RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 70, 15 December 1932, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

A new species of hydrophobia haw been discovered that is spread by infected bats. It Is understood that the Ashes are to be thoroughly sterilised without delay. • • • It is suggested that those Auckland relief workers who initiated a “goslow” policy would have attracted far more attention to themselves if they had decided to go fast

Reports come from Christchurch of far too many badly shaped and poorly covered carcases. Nobody realised beforehand that the combination of dieting and modern fashions would have such a terrible result.

The intoxicated pigs that held up traffic near a slaughterhouse at Basle are a touching proof that man is not the only animal with a penchant for alcohol. It is said in America in the bad old days It was not uncommon for horses that dragged the brewers’ drays to die of delirium tremens. In England a similar unfortunate disease broke out among the dray horses. In this case it was proted that the noble beasts had not become alcoholic addicts. They had been fed on malt which turned into alcohol in their stomachs. The higher animals, it has been proved, have an instinctive craving for drink. The elephant, the bear, and the monkey are capable of ludicrous antics after a tot of rum. Further tests prove that most animals become hopeless addicts if ’ they are given access to unlimited supplies of drink.

It is not unlikely that man. far from being the first drunkard, learned from the lower animals. The first drunkards, it is suspected, were to be found in the Insect world. Scientists have proved that certain plants whose sap is particularly liked by insects contains a high alcoholic content. Curiously enough, tests made on moths show that while the males show a craving for alcohol the females refuse it. Bees, of course, sometimes manage to make themselves drunk on honey, but usually they sleep off the effects in a few hours. A spider that drank a tot too mueh before spinning a web is said to have made investigators laugh so mueh that they were unable to continue their investigations.

It is revealed In the House of Commons that for the last year gold bullion has been exported from India to the tune of nearly £7O million. This sounds a large figure until one starts to compute just how much gold there must be in India. India has goldfields, but in comparison to the vast hordes of gold in the country they sink into insignificance. Right down the ages India has been accumulating gold, sliver and precious stones. In a five-year period she imports gold to the value of £100.060,000. It is all stored away in the dungeons and strong rooms of innumerable rajahs. During the, last hundred years India has absorbed £600,000,000 worth of gold. Multiply this figure by four and one has a vague idea of just how much uncounted gold there is hoarded in that country. It works out to more than the total gold in the world, because for some reason statisticians tacitly agree that once gold gets to India it is written off as lost.

Despite all the talk about a gold shortage, a good deal is being produced to-day, particularly within the Empire. At the present moment Canada is turning out two tons a week. In a year this is equivalent to £10,900,600. This total represents more than twice the total production by the whole world one hundred years ago. It is estimated that in another ten years Canada’s output will have doubled. Nobody knows how much virgin gold there is in that country. Certainly at the moment Canada beats the United States of America with her gold production. The greatest goldmining country in the world is still South Africa. The Rand mines produce £40,000,000 worth of gold a year. This is just under half the total gold supply mined in the world. It is significant that of the £83,000,000 of gold mined in the whole world in a year the British Empire produces three-quarters of it. We shall pay those debts yet.

According to the Customs authorities in England, so eagle-eyed are their representatives that amateur smuggling has decreased. The other suggestion that so clever are amateur smugglers that fewer are caught would naturally not appeal to the Customs people. It must be admitted that the old schemes of wearing multitude of silk stockings, a thick layer of silk underclothes, and an honest-looking face are not so successful to-day. But there are amateurs at the game who know more than that about it. One woman successfully hid valuable diamonds in her glass eye. Ultimately it must be admited that she was caught. Another woman, a loving mother with a young child, got a very valuable pearl necklace past the eyes of the Customs hidden in the milk in a baby’s bottle.

Quite the neatest method evolved for dodging the Customs was thought out by an amateur smuggler who by now must have set up as a professional. At an American port recently a packet of gloves from France arrived. The consignee was willing to pay the heavy dntv on them until he found that they were all left-handed. He refused to accept them. Shortly afterwards a similar packet of right-handed gloves arrived at another port. The same procedure was followed. In due course the Customs authorities sold the gloves for a mere song. The consignee was thus able to acquire them at much less than the duty payable.

A visitor to New Zealand says that he has retired to the Channel Islands because they are probably the safest and most pleasant place to live. But there are other places that might make similar claims. On the score of safety Bermuda ‘should have a strong appeal. For vears there was not only no railwav,' but to this day no motor-cars are allowed. What could Ik? safer than that? It is said that the chief occupation of a Bermudian is sitting around thinking out a pleasant way to die. On the score of pleasantness there are places in this Dominion, in Hawke’s Bay and in the vicinity of tiie Waikato river, that would be difficult to beat. That is. of course, provided one is content with a simple life in contrast to the rush and hustle of a city. But, then, cities are ruled out at once, for no city is safe and very few are pleasant. Every year there are thousands of people laying down the burdens of life on retirement. Perhaps some of them would care to be as candid as this visitor and explain why they live in such-and-such a place. To' their friends it is too often an enigma.