asserted, left her unable to earn her living. The hotel authorities led to get out of the case by alleging she was a drug addict. Miss Hanseu admitted she once was, but had now conquered the bad habit. A doctor said that when Miss Hansen realised how badly her face was scarred, she refused to liave a mirror in her room, nor would she permit the furniture to be so highly polished as to reflect her features. She claimed £50,000, and was awarded £33,500. Then we have the spectacle of Miss Pola Negri, clad in black, weeping copiously in the arms of reporters who met her at Le Havre on her return to France recently from the United States. “It is sad.” she said, between her sobs, “to come back to a land where my only happiness is to wait for my divorce, but, thank God, divorce does exist.” Referring to her husband, Prince Mdivani, Miss Negri said: “I loved Serge greatly, and still love him. Divorce will be a great wrench, but it is the only solution when two people cannot live together peacefully. Men,” she said bitterly, “are nearly all intensely selfish. Generally they take eytuythin® awl gly? nothin®.