RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 288, 1 September 1931, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events

LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By Kickshaws.) Parking facilities seem to be based on the principle of offering unlimited opportunities just where nobody ever dreams of wanting to leave a car. Chinese bandits are said to be steadily gaining the upper hand. At this rate It will not be long before they call themselves statesmen. The Government proposes that the British Broadcasting Corporation of England should serve as a model for the future radio organisation of this Dominion. As advertising Is sternly forbidden under the British system presumably listeners In this Dominion will also be spared. We live in a more or less Isolated corner of the Pacific. What radio waves manage to reach us bear little advertising matter on their wings. Just what listeners have been spared can only be measured by comparisons with countries where advertising is the life blood of the radio “service." One cynic has summed up French broadcasting very neatly as follows: —“The notes of music faded - away as exquisitely as they had begun, and a voice came from the loudspeaker, ‘Allo, allo,’ it said. *lcl Radio Toulouse. Mesdames et Messieurs! Vous avez entendu le Danse Slave de Dvorak. Vous avez besoin d’une casserole, d’une assiette ou d’une vase de nulL Achetezla chez La Belle Toulousaine, le magasin le moins cher de tout le Midi.”’ We want something better than that in New Zealand. • • • The state of affairs that holds sway among the better class French radio stations has now reached an absurd climax when their most valuable hours have been sold to English advertisers. Unable to advertise in their own country, English cigarette manufacturers, gramophone companies, and others, pump advertising matter into English radio sets from across the Channel. Listeners In England are said to experience all manner of unpleasant shocks to their aesthetic tastes. After an admittedly charming symphony a bell Is suddenly rung. John Bull is asked if his teeth trouble him.

But France must take second place to the United States of America where radio advertising is concerned. Some of the smaller ’ stations exercise very little censorship on advertising matter transmitted. In one case publicity concerning “The Brassiere You Love to ■ Cuddle” was only equalled in offensiveness by the blatant advertisement methods of a station supposed to be sending out a time signal. “This is Station XYZ calling. In a few seconds you will hear the eleven o’clock time signal. This will be given by the Blank leverless rolled gold watch, price five dollars, obtainable at all reputable department stores... • Ping, ping, ping. , . , That was the eleven o’clock time signal given by the Blank leverless rolled gold watch obtainable at all reputable departmental stores, price five dollars. In half an hour a further time signal will be given by the Blank leverless gents . . . and so on.” No wonder some of the smaller U.S.A, stations, as proved recently, have no listeners at alk

Before the first meeting of the new Ministry in England the roadway outside Downing Street was filled with talkie vans and cinema outfits anxious to “shoot” history in the making. While In most cases the results of the “shooting” will be flashed before audiences a few hours after the event, some of the records made will be carefully preserved for historical purposes. There can be scarcely a person living who would not have understood Charles I better if a study of his career in the history books could have been augmented by a series of talkies made at the time. Drake’s famous game of bowls would have been given added historical emphasis by a talkie or even a cinema record of the occasion. Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth, Henry VIII and his wives, all would have been more real personages if they could have come from between the pages of history into real life. ♦ » »

Our heirs and successors are to be more fortunately situated as regards history than we have been. Two centuries hence students will be able to measure the personality of dead kings and queens by hearing them speak and seeing them move. The British Museum has already started a collection of gramophone records of famous persons. Doubtless it will not be long before a ,talkie collection will be started. Already several records have been preserved of the voice of King George. A recent addition consisted of his speech at the opening of the new Tyne bridge at Newcastle. There is also a record of the addresses given by the King and Queen to the boys and girls of the British Empire on Empire Day, 1923.

If the situation in Europe prevents Germany from constructing any more pocket battleships it will have dealt her one of the bitterest blows for many years. The Treaty of Versailles set German naval engineers the diflicult task of creating a 10,000-ton fighting craft equivalent in power to a 20,000 battleship. With an organised ingenuity that has made Germany respected throughout the world, experts exploited every possibility of the narrow limits of the Treaty. For the most part it was a case of ruthless weight cutting in order to have sufficient in hand to provide armament. By welding the steel plates in the hull an economy of 10 per cent, in weight was effected. The rivets so saved were cast into guns. Somewhat of a sensation was created in marine engineering circles when it was realised that the 50.000 horse-power internal combustion engines of the pocket battleship weighed only sixteen pounds per horse-power os against 110 pounds per horse-power in all Diesel • • engines used up to that time.

There can be every reason for Germany to feel proud of her pocket battleships. It is declared in Germany that these little 10,000-ton craft are equal to the British battleship “Hood” (41,200 tons), while only the “Nelson," the “Rodney,” and 'the American “Colorado” class are superior. Moreover, no warship afloat has a cruising range anywhere near tho 18,000 miles of those pocket battleships. Voyages to the Far East and back could be undertaken without refuelling. Using steam only, these cruisers have a range of about 5.>00 miles. The Diesel plant was found to bo so light and to occupy so little space it was installed as tin afterthought. Yet it gives these vessels a strategic value entirely disproportionate to their temnaga,