RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 171, 15 April 1932, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) New Zealanders can be excused if, after the recent Wellington and Wanganui sales, they are afflicted with the “woollies.” * * Laboratory experiments have proved that a sandfly can live for a month without food. Tbe trouble is that sandflies seem quite Ignorant of their own powers of endurance. A Labour member of Parliament asks who is responsible for the immediate position in New Zealand. Concerning tbe very intermediate position in Australia, Labour members ask no questions. - * A speaker at tbe conference of the Howard League complains that it is very difficult to find out tbe true conditions in New Zealand prisons. But after all this over-legislated country simply bristles with opportunities whereby facilities for first-hand information may be obtained. ♦ * ♦ Doubtless tbe eels that became stranded at Lake Ellesmere, on their way to the sea, were victims to a strong migratory urge whose secrets have only been discovered since the war. Normally eels do not remain longer than five or six years in fresh water. After that period they make their way to the sea in order to reach ocean spawning grounds, in some cases nearly 3000 miles away. Thanks to the researches of Dr. Johan Schmidt, it is now known that European and American eels migrate to an area in the Atlantic Ocean to the south-east of Bermuda in order to breed. Having done so, they die. The young eel larvae then make their way back to Europe and America, taking some three years on the former; journey and about a year on the latter. It is believed that our own eels do not travel round the Horn or even via Panama to this distant rendezvous of their European relatives. For investigations on the part of the “Dana” hare caused scientists to suspect that our eels travel to one of two breeding centres situated in mid-Pacific, from which they never return. It is a well-known fact that eels prevented from making this journey remain barren, but appear . to live indefinitely. There have been, instances in England of eels living under these conditions for 40 years and more, while in tbe Bay of Islands an eel is known to have lived continuously in a certain well for the last fourteen years.

Sir Robert McAlpine says that he believes in breakfast in bed, not more than eight hours work a day, and three apples taken in tbe morning. This is a distinct break from the accepted utterances of famous men on the subject. So far from believing in breakfast in bed, Edison told all who came to him for advice he did not believe in going to bed at all. According to him, when a man has a job of work in hand it is a waste of time to sleep. Certainly Edison put into practice what he preached, for he has been known to work for a week on eud with not more than au hour or two of sleep all told. Indeed, he could scarcely be persuaded to eat. Edison must have been tbe despair of his womenfolk.

Bernard Shaw admits to arranging his working hours on much the same principle as Edison. According to him, sometimes he does no work for a year —as, for instance, the year lie was given the Nobel Prize for the best work of the year. At other times he works for 22 hours out of the 24 for weeks on end, until an imminent breakdown sends him to the Italian lakes. Napoleon was another individual from whom advice as to how best to organise a day’s work was difficult to follow. He made a point of never sleeping for more than three or four hours a night. Any man who demanded longer rest was considered by him to be a sluggard. He even chided his generals when they complained that they had not slept for a week during the retreat from Moscow. There is no record of Napoleon’s generals ever demanding breakfast In bed —but then they did not have Sir Robert McAlpine as a precedent.

In connection with the terrible fate of the man and woman brutally murdered near Liverpool, New South Wales, it is said that the detectives are as certain of the identity of the murderer as they were of the young couple that had been slain. Possibly in this case the detectives will get their man, but numerous cases similar to this remain “uncompleted” simply and solely because, although the murderer has been traced, the police cannot prove his guilt. For example, early last year the nude body, of a girl named Louisa Steele was found on Blackheath Common, near London. The murderer was never arrested. The police, however, claim to be able to lay their hands on him at any time. But proof is lacking sufficient to convict him. Incidentally this individual was an inmate of a private mental institution. At the time of the crime he had been discharged on parole. To-day bo is back in the mental home. The authorities may not be able to convict him, but they will see that he does not come out again. In nearly every unsolved murder the suspected murderer is a pathological case. It is a curious but true fact that whereas the mentally alert inevitably leave some trace by which they may be convicted, the mentally deficient commit crimes in circumstances which baffle even the most experienced and clever officers.

We are the servants of the will of man. We grasp his shingles in the winter's storm, And shelter him according to his plan. We hold his roofs and walls to keep him warm. We build his granaries for harvest time. We give him barns and fences, even make The arbours which his crimson roses climb. Upon our slender backs we undertake To hold the spires that represent bis creeds, The altars of his faiths, his choir stalls. We wait to serve mankind, pur muteness pleads With those who drive us into shrines and walls. Let us atone for we are worthies# dross— For once we nailed a Saviour on the cross. —A Nail.