RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 91, 12 January 1932, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

According to a writer on financial matters, when concerns are wound up one seldom hears any more of them. One Important exception is the gramophone next door. a • • Mrs. Victor Bruce hopes to create a record by keeping her husband in the air for a month on end. But surely there must be simply scores of women who have done better than that already. a e a People in France have suggested that people in England live by taking in one another’s washing. But people in England have been far too polite to suggest that people in France live from day to day by patching-up old Cabinets. * * *i The public of Wellington have been warned to kill every white cabbage butterfly they see. Apparently a plague of these pretty little butterflies is anticipated. As one caterpillar eats 86,000 times its own weight in two months, it is a question of cabbages or butterflies. Thus do we participate in the age-old battle between man and Insect On the whole it is a losing battle. Every year insects take toll of; 10 per cent of the world's crops. The 400 million kinds of insects in the world #re competing with man for the limited food supplies of the world, If insects had their way they would eradicate man from the world in a few months. If all the green-fly born into this world as eggs survived, in only four months one female would be the proufl ancestor ot 564,087,257,509,154,652 descendants. They* would wipe out man by sheer weight of numbers, for they would weigh nearly ten times as much as all the human Inhabitants in the world. In a short time they would have starved out the rest of the living things in the World.

But for the fact that man has learned to set an insect to eat an insect he would be faced with possible extermination within a few generations. The boll weevil has already caused Mexico, the home of the cotton plant, to cease exporting cotton. According to entomologists, in thirty years, if no cure has been found,* even the United States will cease to be a cotton-grow-ing country. Perhaps the best example of a successful counter-attack on the insect world was the ibattle on the part of a man for his citrus plantations in California. In the 70’s it looked as if the citrus trade would be wiped out by “cottony scale.” The saviour of California was a little ladybug from Australia with an appetite so voracious that all the cotton scales were devoured in a couple of seasons. Another outstanding achievement was the saving of the Hawaiian sugar trade threatened with complete annihilation by a cane leaf hopper.- Meanwhile the corn borer seems determined ro continue his march until the whole corn belt of America has been ruined. So the fight goes on. • • »

In these times of financial stringency one would imagine that persons anxious to step into the ambassadorial shoes of General Dawes, about to’resign from his post as American Ambassador in Great Britain, will be few and far between. For some reason the United States of America, a country renowned for its wealth, still pays its ambassadors a salary calculated to bankrupt any but the very wealthy. It mav be imagined that the salary of some £6OOO a year paid to the American Ambassador in England should be more than enough to cover • all expenses. Indeed, it does not fall far short of the salary paid to the American President. It must be remembered, however, that the holder of this diplomatic position has to pay for the upkeep of a large and expensive house in London. Incessant entertaining ou a scale sufficiently lavish to uphold the dignity of his office in itself accounts for a sum of money every year that makes the official salary appear insignificant. Indeed, the late American Ambassador, Mr. Harvey, who was by no means a rich man, found the Embassy too costly to -run. To the surprise of orthodox diplomats, he abandoned the Embassy for far cheaper hotel life. ’

It seems surprising that practically aU the more important powers expect their ambassadors to supplement official incomes in order to keep UP the dignity of their office. One hears much about the Field-Marshal’s baton in the knapsack of every Tommy. But enthusiastic diplomats are denied this opportunity. Admittedly our own Ambassadors are paid more lavishly than their American brothers. The English Ambassador to France receives some £lB,OOO a -year. Our Ambassador at Washington receives about the same amount. These salaries seem very lavish compared with the £6OOO a year of the American Ambassador to England and the £3OOO of their Ambassador to France. Nevertheless it has been an open secret for years that our Ambassadors in both America and France have to dip deeply Into their private purses to make both ends meet in spite of their high salaries. It seems curious that in spite of the more tolerant attitude noticeable to-day Ambassadorial appointments should still be hedged around with financial barriers. However fitted a man for the position, it would be difficult for his country to sentence him to patriotic bankruptcy on its behalf.

We are reminded by a recent article on Dickens that he reckoned Friday to be his lucky day and made the happiest decisions of his life on that day There are others who, like Dickens, also considered Friday to be their lucky day. Christopher Columbus held the belief that Friday was his lucky dav not without reason. It was on a Friday that he set sail from Spain on his first voyage of discovery It was on a Friday 1 that he first saw land. It was upon a Friday that he started to return, and It was on a Friday that he arrived home. On his second voyage he sighted America on a Friday, first set foot on the new land on a Friday, and again he arrived back in his home port in Spain on a Friday. If Americans ever want to select a ,national lucky day they might well consider the 'merits of Friday. The sequence of good fortune that comes to some people either on a certain day or a certain date in the month seems at times to be more than mere coincid- ' ence. Kitchener’s lucky day was June 5. On June 5 the British flag was hoisted at Pretoria; on June 5 Parliament voted him £30,000 in honour of his victory at Omdunnan: on yet another June 5 another Parliament voted him £50,000 m recognition of his services in the South African War. This curious series of happy days is truly remarkable.