RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 25, Issue 266, 5 August 1932, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

A message from England points out that all the red tape in the House of Commons is pink. The tint was changed, we understand, in case the Soviets got too optimistic.

An enthusiastic listener to broadcasts of the community singing is reported to have written. “You have conquered the air; may you conquer the depression.” Let us hope they knock It inside out. .

A speaker at a farmers’ meeting at Woodville wonders why so few farmers have heard of pig recording. At any rate, let us be thankful for these indications that gramophone companies have decided to break away from whispering baritones.

Superior persons may smile at the idea of crossing the Tasman in a rocket, but the sooner we get used to this sort of fantasy the better. There is not the slightest doubt that the time will come when rocket propulsion will be accepted as no more astounding than radio ar automatic telephones. One hears verv little about experiments that are going on with rockets unless they end in an explosion. It may come as a surprise to hear that a rocket-propelled sledge held the unofficial world’s land speed record for some considerable time with a speed of nearly 250 miles an hour. Buj this is only a beginning. Laboratory tests have indicated air speeds of 3600 miles an hour, with hopes of adding yet another further 2000 miles -in hour on to that total. The main obstacle to these speeds, where human beings are concerned, is not the speeds themselves, but the tremendous acceleration required to attain such speeds within a reasonable time. Unless carefully controlled, the force of the :isceleration would squash flesh and blood into a pulp. Nobody wants to arrive at their destination like that.

Rocket enthusiasts who have their eye on flights across the Tasman, and other oceans, including the Atlantic, merely regard these little hops as tests in which to try their wings, or rather lack of them. It is an open secret that the real ambition of rocketeers is to penetrate interstellar space. In order to do this a speed of some seven miles a'second is required in order to defeat gravity. Once that speed is attained the rocket, if its power failed, would become a satellite of the world, round which it would revolve for ever- The first trip would doubtless be to the moon, not necessarily to land, but to have a look round. Progress depends almost entirely upon the discovery of a suitable propellant At first gunpowder was used. That propellant, apart from its obvious defects, limited maximum speed to a few hundreds of miles an hour. The popular rocket fuel at the moment is liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Little interstellar touring is likely to be attempted until something even better is discovered, for this fuel, good as it is for ocean hops, limits maximum speed to a mere few thousand miles an hour.

The Taniwha in the gorge of Arapuni. whose sole job for centuries was to prevent eels passing to the upper reaches of this turbulent river, seems to be thriving on the new job that the paheka has given him. In the matter of eels it is well known that the Taniwha did his job with one hundred per cent efficiency, for there are no eels beyond the gorge. ,In the job of preventing the waters from deserting his age-old gorge and turn the wheels of civilisation via a Jver-bed discarded centuries ago, his efficiency, although not yet one hundred per cent., is sufficiently commendable. Every time that experts tie him down, this Taniwha wriggles out at some unexpected place. One might imagine that he has tried everything. But-there are other tricks that have not been tried yet—at least they have not been tried for a few hundreds of thousands of years. But that does not mean that they cannot be resurrected. Probably the most effective manner in which the Taniwha of Arapuni could put a head-lock on the engineers so busy chasing his tail would be to deny them the water of the river at nil. This may seem fantastic, but the Tauiwhas of the Waikato have done that sort of trick before. Their river did not always flow along the present course. Apart from minor changes, there have been several large ones. At one time, so experts declare, the river never went near Arapuni at all. After a fe.v meanders near Lake Taupo, this bold, bad river cut across to Rbtorua, much lower then than now. and ran into the sea, possibly via the route taken by the river that drains Lake Tarawera. To-day there are obstacles in the way of such a move in the share of mountain ranges, but in pumice land one dare not hope that even mountain ranges are the solid things they look. Another whim of this fickle river in past ages was to make the sea at Thames. This old course left the present one to the west of Tirau. At this very moment there is not very much to stop the river making such a change if it felt so disposed. Arapuni without its river would indeed be a forlorn spectacle to tax-payers. ♦ * *

It is interesting to read that excavators in Palestine hope to uncover the actual manger in which Christ was born. Thera can be little doubt .that if this were discovered it would be accepted as one of the greatest treasures of Christendom. It Is always difficult to decide the authenticity of such ageold relics. But it is a fact that to this day there are relics of those far-off times still zealously preserved in various parts of the world. For example, the cup used at the Last Supper, the Chalice of Antioch, supposed to be the Holy Grail, was placed on view in 1931 for the first time at the exposition .f Christian Arts at the Louvre. Paris. It is said that portions of the Cross upon which Christ was crucified are still carefuly preserved at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Jerusalem. This wood has been carved into the shape of small crosses richly set with jewels, but it is neither the jewels nor the craftsmanship that gives the wood its immense value.

In connection with relics from the time of Christ, mentioned in the paragraph above, some Interesting examp'es saved by the Russian Orthodox ChureU are now In safe keeping tn Berlin. Included among the-e relics are said to be fragments of the Cross of Calvary similar to those preserved at ierusnlem. Another remarkable relic saved from the same source in Russia is part of an arm claimed to be that of John f lie Baptist, and a drawing of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus, supposed have been painted by 6L Luks,