RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 102, 24 January 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

LOCAL AND GENERAL (By Kickshaws.) The best that can be said for the increase in the exchange rates. is that there is plenty of interest in the idea. It is understood that there was a scarcity of “bowls” at the Wellington Bowling Club's green yesterday. It may be mere coincidence that Mr. Roosevelt proceeded to Warm Springs immediately after a conference <m war debts,' but it looks like a deliberate attempt to keep himself in hot water. » '♦ * An Eastbourne reader who has followed the ring coincidences published in this column recently says that he Is surprised that nobody has mentioned the Glasgow coat of arms in this connection. In addition to having on its escutcheon a tree that never grew, a bird that never flew, a fish that never swam and a bell that never rang, it has at the bottom a fish with a ring in its mouth. The story about the ring is that some time ago when people were not what they, are to-day Queen Langoureth, who had been false to her husband, had given her lover a ring. The King stole the ring from the lover and threw it into the Clyde. He then asked his wife for the ring. This is where the fish comes in. Decidedly alarmed the queen asked for help from St. Mungo. This saint therefore went fishing in the Clyde. He caught a fine salmon with the missing ring in its mouth to the very great confusion of the King. It is said that the shock was too much for the Queen; she reformed and lived unhappily ever afterward with her husband.

The fact mentioned in the news recently that in London alone 100,000,060 pennies are taken from telephone call boxes every year shows that the humble penny is a vital necessity in civilised life. But it is not only the telephones that eat pennies in this voracious manner. If there were no pennies the penny-in-the-slot machines would be paralysed. What this would mean may be realised by the fact that every year the pennies taken from these machines in England alone if made into one pile would overtop the Tinakorl Hills, 1000 feet high. At the moment it must be admitted that there are too many pennies. The Mint has therefore reduced the. output. This only occurred once before in the history of the humble penny. In 1864 only one-tenth of the normal output of pennies was minted. So great was the outcry, however, that the penny had to be restored to its pre-eminence as a coin of the realm.

The ups-and-downs of the demand for various coins are nearly as mysterious as the Exchange. When shilling-in-the-slot gas-meters were first installed all over England there was suddenly an unaccountable shortage of shillings. They were all in these meters. Until the Mint had worked, overtime making new shillings nobody could light the gas, Again, when the Insurance Act first came into being in England ■ there was an - immediate shortage of pennies. The deduction of fourpence a week from the wages of some ten million workers or so had resulted in the disappearance of the penny and to a less extent of threepenny bits. In fact the output of pennies had to be trebled,.and the output of threepenny bits doubled before these coins reappeared in the public’s pockets.

The clergyman who has supervised the translation of the Bible into 253 different languages is reported to have just retired. One might congratulate him on his work, but for the fact that there is so much more to be done. As things stand at present, the Bible has been translated into nearly 900 languages. During the past quarter of a century this represents a language every five weeks. Unfortunately, even at that rate, it will be another 200 years before the Bible is translated into every language. Not only are there some 700 languages in Africa, 150 in India, 90 in the Pacific, but all told there are roughly 2500 known languages spoken in the world. If one were to include the better-known dialects it would just about treble the total. The matter is made all the more complicated by the fact that in some cases the translators have actually to produce a written language before they can do their job. This task, of course, confronted the pakeha when he first met the Maori.

In the matter of languages, presumably one has to draw the line somewhere. For there is at least one language that is spoken by only 300 persons. This tiny tribe in Australia, known as the Worrora, nevertheless has its own translation of the Bible. Fortunately many people who have languages of their own now prefer to speak English almost exclusively. Nevertheless there are new languages being born even to-day. One glaring instance is the United' States of America. It is considered that in another two centuries it will be as different from English as German is to-day. Australia will probably have produced its own new language by then as well. The only other example of a language in the making is Bush-Nigger-English, spoken by 5000 naked savages in the jungles of Guiana. These savages, in reality escaped slaves, adapted into a true language the curious “pidgin” English that they had learned.

The revelation that there is a car to every five people in America makes one wonder what will be the end of the motor. Already there are nearly 40.000,000 motor-cars in the world. This represents one to every 60 persons. If they ail came on the roads at once there would be a ear every five miles or so. The end of the motor presumably is when there is a car to every hundred yards of road. It. has taken a mere 25 years to reach the present state. The world in theory will therefore be full of cars when another 4.000.000,000 have been made. At full output the factories of the world could do this in another fifty years. Fortunately the balance has its counterpart in the motor world. Cars not only wear out, but ability to pay affects the output. Two cars each for every member of the world is a state of luxury above the dreams of even the most optimistic manufacturer.