RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) Considering yesterday was Frida?, the thirteenth, it must have required considerable strength of mind for our weather prophets to predict what actually occurred—a beautifully fine day. • • » An expert who should know, says that stars decrease in size and weight as they grow old. One had been given to believe that some stars spent their middle youth fighting a losing battle against fatness. • • • A statistician has calculated that every baby born into a middle-class home and given normal life can look forward to paying £1,600 in income tax. Now, I understand why, as soon as a baby is born, it starts to cry.—; “Passing Show.”

It may come as a surprise to some people to read that a cargo of cotton has been the cause of a disastrous explosion on board a ship. One likes to imagine that the world is fortunately divided into things that have a wretched habit of exploding, like dynamite, and things that cannot be persuaded to explode, like carpet slippers. The sad facts are, however, that provided there is enough of anything there is every likelihood of an explosion. Doubtless a cargo of carpet slippers could be made to explode. At any rate, milk powder can be made to explode. In factories where this commodity is produced, all manner of precautions have to be taken to prevent this undesirable event. Almost everything is explosive when very finely divided and mixed with the correct proportion of air. • • • Not only milk powder, but such commonplace materials as flour, when in a finely divided state, are very powerful explosives. In the United States, before this fact was known, perfectly innocent flour factories developed a habit of blowing themselves sky high. This curious property of unexplosive articles becoming dangerously explosive is seen at its best in coaL A lump of coal is not considered a dangerous explosive. Indeed in some fireplaces a lump of coal does not seem to be even inflammable. Yet, finely divided coal allowed to float around coal mines forms one of the .most dreaded explosive mixtures known. Many mine disasters. at one time, were caused by coal dust. • • • Even ordinary household dust, if in sufficient quantities and sufficient fineness, can form an explosive mixture. Fortunately the assiduity of the average woman is .such.,that this ultimate stage of household dust never occurs. There are other apparently innocentlooking things that produce explosive fumes when stored in sufficient bulk. Damp wheat, potatoes, and most vegetable products, if stored in bulk in unsuitable rooms, are capable of producing explosive mixtures that -can be ignited by a naked light. This does not mean that it is dangerous for the average householder to inspect his modest potato pile by the light of a candle. Normally we do not store the articles concerned in sufficient bulk to make them dangerous. The fact remains, nevertheless, that under certain conditions, all manner of properly behaved commodities are capable of going off bang.

The Mayor of Wellington says that the position of Justice of the Peace is both an honorary and an honourable one. He went on to say that although he was sometimes referred to as Chief Magistrate, his work as dispenser of justice is very light indeed. J.P.’s can indeed look back upon over eight centuries of precedent in the position they hold. Ever since William I instituted the idea, the powers of “J.P.’s” have been extensive in minor cases. In some districts in England, indeed, the local Squire-cum-J.P. invests himself with an authority and an immense dignity difficult to believe. In many cases he takes his powers as JJP. almost too seriously. • • • One English squire, when appointed J.P. viewed his new responsibilities with no lightness. He went so far as to go to London to spend a fortnight attending the Old Bailey. He listened attentively. He took copious notes. He memorised the addresses of the judge to guilty miscreants. He returned to his home town full of knowledge and his own importance.

The first case of this new J.P. was that of a women charged with not sending her child to school. There was no question that the evidence more than proved her guilt. Carried away by the atmosphere of the Old Bailey, the newly-appointed Justice delivered his verdict in a neat little speech: “Woman, you have been found guilty of one of tiie most serious and disgraceful offences known to the English law. There is not one word I can say in your favour. You have proved yourself a disgrace to the community in which you live, and the only sentence I can pass upon you is that you go to penal servitude for fifteen years.” The woman rather naturally was led away half fainting at the unexpected severity of the punishment. Just then the clerk tactfully drew the magistrate’s attention to the fact that the maximum penalty was a fine of five shillings. “Bring back the woman prisoner,” he said with immense dignity. “Woman, I have decided to temper justice with mercy, and the sentence of the court now is that you be fined the sum of five shillings of the lawful money of the realm —and may the Lord have mercy upon your soul.”

The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven; And, as imagination bodies forth The form of things unknown, the poet’s pen .. Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing A local habitation and a name. —Shakespeare.