RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 239, 6 July 1931, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND. GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) A novelist has come to the conclusion that the tall, broad man is always popular. Certainly every girl would prefer one beside her at the cinema than just in front * * * During a recent medical examination students were asked, “When does a human being need water most?" The answer, of course, is just after it has been turned off at the main. • * * A report issued by the. Society of Motor Manufacturers and' Traders of Great Britain reveals the fact that there are 1,500,000 motor-cars in England. In a burst of satisfaction the society goes on to say that, America excepted, there are more motor vehicles in England than in any other country. It has taken this society some three years to advertise this fact The equivalent society in the United States of America got the message through to the world a few weeks after that country had become the proud owner of more cars than any other. In a world of fanfares, big drums, and loudspeakers, the modest little voice of Britain is rarely heard.

In a world that boasts, a population of some 2,000,000,000, there are at the moment 35,000,000 motor-cars. But It will not be long before the world Is thick with cars. Motor manufacturers have already supplied a motor-car to every 55th person in the world. Out of this world total the United States of America owns 24,000,000 cars. Great Britain comes second with just over li millions, with France, Canada, Germany and . Australia close on her heels. The trouble is that these 85 million cars have only about 6 million miles of roads on which to run. There Is thus a somewhat acute shortage of road space. On a tour of the world's roads one would expect to meet a car every quarter of a mile. It is dear, therefore, that cars are being made faster than roads upon which to run them. Unless somebody does something soon the world won’t have enough roads tp fit the cars. The roads into Wellington any Sunday evening certainly indicate this fact

The next problem that the car manufacturers must solve is what to do with the old car. At one time it was possible to sell it In some countries this is still possible. In the United States this problem seems to be worse, if anything, than the parking problem. A visitor to America who bought a car for travelling purposes subsequently drove it to a garage and offered it as a gift “Gift,” said the astounded proprietor; “it'll cost yon £5 to leave it with me I” Hundreds of cars are found abandoned every week in the United States. Purchasers of vacant city sites are generally faced with the problem of disposing of several dozen abandoned cars. It often costs £4O or £5O to clear these unwanteds off the newly-acquired property. In one State it has been made a criminal offence to abandon a car. Cleveland has a destructor going full blast consuming car wrecks, while New York has been forced to purchase a fleet of barges to convey abandoned cars out to sea, where they are dropped overboard.

Now that swimming the English Channel has become an accepted summer outing one wonders why Miss Lily Coppiestone seems so anxious to accomplish the task. It has been shown not once but nearly 20 times that the Channel offers no obstacle to a determined man or woman. Nearly 80, years ago Captain Webb showed that 'man was well able to cross to Great Britain from France by the natural facilities provided by nature. Miss Ederle proved some 75 years later that . where man can swim there also can woman swim. That gives grounds for the theory that the empty spaces of Great Britain were populated by primitive man and woman, although their swimming feat escaped the publicity it ought to have produced owing to •the lamentable absence of newspapers. » » * After all, what good purpose is served by this systematic swimming of the English Channel, except ito advertise concentrated food products. Admittedly it brings in a steady income to sundry fishermen, but even they would be serving their country better a by catching fish. AU that this craze has done is to prove the trickeries of the tides in the English Channel. While the Channel has been swum some 15 times from France to England, it has only been swum two or three times in the reverse direction. Contrary to the expert advice of fishermen, who are supposed to know all about tides, the persistent efforts of unsuccessful swimmers ultimately proved that by catching the tide at the correct moment off Cape Gris Nez one was Uterally washed across the Channel- to Britain.

Those who imagine that swimming the English Channel tests the skill of a swimmer rather than the skill of the piloting will have some little difficulty to explain away the phenomenal speeds recorded. The world’s swimming record for a mile is approximately 24 minutes. The shortest distance across the Channel is 22 miles in a straight line. But swimmers often cover 30 miles or more. The Channel has been swum in a few minutes over 11 hours. Even taking the distance swum at 22 miles the speed works out faster than the world record for the mile.

■ Since the flagpole sitting season has just opened in the United States it is unfortunate that we should know so little about the technique of the pastime. Judging by reports that have come to hand the chief problem is to decide when a flagpole is really a flagpole. For example, when thirteen-year-old Dorothy Staylor climbed to the top of her pole to compete against her rival Ruth McCruden (whose motto was “Everything is pip”) she took with her to the dovecot on top of her 17ft. pole the following unexpected articles: 2 pillows, 1 blanket, a tent, an electric light outfit so rigged that she could have it inside or outside the tent, a spare sweater, a cap, silk scarf, raincoat, umbrella, three books; a bucket, and a radio set. Quite naturally the mother of the rival female flagpole sitter decided to investigate the ethics of flagpole sitting. For her '

daughter Ruth, she said, was sitting on a regular pole, not a divan seventeen feet In the air. But Dorothy refused to listen to the parleys of the good women. She switched on her radio after announcing that she was not particularly Interested in the ethics of flagpole sitting. “I’m sitting, anyway,” she declared. Poor Ruth was left to comfort herself with the fact that the donation box she had thoughtfully nailed at the bottom of her pole had collected over £5 In nine days, a record only exceeded by one other slttffii SEiW! ±lO 1S §oyqn day®.