RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 17, 14 October 1933, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

We regret to see that the Irish authorities appear to be treating ’.ha Tralee incident in a “tra-la” manner.

It is reported that tlfe income of the Wellington abattoirs is down £5O. If prices were slaughtered would things revive.?

When one dear old lady read that scarlet fever was at the bottom of those sinister naval rumours from Scotland she said that she had no idea that the red menace was so infectious.

“C. 5. Wellington, writes: —“From time to time ‘The Dominion’ has reproduced photographs which were taken by the infra-red ray process. This has given rise to a discussion between some friends and myself. In order to settle some doubtful points, I shall be glad if you would enlighten me through your column as to the following: Wno discovered the infra-red process, and in what country? Is it a recent discovery ?”

It is not known who first put the virtues of infra-red rays to practical use. It is understood that Professor Fleming utilised them during the war as a method whereby ships could keep station without any light being seen by enemy submarines. Certainly during the war efforts were made to use the infra-red ray process for taking photographs from aeroplanes. A fair measure of success resulted when the correct type-of filter had been found. The present results are a tribute to the progress that has been made by an English firm in plate emulsion technique and filter improvements. It has been known for many years that the light spectrum extended far beyond the reds that limit vision on one end of the spectrum and the violets on the other. In fact, the waves involved are the same as radio waves or X-ray-waves, only different in size.

Squadron Leader Stedman has made out a case for special weather reports to interest airmen, but surely something more should also be done for the man in the street. Weather reports as we know them are too mysterious. They modestly say that an anticyclone has turned into a cyclone over the Tasman; winds will be northerly in the south, and southerly in the north, westerly in the east, easterly in the west, elsewhere passing showers and whirlwinds. No sign is given why this, the normal weather in New Zealand, should be so. ff’iere is a human touch lacking in our weather reports. How much better if we had reports like the following: General situation. Corns on every foot are reported to be afflicted with shooting pains. Starlings in the Hutt area are flying low. Cows are lying down on their right side all over the North Island. Spiders in Dunedin are spinning their webs low down. Weather for the next few’ weeks will be stormy in all districts. The westerly, depression now passing the Dominion will turn round and come back again and again and again. This will continue indefinitely until a ring appears round the sun, and sheep are seen feeding scattered over a wide area, when a few hours’ fine weather will extend southward. Sometimes one wonders if weather experts are not so busy chasing isobars across Australia, hunting millibars in Melbourne and probing cyclones in the Chathams that they forget altogether to look at the weather. ’ They miss the shrill notes of the blackbird and the chirping of sparrows that portend passing showers no matter what the isobars say. They fail to hear the seagulls telling one another that a storm is coming from the south. The clamour of the ducks in the farmyard passes unobserved, partly, of course, because meteorologists never live near farmyards. If they saw a pig taking mouthfuls of straw into its-sty they would think the animal mad; and write a note to the Inspector of Stock. Yet the pig is telling them that a gale is coming, no matter what the isotherms are indicating. But more than that can be learned without weather instruments. The spotted bower bird of Australia lays three eggs if the season is to be good and none at all if a drought, is coming. When spiders build high a calm season lies ahead. The scarlet pimpernel closes its petals hours before rain is coming and the dandelion does the reverse. Readers perhaps would care to elaborate ou this?

The Ceres, so runs a short simple statement in the news yesterday,'a 121-year-o!d Cornish ship is the oldest ship in active service in the world. Men who go down to the sea in ships may care to query this modest claim. Maybe there are ships in New Zealand that can beat it. Certainly there are ships in other parts, of the world that come very close to this record. In Bermuda for example, there is a small trading vessel, made of red cedar, a wood that lasts for ever, that has been trading for 130 years. Unfortunately, this is only hearsay, and doubtless the Ceres can produce something more convincing, if not more accurate, in proof of her longevity. All that can lie said is that if the Ceres wishes'to beat previous records she must keep. going_ for many years to come. The little 2;>-ton ketch. Good Intent, for example, left her builders in 1790. She was taken, out of service, and laid up at Bristol 13S years later, not because she was worn out but because she had outlived her. job. Another wooden ketch, the Bee. journeyed continuously between Southampton and Cowes, Isle of Wight, for 126 years. The Jane, another centenarian, 'built in 1800. is still in service on the river Avon. England. During the war she sailed the Bristol Channel under Government charter.

Strangely enough, the wooden ships of tlie world seem to have a far longer life tlrnn their more modern metal counterparts. The old paddle steamer. Glencoe, which started life ns plain Mary Jane in 1546, still plies regularly with passengers and goods between the Kyle of Loclialsh and the Isle of Skye. The steam launch. Jhelum. not to be outdone by Mary Jane, still plugs away on the river Indus, despite her S 3 years. It is stated with pride by her engineer thafvinee she was built not one screw in the engine has been replaced. We in New Zealand had our first steam boat in 1851. Our first locally-made steamboat was launched from Freeman's Bay in that year and was called the Governor Wynyard. Her timbers were of pohutukawa and her planking of kauri. She may be going yet somewhere or other. It is understood that Mie was last heard of on the Yarra.

When a man’s busy. why. leisure Strikes him as wonderful pleasure! 'Faith, ami at leisure once Is he? Straightway he wants to be busy. —Browning.