RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 122, 16 February 1935, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) The community is in low water again, but it isn’t money this time. * * * Mention of prominent public men in the pepper crisis shows that the scandal is not just something to be sneezed at. » » • The Leader of the Opposition declares that the Government’s mortgage finance proposals will turn the farmers into serfs. On the other hand the Government believes they will turn serfs into farmers. It was in ransom notes that gave the first clue to the discovery of Hauptmann. Kidnappers in China made one of their captives pay as ransom £6O for each gold tooth he owned. In a case in America some years ago kidnappers demanded as ransom the sum of one penny for every freckle that their captive had on her face. Some women would have got off at the cost of a penny or two. The girl in question unfortunately had 16,000 freckles. Many years ago the number of hairs on the head of a captive was made the subject .of barter concerning the projected ransom. Again some people would have got off with a score or so of hairs. In the particular case in question the unfortunate individual had 120,000 hairs on his head. Had he been red-headed it is more than likely that his ransom would have been far less. Red-heads possess only about 30,000 hairs. * * The fact is that apart from selecting a suitable basis for a ransom we are for ever trying to discover suitable yardsticks for this and that. The astronomers bewildered by the immensity of space were forced to adopt something better than a mile with which to measure out the heavens. Eventually they hit upon a light year. This represents the distance that light travels in a year. An idea of the huge size of this yard-stick may be had from the fact that light travels at the rate of 186,000 miles every second. Other investigators who deal with the minutely small have had to adopt other standards, Instead of light years they have compared the size of the things with which they deal with the length of a ray of light. As this may be half a millionth of an inch in size it is obvious that they have gone to the opposite extreme to the astronomers. Yet in this universe of extremes some people believe that inevitably the hugely great and the infinitesimally small eventually meet somewhere in the back of beyond so many, light years away and so many light wavelengths close that nobody can get there.

New Zealanders are gradually becoming ski-conscious. But for the fact that a pair of skis is little use without a fall of snow no doubt we would have all taken to skis as we have taken to motor-cars and shanks’s pony. One has only to watch a party of experts skiing through wooded country at 30 miles an hour to appreciate the skill that can be acquired. There was a time when an Englishman upon a pair of skis was regarded in places such as Switzerland as a joke. A new era_on skiing was ushered in when in 1925 a British team beat the Swiss at their national pastime. The only comment the Swiss made was that they did not ski like Englishmen. To-day wherever there is skiing there will you find an English “he” if not a “she” or two. The fact is that mankind has been skiing ever since the dawn of history. Indeed, there was discovered recently in a peat bog a pair of wooden skis dating from the Stone Age. Moreover, drawings found on stones show that te Sweden skiing was popular in that country 3000 years ago.

If skiing is not. tlje fastest sport known it is probably no exaggeration to say that it is one of the fastest. For some years there was no little controversy as to the speed developed on skis by an expert travellihg at.. full speed. A ski club in America timed some events to settle the argument. It was shown that an expert after jumping only 30 yards landed at a speed of 59 miles an hour. It was estimated that speeds of over 60 miles an hour were possible at the take-off. Compared with skiing, skating is.a slow game. Some 25 miles an hour is about the top speed, or very little faster than the speed attained in the 100 yards. Ice-yachting is probably a sport in which the highest speeds of all are attained without mechanical aid. When travelling with the wind on the beam, the fastest position, it has been shown that speeds of 70 miles an hour are by no means impossible. It is perhaps fair to point out that a man on a pushbicycle has attained this speed. In this case, however, he was sucked along at that speed by the back draught of a fast car. For that reason tne comparison is obviously unfair. A bicycle that travels at over •» miles an hour unpaced would bring the owner many lautels. • • *

With all this controversy about bathing attire, it might be useful to point out some edicts taken without favour or bias from all over the world. In Buenos Aires men are banned from appearing in the streets in their shirt sleeves Thev compromise by appearing in pyjamas. In Shanghai engaged couples are not permitted to walk in the streets arm-in-arm on danger ot being arrested for “bad behaviour in public places.” It is illegal to kiss a girl in public in Brazil, unless you are a sailor, a soldier or a policeman. In Canton women are banned from riding bicycles on the score of indecent exposure. In Rumania no waitresses are permitted to work in hotels for fear that they may pervert the young. In Timor-Laut, in the East Indies, women are compelled to keep one eye closed in the presence of men. This custom is also to be observed by lawgivers who are afraid to admit that they have produced silly regulations.

If the Mrs. Grundys of the world had their way the world would become so dull and so drab that the only outlet for one’s feelings would be to become really wicked. We would end by equalling in childishness the socalled “pleasure resort” of Ocean Grove, New Jersey. It seems that the people who visit that resort are so vicious that regulations have had to be macle to prevent them buying or smoking tobacco of any kind, playing cards, dancing, and, except after official approval even bathing in the sea. In another American community a bell rings at 8.45 every evening as a warning to all girls under 16 years to hurry home. After nine girls unde* 16 are arrested forthwith and clapped into gaol if they are found in the streets, which presumably are reserved exclusively for the wicked. There was a time, of course, when it was considered indecent for a woman to bathe without stockings, and when Brighton reserved one part of its bench tor women and another part a mile away for men. Our own Te Aro baths in the City of Wellington have not yet forgotten that time.