RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 197, 18 May 1936, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) A professor points out that a butterfly flaps its wings 37,000 times in flying half a mile. But that does not explain how the brute knows that our cabbage is at the end of the last flap. ♦ » * A booklover points out that one seldom comes across two different books with the same title. Authors, we understand, leave that to the plot. * » ♦ The very latest device for the home, it seems, washes and mangles, cleans windows and polishes the furniture. The device is obviously an improvement on a husband, because it doesn’t drop cigarette-ash all over the place. » ♦ * Regarding Mrs. Mollison’s latest record, “R.H.F.” writes: ‘There would have been flying girls in the days of Oliver Cromwell if only light aeroplanes had been available. In October, 1653. Dorothy Osborne, of Bedfordshire, wrote: ‘You could not but have laughed if you had seen me last night. My brother and Mr. Gibson were talking by the fire; and I sat by, but as no part of the company. Amongst other things they fell into a discourse of flying; and both agreed that it was very possible to find out a way that people might fly like birds, and despatch their journeys so: I, that had not said a word all night, started up at that, and desired they would say a little more in it, for I had not marked the beginning, but instead of that, they both fell into so violent a laughing, that I should appear so much concerned in such an art,’ ” » » * If it be true, as a traveller declares, that tourist traffic in Europe is at a standstill, one method of making money circulate internationally has dried up. Few people realise the huge sums of money that come with the tourist. Normally, 2,000,000 visitors a year spent a holiday in France. They left behind them on the average a fifty-pound note. This means a matter of £100,000.000. Considering that France spent only some £25,000 a year to attract this sum. the Interest on the money was decidedly attractive. In the case of Great Britain, £lB,OOO a year attracts £15,000,000 from the tourists. In Italy a bait of £50,000 a year used to bring in at least £30,000,000 from visitors. Germany was also not behindhand. She spent the huge sum of £BOO,OOO a year to attract £30,000,000, Canada stiff gets a steady £60,000,000 a year from tourists, particularly from the United States of America. It will be seen, therefore, that money spent to. encourage people to come to see you is usually money well spent. Now that Europe has dried up there will be £200,000,000 worth of tourist money buring in the pockets of would-be visitors. Perhaps New Zealand may care to get some of it.

Whether or not the trawler Girl Pat Is sailing the high seas in the capacity of a pirate, the fact remains that this gentle profession is by no means as extinct as is usually imagined. Take the case of the Foam in 1926. The heroes were 13 American sailors, being the capbain and crew of the above-mentioned New York vessel. The Foam left New York bound for California in July. After stopping for repairs at a way port, the ship sailed for Porte Mexico, near Vera Cruz, where things started to happen in tbe good old style of Admiral Morgan. Twenty .Mexicans loaded the ship with ammunition. Nicaraguan rebels boarded the vessel, and at the point of the revolver forced the crew to mount a 37-millimetre gun on the forecastle. For months the Foam went her way in piracy. Small towns were shelled, and bhe days of two centuries before were horn again. Eventually she ran ashore. The pirates deserted her. The crew contrived to live for 16 days on canned goods and coffee before being rescued by an American cruiser. They returned to New York in October to spin yarns about which their friends had previously only read in books.

Despite fast liners, radio and battleships, piracy is still a trade plied to out-of-the-way parts of the oceans. Bias Bay has been the scene of piratical attacks off the China coast on many occasions since the war. The North African coast regions, moreover, have known pirates since the days of ancient Rome. The Spanish Main Is also not a fairy tale so far as pirates are concerned. In out-of-the-way crannies the profession still continues, but not, of course, on the grand scale of Morgan. This professional pirate was, however, financed by his own king, to whom he gave a proportion of the proceeds. There have been several instances of piracy wirhiu the history of New Zealand. Was it not the brig Rodney that in 1835 was piratically seized off Somes Island by some Maoris? Tlje vessel subsequently sailed for the Chatham Islands, where, so it is said, the Maoris proceeded to absorb the aboriginals there. In more modern times the Moa was seized during the war after the style of the oldtime pirates. Count von Luckner set course from the Bay of Plenty to the Kermadecs, where he and bis gang were captured by the cable steamer Iris, now Recorder.

The Polish experiment whereby it has been shown that it is possible for ewes to bear lambs to rams in a totally different part of the world opens up a new aspect of improving the breed of farm animals. It may, indeed, eventually solve New Zealand’s own problem of how to improve the stock without risking foot-and-mouth disease. Although this problem has received very little attention in the British Empire, Russian experts have been busy for some years. Desirable types of stud males have been exceedingly rare in that country ever since the revolution. Tbe problem was how to improve the stock with the available stud males. Obviously, the huge area of Russia made it impossible for the animals to visit tlie whole country, lienee the rise of artificial insemination.

Artificial insemination has been practised from time immemorial with flowers. In fact, but for the use of this method, it is doubtful if we would have to-day one-tenth of the new types of flowers, vegetables and the like that we do have. In parts where there are no insects at the correct season, it is even necessary to pollinate fruit trees in this manner. Anyone who has don<so will appreciate just how busy is n busy bee. It is possible to pollinate flowers with the pollen from plant® that have been dead for some time.