RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 18, 16 October 1933, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events LOCAL AND GENERAL

(By

Kickshaws.)

If it be true that the economic blizzard is sending ships round the Horn, those Cape Horn blizzards must be feeling rather second-rate.

A lecturer says that power paint spraying has revolutionised the industry. Certainly in a large family of girls one would imagine the contrivance would be indispensable.

Fashions are to be so fashionable this year that dressmakers are at a loss to discover something to which, to fix the shoulder-straps.

The New Zealander who visited Ireland and was surprised to find that the kitchen fire in one farm homestead had never been (flit for four generations has not come across a custom peculiar to that country. Indeed, the custom of the ever-burning fire is so old that it goes back thousands of years. It was only killed by the invention of the match. In the old and chilly days, when man was sufficiently uncivilised to be contented, the lighting of a fire was such a slow job that each tribe had at least one, if not more, perpetual fires. It was the especial job of one individual to tend these fires. When some accident put out the fire, such as flood or heavy rains, the tribe suffered great privations, while special runners made journeys of several hundreds of miles to bring back the sparks for a new fire. Ope may still see this custom of the ever-turning fire in remote parts of Australia where the r aboriginal is still an aboriginal.

It is a custom to this day on the Yorkshire moors to keep the home fires burning without a break for generation after generation. In one house a turf fire has been known to have been burning for at least 100 years, and woebetide anyone who permitted the tradition (and the fire) to go out. A patch of ling on the open moor is fired in the first instance. After the top has been burned off the turf below is cut into suitable lengths with a special turf spade. This subsoil when dry makes good fuel. Every night the housewife takes a “wick” from the turf pile beside the house and puts it flat on the hearth plate under the hot ashes. Next morning the fire is' glowing red beneath the top layer of ashes, which are removed. Much the same idea is still in vogue in the more out-of-the-way parts of Wales. The local coal lends itself to the perpetual fire idea once one has mastered its idiosyncracles. Many a Welsh fire has been fed for a lifetime on a mixture of powdered clay and coal dust.

It was refreshing to see that a schoolmaster at Feildlng has actually levelled criticism at, the type of knowledge that is pumped into children, who after a series of examinations are pronounced educated. A South African contribution to the question, “What is education?” throws a light on the subject which all the words in the world fail to do. “And what do you?” asked a 14-year-old girt of the late Sir David Gill, the famous astronomer. “I study astronomy,” answered Sir David. “Gosh,” said the girl, astonished .at his reply ,“I finished astrawminy last year.” One would imagine that education began and ended at school, and that learning a few out of date facts about dead people was the beginning and end of education. The one important subject that never seems to be taught at schools is practical education. A bird that is teaching its youngsters to fly surely leads the way in education. Man and his scholars plod wearily along the same old grooves of antiquity.

When one looks back at school days there is really very little that has been learned that is of much practical use. Having learned so much and haring leapt the inevitable examination hurdles, one Is permitted to discover too late what a lot there is yet to learn. • Multitudes of people, having been told that they are “educated,” never realise that they have not even scratched deeper than the varnish. It is left to the crossword puzzle and the jig-saw to supply the stimulus that stereotyped education lacks. Indeed it is astounding how easy it is to trip up educated people once they get off the beaten track. What,, for example, is wrong with this statement? “Horses’ eyes magnify everything; that is why horses obey their masters.”' One boy who was faced with the poser, “What would happen if nobody had any teeth?” replied, “We would have to use scissors to cut our nails.” It would be interesting to know how he fared in his examinations and in the world.

New Zealanders perhaps will not feel sad to learn that William Stoney's £11,060 to assist poor migrants from Warwickshire has been found invalid. But poor "Warwickshire migrants will certainly be full of stony looks. The only thing that can be added to this sad ruling is that it is not the first one or the quaintest. The law is often colder than charity. Only a couple of years ago, when a kind-hearted clergyman of Farnham, England, left £lO,OOO to provide the ragged urchins of the district with trousers, the noble judge held that knickerbocker charity was not legal. The boys of Farnham are doubtless still happy in their raggedness. Ou the other hand, when a wealthy clubman of London left £70,000 in trust for the poor boxes of the metropolitan police courts, no obstacle was put in the way of the executors carrying out the terms of the will.

It is said that where there’s a will there’s a way, and there is little doubt that assisted by a clever lawyer it is possible to make almost any sort of a freak will. Nevertheless when Miss Marjorie Clementson was left £50,000 by a crusty old bachelor on the condition that she never married, the mark had been overstepped. Testators often do not realise that the conditions that they wish to impose are sometimes illegal. In spite of all the funny situations provided by fiction concerning marriage provisions inserted in fictitious wills, the fact remains that in most countries, and certainly under English law, it is impossible to prevent a iierson from marrying. Nevertheless a husband can leave his wife a sum of money providing she remains a widow. Considering the queer provisions that some testators have sought to impose, it is as well that the law now and again does step in. For some people have sought to prevent inheritance if female legatees used lipsticks, wore short skirts, or bobbed their hair. One individual actually sought to prevent a beneficiary from growing a Chari!* Chaplin moustache, and backing horses.