RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 96, 17 January 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL- AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

A grain merchant asks why not a potato pool. One might well ask this hot weather why not a water pool. Golf played for the fun of the thing, it is claimed, is not expensive. One never realised before just why gplf was expensive. * * * A characteristic of Test match play according to one writer, should be a sporting ability to play the game. Britannia, it should be pointed out, never waives the rules. A recent article in “The Dominion” has proved conclusively that Britain is full of political families in which the tradition has been handed down from father to son for generations. It is well that this should be so. It has produced the best diplomats in the world. In the same manner intensive military traditions in some families has produced the curious temperament and characteristics that go to make, if not a genius, at least a stubborn soldier. One family, for example, claims to have produced an unbroken heritage of military band conductors for no less than five generations. As a matter of fact when one starts to investigate this matter of family tradition it becomes obvious that the British Empire has been founded on it. * « % In all walks of life, however humble, tradition plays an important part. There are families of charcoal burners who were on the job right back in preConqueror days. There are families in the printing trade who have been printers since the days of Caxton. Today there are sail makers alive and at their job proud in the knowledge that their great-great-great grandfather made sails for Nelson’s Victory. One cannot acquire many of these arts in a generation even to-day, despite machinery. One must be bred and born a maker of champagne just as one must be bred and born a statesman, a pirate or a horse breeder. Nations such as the United States of America that try to rush things generally realise the truth of this when it is too late. It is said that Uncle Sam hates a conference with John Bull because he knows his own weaknesses.

The suggestion recently made that volcanoes are explained by the fact that the inside of the world is full of radium is yet another ingenious guess as to what the core of the»world-is made from. This guess must not be taken any more seriously than the other suggestion that the world has a core of molten glass. This liquid glass, it was claimed, was a ball 8,000 miles across. It was surrounded by a layer of metal a thousand miles thick. In its turn this was covered with another 1,000-mile shell of burnt rock. On top we live on a thin skin only 30 miles deep made of granite. Other guesses that have been hazarded either refute the contention that the centre core is liquid or else break out into something equally fantastic.

One pet theory is that the centre of the world is made out of unwanted protons. As these things weigh several thousand times heavier than an equal bulk of lead they have sunk through everything to the centre. A cricket ball made of this stuff would weigh so much that not even the strongest cranes could lift it. A piece the size of "BB” shot would require half a dozen cart horses to move it. As a matter of fact it could not be lifted • even then. For nothing could be .made strong enough to hold it. It would sink through metals by its ’own weight as if they were butter. In the meantime we strut and prance on the top of this microscopic fragment of sidereal dust that we call the world as if it were something solid that could defeat all time. Without this little forgivable vanity life indeed would be miserable.

Concerning the interesting discussion as to whom the accretion in the value of gold belongs—the banks and the people, writes “C.R.,” Waipukurau. Could you advise me what would happen if the Government decided to return to the gold standard? Would the banks be compelled to pay twenty shillings or one sovereign for their notes in circulation, or could they redeem their notes at, say, 12/-? Would they be compelled to exchange '2O shillings for one sovereign? Also, could you advise me of my standing in regard to this matter? A note reads: On demand we promise to pay one pound sterling. I took one to the bank and asked for an English pound. Are they not bound by their promise, or is the laugh of the bank manager sufficient to vary the terms of their contract? Has a case ever been before the Court? And what then is a pound sterling? All notes have been reprinted and re-issued since the moratorium.

A return to the gold standard does not mean that golden sovereigns would circulate, a banking authority explains, and form part of the currency of the country, as is seemingly implied. As the subject covers a wide field, a study of “The Gold Standard,” by R. G. Ilawtrey, is suggested. It can be authoritatively stated that the use of sovereigns as part of the currency of this country.is out of the question. If decided upon it would not be in accord with modern currency policy. This accepts the view that economy in .the use of gold sovereigns is essential. The notes issued by the banks in New Zealand are payable at Wellington. The implication is that they are payable in New Zealand currency which is depreciated, in terms of English money, to the extent of about 10 per cent. The Courts hare not decided the point, but the very fact that the notes are payable at Wellington determines that they are payable in New Zealand currency. If the notes had been payable or convertible in London instead of M ellington there would have been justification for demanding English money for them.

In tlie case of human beings, a blind girl who had her sight restored, says a reader, knew exactly who among her friends would look pretty and who would look plain. But the greatest shock came when she saw someone talking on the telephone. She thought that the person had gone mad. It was the same with the wireless. It seemed realistic enough when blind. When this girl recovered her sight and saw it was only a little box. she became frightened of it. Colours, of course, baffled all description. For of all things that a blind person cannot hare explained, colour is one of them. I