RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 210, 3 June 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) A court In Mexico, it seems, has refused to recognise a divorce obtained over the telephone. How dreadfully old-fashioned! « s> * . A German, it is said, recently invented a perfect hair-cutting machine. It can’t be perfect unless it has a loud speaker. A writer declares that the television telephone will soon be an everyday sight. The composite face on a party line, we take it, will also be an everyday sight. « $ ♦ Just why Northern Rhodesia has decided to give itself a new capital is not revealed in the short item of news on the subject. One would have thought that Northern Rhodesia would have discovered long since that one cannot make capitals.. Capitals make themselves. Efforts on the part of man to assist by orders-in-eouncil, regulations, and Acts of Parliament usually end in failure, or in a dead city. One could give Canberra as an instance of this, but the facts are too well known. It is perhaps topical to point out, though, that if the Australian Government did not insist that Government officials live there, the place would be empty in a few weeks. Even Ministers stay there as short a time as possible. But Canberra is not alone iu its lost glory, iOl the last 3000 years or so efforts have been made to make Rome the capital of Italy. It will require perhaps another 2000 years for the Italians to discover tbeir error.

Perhaps the best example of a manmade capital and what happens to it, may be seen in South America. Buenos Aires is the natural capital of the Argentine Republic. The various provinces were jealous, as indeed. the states were, in Australia. It was decided that a new capital should be built, lock, stock and threshold, so to speak. It was to be called La Plata. The site chosen was some 30 miles north of Buenos Aires, and five miles from the port of Ensenada. It took four years and untold millions to build the new capital —a city of museums, schools, and unrivalled Government offices. The. Government duly began to function iu the man-made capital, but the population returned over night to Buenos Aires. All that was left in La Plata was a few caretakers. Grass grew in the streets, the buildings lost their glitter. Nobody lived in La Plata except those who were forced to do so by tlie Government. Slowly, it must be admitted, the overflow from Buenos Aires has drifted to La Plata, which to-day is still there, but its population is one-twelfth that of Buenos Aires

There is usually a good reason why a certain locality becomes the focus of trade, and thereby attracts a popu- j latiuu that continues to increase. If one moved London elsewhere, it is doubtful if the new city would be anything but sickly. It has required 4000 years of experience to produce Loudon of to-day. If there had been a better place Loudon would have been there. It has required some 70 years of experience to produce our own Wellington. 'ln the early days an artificial effort was made to make I’etone the centre of population. Despite the space available and tlie unlimited areas of the Hutt Valley, the effort was a failure. Cities follow trade and trade follows deep water. People were content to pereh their houses on tlie edges of precipices rather than miss the natural opportunities of Wellington. Our legislators were wise enough to bow to the inevitable. If, in time to come, airports are more vital than seaports, it may be that the city of Wellington will have to move. The move, if it comes, will be graduai, and an effort to make the change by Act of Parliament will inevitably re-' suit in failure.

“I am enclosing a problem which might be of interest to your readers, the solution of~ which has been the cause of many heated arguments among some of my friends,” writes “X=O.” "I have seen many solutions to this, including some from mathematical masters in some of the High Schools, bur so far all the solutions have bad a flaw in the reasoning, aud up to date none have been correct. The problem is, what; is the true value of the fraction 0 over 0? Hoping that you will be able to enlighten me.” [The fraction mentioned has no true value. It depends upon the Doughtiness of the noughts. The fraction, iu fact, might represent anything from infinity to nothing, depending upon whether the upper,nought was larger than the smaller, or smaller. If the two were equal, nought over nought would be/“one,” which, of course, is absurd, but mathematics, when pressed to extremes, becomes absurd as, for instance, the square root of minus one, In everyda? humdrum mathematics nought divided by nought would be considered to be nothing. There must be. however, various degrees of nothing. because a pin’s bead is nothing compared to the size of the universe, but a pin’s head is something to a microbe —a huge boulder, in fact. It may be, of course, that everything is just one huge nothing, aud we live iu a world of various degrees of nothingness. However much we take, it cannot come to anything unless we take an infinity of nothings, which requires a very long time. The calculus considers these matters, and “X=O” might well consider the calculus.] Certain questions concerning wool, asked by a reader, were referred to Mr. J. G.' Cook, Government Wool Instructor. who lias kindly forwarded the following replies:— (1) Does South Africa produce a better wool than cither New Zealand or Australia’/ No. (2) Who lias the largeA wool production per annum.' Australia. The figures for the year 1931 are as follow Australia. 912.100.000 lbs.; South Africa. 335.000 - OOOlbs.: New Zealand. 266.000.0001b5. The wool production for the whole ot Africa in the venr 1930 was 430,600.000 lbs. (3) Is it true that Australia imports wool from South Africa.* No. 1 have looked up the exports and imports for both countries, and am unable to find indication of imports of South African wool into Australia I have had to take the figures for the year 1931 as the figures for the later years were not complete iu detail. ♦ • * So the multitude goes Like the flower and the weed That wither away To lot others succeed; So the multitude comes — Even those we behold — To repeat every tale That hath often been told. —William Knox.