RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 256, 25 July 1930, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) Unemployed on relief work# are ea strike again In Sydney. Only Australia could reduce striking to such an absurdity. Among the new currencies in Europe are the Chervonetz, the pengo, and the zloty. Money talks, but sometimes only through an interpreter. Readers are asking for the meaning of the pen-name, “Kickshaws.” This word, which was introduced into the English language in the 16th century, is a corruption of the French “quelquechose,” meaning “something.” Kickshaws has taken to Itself in the English language the meaning of “something uncommon, something fantastical, fancy dishes; or just odds and ends of things that have no particular name.”

“Mug Gardener” asks: “From a meteorological point of view, please what is meant by ‘districts with a westerly aspect,’ and how is Wellington positioned in this regard?’ The term means placed exposed to westerly winds and refers especially to places on the West Coast. Although Wellington is not actually exposed to these' winds, it is indirectly included in the term because westerly winds after roaring through Cook Strait become deflected on to Wellington, bringing the attendant weather conditions in their train. As a matter of fact, Wellington is also included in an “easterly aspect,” but little mention Is made of that in weather reports owing to the local application of that type of weather. Places not included in the “westerly aspect” include Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Rotorua, and Taupo,

Another amazing Mafia* trial has been opened in Italy. It is estimated to last six months. As there are two hundred and ten prisoners this is not impossible. The last trial lasted somewhat longer than that and the prisoners were honoured by having a special iron cage erected to contain them. Mussolini is determined to stamp out the Mafia. So deep have the roots of this curious secret society penetrated that he has found the job not nearly so simple as might be expected even for a dictator. Quite erroneously we are apt to give the racketeers of Chicago the honour of having discovered a subtle blend of co-operative brigandage and vendetta. Admittedly they have put a final polish to the idea and set It upon a pinnacle of mechanised perfection; but its origins go back in history years before Chicago was even thought about

The Mafia, although not the originators of the scheme, were ope of the first to put It on a gentlemanly and businesslike footing. In 1812 with the destruction of feudalism most of the feudal troops solved the unemployment problem by turning brigands. As they were scattered and Isolated it would have been a simple matter to have suppressed them. But the reigning monarch unfortunately organised them into “rural gendarmerie” and gave to them the cohesion they badly wanted. The gendarmerie part of the job was undertaken so enthusiastically it was not long before a reign of terror had been established. Prominent Inhabitants were only too glad to buy immunity with hard cash and place themselves under the protection of this racketeering monopoly. Candidates were admitted after trial by duel and swore to resist law and defeat justice. Even the commander of the Royal troops worked in collusion with the leaders of the Mafia.

It was considered a dishonour to recourse to lawful authority in the redress of wrongs. Indeed, great.trouble was always taken to hide the identity of law-breakers, vengeance being reserved to the offended member of the Mafia and his friends. Under this scheme every one was chasing every one else up and down Italy while the police looked on. Every statesman, agreed that the society must be stamped out, and the present occasion Is by no means the first or even the second wholesale arrest of members of this secret society. At intervals in the recent history of Italy round-ups have been made on just as large a scale. One of the earliest took place some forty years ago when 150 members of the society were arrested. The result was unforeseen. News of the round-up had got about some years beforehand. Likely victims took the hint and escaped to the States. There they sowed the seeds of their society, and proceeded to murder the Chief of Police of New Orleans.

America is juggling with her wheat problem. The farm board will not buy any more until the present surplus is reduced through voluntary decline in production by the growers. The world is full of fine words about wheat. Prosaic government blue books have been filled with wheat. At the same time mobs have possessed the streets because they were not filled with wheat Men have rioted about wheat, scientists have laboured for years on end over their microscopes in the cause of wheat. Statesmen have risen and fallen on account of wheat, and eten thrones have tottered for the lack of it. Some say that it is love that makes the world go round, but it would be truer to say that it is wheat that makes the world go round. Even New Zealand politicians know something about the wheat problem.

The culprit who gave to the world this most troublesome necessity was Ching-Noung, Emperor of China. He was a power in the hind 2000 years before Christ But Britain had to wait 2600 years for her first wheat. It was not long after that before wheat percolated into more than one political _ platform of the day. It is impossible to conceive what the genera! public or the politician can possibly have done without wheat. Wheat indeed gave us one of the earliest “sliding scales, a term so popular these days, when in 1842 the Introduction of foreign wheat was regulated in Britain by a complicated Import duty. Wheat gave us the new profession of baker, and the baker gave us bread. Despite the talk about rising prices, century by century, it is a curious fact that the price of a fourpound loaf in 1822 was 10(1.. while the price at the beginning of this century was only 3d. “Arms on armour clashing bray d Horrible discord, and the madding wheels Of brazen chariots rag'd: dire was the noise of conflict." Milton evidently anticipated our parking battles waged. daily outside every large building in the city.