RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 101, 23 January 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

According to an expert international law for water is full of loopholes. This drink problem always seem to be a rum business.

According to one American,, a d» pression is a period in which a fellow, being unable to take his girl around and givs her a good time, is forced to marry her to economise.

The Chancellor of the University of New Zealand declares that war is often the cause of art. The terrors of war are even worse than expected.

Your paragraph about the Cricket Memorial Stone, in Hampshire, is interesting, writes a Masterton reader whose name is indecipherable. I thoiight I had a photograph of this stone with me, but I find I have not. It is of plain granite, enclosed by a rustic wooden fence, and stands on Broad Halfpenny Down, some two miles from the village of Hambledon; the “pub” at the same place is “The Bat and Ball.” Inside there are the scores of various old-time matches. It is a beautiful spot, standing high up on sandy soil, with a good view over the surrounding country, which is typically English “truly rural.” The down where the wickets are pitched is excellent soft, springy turf, and sheep are continuously grazing on it. There are several traditional games played there. One is on New Year’s Day, when a cricket match is played. On the same day that the Hambledon Hunt foxhounds meet at “The Bat and Ball.”

Some little consternation has been caused in Dunedin, it seems, by a mushroom that thrust its way through a thick layer of asphalt in order to grow. The force that urges a tender plant to pierce a way through uncongenial coverings of this nature is very great indeed. As the Wellington City Council has reason to know, a rolled layer of bitumen or tar-mix by no means daunts the young shoots of a dandelion or a plantain. For evidence, one only had to visit Rarer! a few years ago and walk along its new footpaths. As a matter of fact , experts who have troubled to investigate this phenomenon have shown that a force of several tons is required to thwart a germinating seed in its upward fight for existence. Young trees have been known to toss aside heavy grindstones above them as if they were weightless.

Professors in England have been discovering that by 1941 the population ot Great Britain will have reached Its maximum after which it will decline. As experts in the days of Queen Elizabeth even went so far as to warn her that London could not increase any more these discoveries should nob be taken too seriously. In spite of the fact that Britain lost a million people in the last war her population during that time actually increased. Ab the moment it is increasing at the rate of about a quarter of a million every year. If a declining population, as suggested, is predominantly masculine Britain has shown no signs of nearing that condition. Her population is becoming increasingly feminine. Today there are over 1,000,600 women in Britain who can never find husbands of the same nationality for lack of supplies.

One curious thing about, the population in Britain is that the declining death-rate will produce an era of old people. Ahead and not so very ahead there looms in Britain a famine in youth. The war and the “flu” epidemic just after it is largely the cause. At the moment there are a million fewer children in the elementary schools of Britain than there were before the war when the total population was 2,000,000 less. It was estimated that by the end of this year there will be 2,000,000 less workers in England than normally. By 1950 there will be less still. On the other hand, there will be three times the number of people over 70 years of age. The effect of this famine in youth—the lack of recruits fos the labour market—may in the end solve that insoluble problem of tie unemployed.

Yet another expedition is reported to be on the way to wrest from Mt. Everest those last few hundreds of feet. In all, this mountain has claimed 13 lives. The last two lives that were lost showed that the mountain was not unconquerable. In fact, two members of the last expedition got within a thousand feet of the summit without oxygen. It has been practically proved that it is a physical possibility to scale Everest. The only reason why it has not been done is on account of the height. Possibly the aerial reconnoissance that is also to be organised will enable the climbers to utilise the most suitable route. Years of spade work have got man within a few feet of the summit. Even now he does not know the best route to reach it. Only by trial can he discover it This is where the aeroplane may help by eliminating the blind alleys.

Not many of us realise what it is like to do anything at a height of nearly 30,000 feet. During the war ma-chine-gunners in aeroplanes flying at under 20,000 feet complained that it was a severe strain on their strength to fire their guns. Climbers declare that at 25,000 feet it becomes a terrible exertion even to turn one’s head. Lifting one foot and placing it in front of the other a little higher on the mountain side takes five or ten minutes. A climb of 100 feet is almost a day’s work. On top of this, there is the ever-present danger of snow blindness and high-altitude throat. The latter complaint is a parched condition of the throat which is very dangerous. It should also be realised that the clothing and equipment that has to be carried are heavier than normal clothing. Rig up an average man in climbing kit. place an ice axe in his hand and an oxygen apparatus on his back, and he would give up all idea of Everest after a preliminary romp up the track of the Kelburn car. Henry the Third was that poor freak. A king we speak about as weak, And bred in John his father’s school, Seemed totally unfit to rule. So Simon Montfort sternly went And instituted Parliament. Had Henry happened to belong To kings we speak about as strong The House of Commons might have been A house that nobody has seen, And we might still be swayed by swords Instead of by the House of Lords. —Farjeon.