RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 221, 15 June 1934, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

One sure way to abolish war would be to get the nations to agree to postpone the next one until the War Debts were settled.

An air hostess when interviewed recently said that she was lucky to land her job. Her language is most unair minded.

According to a visitor one of Shakespeare’s plays has been banned tn America. It is a tribute to this dramatist’s popularity that only one country has had to use this memoa to popularise his works.

“Historicus” says, “We are having a great argiflnent here as to which of the two famous battles—Trafalgar or Waterloo —had the greater political significance. Opinion is about fiftyfirry. Some say mat if Nelson uad been defeated at Trafalgar, England would have been at the mercy of Napoleon,! while others maintain that with the de- 1 feat of Wellington at Waterloo, Bonaparte would once more have been complete master of Europe. We await your opinion.” On the whole it is probably correct that Trafalgar was the more important victory because it crippled Napoleon’s sea power and made it impossible for him to think in terms of world conquest. Admittedly Waterloo was the straw that broke his back, but if Na-1 poleon had won the battle of Waterloo 1 his problems would by no means have been solved —they would have just begun. There might have been a second Waterloo, there could be no /second Trafalgar.

Perhaps the most significant feature of t'-.e suggested civic bui.dings in f,ellingcon is the belated effort to give Edward Gibbon Wakefield some sort of enduring recognition in t..e shape of a campanile to his memory. New Zealand as a whole, and Wellington in particular, have seen fit to let the monuments; of her famous men recline indefinitely! in the dust. For many years the only) statue to Wakefield, a wooden effigy, occupied a not particularly honoured position in a builder’s yard. Althougii Wellington's monuments can be numbered on the fingers'of one hand, it is doubtful if half the citizens could name any one of them except that of Queen Victoria. Indeed, the main reason why this monument still lingers in the memory is the publicity that was given it when city councillors, for some quaint reason, decided to paint it black. Even the iron obelisk sent out to Wellington in memory of the brother of Sir William Molesworth. and to repl*'”* the unsightly pile of old barrels that served as a shipping guide on Beacon Hill, has disappeared. Some say that this monument, forgotten and never erected, lies rusting away beneath the ground somewhere in the vicinity of the Featherston Street Telephone Exchange.

In contrast to the utter disdain with which we treat our famous dead, indeed Hobson’s tomb itself is almost forgotten, other nations of the world have, if anything, gone to the other extreme. Monuments are erected to the memory of nothing. Americans have erected a statue to the memory of a cow for ao other reason than that she gave an unusual quantity of milk. France has erected a statue to an omelette, and to Camembert cheese. Germany boasts a statue to Drake, not for his explorations, but because he introduced the Germans'to the potato. There is even talk in Britain to erect a statue to Benjamin Bovill, a London fruit merchant, who was the first to import oranges to Britain. Yet Sir Richard West on. of the days of Charles I, who brought turnips. clover and meadow grasses to Britain, still awaits recognition. Compared to the seven wonders of the ancient world, maybe our statues appear insignificant. This, however, will be remedied when America has completed the gigantic task of carving statues to her famous Presidents in the face of a granite cliff hundreds of feet high. • * *

The fact that H.M.S. Dunedin, during her recent trials, made 29 knots at least shows that she is about as swift as a crack liner, but considerably slower than the fastest vessel afloat. During the four hours that the test was made the Dunedin must have steamed about 120 nautical miles, _a distance comparable with the 175 miles separating Christchurch and Wellington. The record for this trip appears to have been made by the Diomede last year when she took not quite 6i hours on the journey. This works out at slightly over 27 knots. Possibly the Diomede could beat her own time if she tried, because she was not fully extended, but an ocean trip is very different from a speed trial in calm water. No passenger vessel on the run to (jhristchureh can hope to beat these naval speeds for the very simple reason that the fastest time that the Rangatira has made in New Zealand waters is slightly in excess of 24 knots —on the run from Wellington to Picton. It is a remarkable fact that fox the last 25 years the speed of ships has shown practically no increase at all. One reason, perhaps, has been lack of any faster outside competition. Possibly the aeroplane will alter matters.

When one compares the speed tests of the Dunedin with what is expected of a first-class Atlantic liner, it is obvious that 29 knots is not paiticularly outstanding. The scheduled speeds of many liners on the Atlantic run today is in the vicinity of 25 knots. There is a great difference between maintaining this speed for a few hours and averag.ng it for three or four days across one of the stormiest oceans in the world. Nevertheless the Bremen, on her maiden voyage between Germany and New York, maintained no less than 27.5 knots. In contrast to this the Mauretania in 1909 made the trip from New York to Queenstown at the remarkable speed of just under 26 knots. What the future holds for ocean speeds is still more or less unknown. The fact remains, however, that to-day 100 mi.es an hour in the water is not impossible for small craft. Moreover, special types of naval craft have already touched 40 knots. Before further progress is made some radical change w.U have to be made in hull design.

Concerning the birth of seven children at the same time. "C.F.” says. “As a boy I was shown on the pavement of. 'l Ibink. Wi-'liford Church, near Wilton. the impressions of small effigies of the children. As ’P.B.N.’ relates, they were brought to the church in a sieve to be christened. Tlie old sexton told me that the father of the ch ldten had deserted his wife shortly after marrying her. He return.'! after about seven years and astonished the neighbourhood when his wife subsequently prescuied him with seven children al one b rill. '£tia date I was told this was about IS<4» and that was about 80 years after th* christening.”