RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 20, 18 October 1930, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND. GENERAL (By Whales, according to a. naturalist cannot smell. He has obviously never been near a. dead one. —"Passin® Show.” • • • “However old a man is,” says » psychologist, “he can always derive pleasure from watching a train steam out of the station.” Unless, of course, he intended catching it. —“Humorist.” A reader wants to know who put the “heat” in wheat. It seems more important to us to find out who took the “eat” out of it.—“ The Pathfinder.” On the strength of some analysed fragments of charred bones, found in a bonfire, a man has been charged with wilful murder at Brisbane. Nothing in the history of criminology stands out so much as the tragic importance of trifles. The perfect crime, some experts declare, has not yet been perpetrated. A scrap of screwed-up paper, a piece of charred newspaper extricated by an army of men from a rubbish dump fifty miles from the scene of the murder, a set of false teeth found in the ashes of a garden bonfire, have all led to the arrest and sentencing of murderers. They will do such stupid things. Thomas Wainwright, who stupidly, dissolved his mistress in chloride of lime in mistake for quicklime, was horrified to discover he had preserved her instead of dissolving her. After a year he decided to get rid, of the preserved body by placing it in a trunk at a luggage office. Instead of sending a boy to fetch a cab he went himself and left the boy to look after the trunk. The inquisitiveness of the, boy proved to be the undoing of Wainwright.

Many people do not realise that evidence of occupational dust remains on them for at least two years. Examination by the microscope of wax taken from a criminal’s ears has before now proved his downfall. The wax contained traces of diamond dust closely connecting him with Illicit interests in the diamond industry. In another case a man in France was accused of passing false money. He was also suspected of having made it, but there was no evidence. His clothes were placed in strong paper bags and thoroughly beaten. Subsequent analysis of this dust showed that it contained metal in the form of an alloy. The composition of the metallic dust and the counterfeit coins were found to oe Identical. On this evidence alone he was charged as a coiner and convicted. Possibly the smallest object that has afforded a clue to crime is a piece of glass only 3-Bth of an inch across, at present in the museum at Scotland Yard. It bore part of a finger print and resulted in the conviction of a professional housebreaker.

A. visitor to New Zealand brings news of a sandy beach in South Africa from which diamonds may be picked up by the handful. Already £6.000,000 worth of the gems have been recovered and it is estimated that at least £10,000,000 worth are still there. This beach, by name Alexander Bay, on the shores of Namaqualand, Is now so well-known that it has found its way Into official Government publications, blue books and other similar mausoleums. The beach, which is owned and worked by the South African Government, is reached by air and encircles by a gigantic fence. Only sixty men work there and over £500.000 worth of diamonds are carried by aeroplanes to Cape Town each week. Nobody is allowed to go near the place. Photographs are not permitted to be taken. It is policed by picked men, who have orders to shoot all intruders In order not to upset the market only £6OOO worth of Namaqualand diamonds are allowed to be placed on the market every month. Tlie rest go into vaults at Cape Town.

The discovery of this diamond field is not without its romance. It is thought that a Cape Pioneer, by name Brydone. was the first to discover the field. Somewhere he came acro ®s diamonds in stupendous masses, so he used to relate in confidence. As he stubbornly refused to disclose the site his friends thought he was /"ciely “pulling their legs.” his « Mret d with him. The search was taken up by another prospector, by name Fred Cornell. He spent the best partof his life tramping all the parts of the coasts and deserts in an effort to find out the truth about the old man’s fabulous tales of He died before his quest was ”Uccessful as a result of a motor-cycle accident Van Rooyen took up Cornells quest where he had left it uncompleted He disappeared for several years. Eventually he arrived at an e . “ Cape Town. “I have deposit. It is at Alexander Bay Give me £250 for a motor so that I ca neg claims there. Why did . Lm do so at once?” asked the experts, who franklv disbelieved eveiy woid he said. The tract remained uiiexploied for years.

-A geologist, by name *ler b'id k "'just <? d t iscovered l a"iiuudred .miles J d S in the mountains of Northern Transvaal and d.s n more as a holiday than anj. tdung else, hp nprsu'ided a friend to make tnc trip. “ t 1 L mrnbabl ’ a futile stunt, but one never knows.” Dr. Reuning. ns friend agreed, but went with him Lerti.l Jrnl Xnlng lbw bri put by mre IMn luxun’ for life. Subsequently tlie Minister of Mines arrived or i the SW‘ e. “I sat on the beach, be said, and in half an hour picked up a pocketful of i m nds If we don’t stop those peoSTrodueing all other mines on earth must close.”

She fortifies herself wlth . l ‘V l ® f t ’"vers A bit of garden, or a bed of flowers,, A little bright canary that sings Sharp notes to stab the heavj, silent The years'hkve built n subtle barricade To guard her kingdom where she moves A gentle 1 shadow in a gentle shade, Invulnerable at last to Loves swift dart " —M. Scruggs.