RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 199, 20 May 1936, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

Off goes the*Queen Mary with her goodwill cargo, and off goes our Ship of State with a good bill cargo. * ♦ ♦ A visitor declarer that Australia would be a§ good as New Zealand if it had as much rain. But then, of course, this visitor was not here last summer. * * * Rotorua, mud, it is said, is in demand in Britain. Washing dirty linen may not be Hie tiling in public, hut Rotorua, we hope, will find that its name is mud. * « * “Several items have appeared in your columns about various voyagers,” says “A.L.” “Could you enlighten me as to the methods of navigation used by the ancient Maoris and Vikings? as they seem to have navigated fairly accurately from one small dot to another small dot.” * * * Very little is known as to the methods of navigation used by the early Maoris. Experts believe that they made use of the stars, the winds, the set of the waves, the set of ocean currents, and even the flight of migratory birds. Legend has it that the early navigators made use of a crude false horizon consisting of a calabash full of water with two holes in it. From this base rough estimates were made of the rise and fall of stare. An elaborate diagram of criss-cross lines has come down to us purporting to be of use in navigation. It is thought that this had some reference to the winds. Native tradition avers that the sailing directions from Hawaiki to New Zealand were to “steer for the rising sun.”

This question of how the early Polynesian sea rovers found their way has exercised the ingenuity of nearly every expert who has studied the remarkable voyages that were made by them. Elsdon Best was at considerable pains to discover from Maoris of bls day th* secret of their navigational methods. Unfortunately, it was not possible to interview the worthy rovers themselves, as they had all made their last journey from Spirits Bay across seas yet to be charted. It seems certain that the voyages were made for weeks on end out of sight of all land without the aid of charts or compasses. It seems that the starting point was important. These voyages always started from a certain place. The course was then set on landmarks. Maori fishermen to this day do this in locating fishing grounds off the coast. There were three starting places from which ocean voyages were made from New Zealand, including Whangarei. By the time the land had been lost night had fallen, and the guiding stars were picked up.

Although we know little about the navigational methods of those remarkable old-time Polynesian sea rovers, we do know that they made long ocean voyages of thousands of miles. The canoes themselves were often double, some 70 feet long, and well equipped for making long sea voyages, with three sails in some cases. Water was carried in bamboo and gourds. As cooked food was never permitted on sea voyages, the menu consisted of dried stuff, including dried fish. Fish, of course, was caught during the voyage. Prepared breadfruit and sweet potatoes were also included in the menu. Even so, the journey cannot have been made in any comfort. The average day’s log was 100 miles. Moreover, a change of wind iu cloudy weather, a new set of the waves, or an unknown current, could, and did, take the voyagers completely off their course.. Toi, for example, made a landfall at the Chatham Islands instead of New Zealand. In spite of this, voyages of 2380 miles were made successfully between New Zealand and Tahiti. Oue of the Sandwich Isles was in fact named "the route to Tahiti.” It was about a fortnight from New Zealand. Some knowledge seems to have been had of the Equator, which was called "the navel of space.” One old navigator who lived in the seventeenth century, explored the whole Pacific, returning home safely. This individual, Hui-te-rangi-ora, went so far south that he encountered ice, to his enormous bewilderment.

Strange as it seems that there is a man in Sydney who has had a mental black-out for so long that he does not know about the death of King George or the war in Abyssinia, this Is by no means an isolated instance. There is, of course, the extraordinary case some little time ago in Italy. The individual in question suffered from loss of memory that caused a complete change every three or four years. The first man, so to speak, was an accomplished musician, a patron of the arts and a man of the world. After a year or two he suddenly forgot how to play a note, knew no more about art than someone who had never known art. He turned into man number two, avaricious and intensely clever at mathematics. While in this state he was completely oblivious to the past. He served four years in the Great War as man number two before turning into man number three, the woman’s man. He found himself in Rome with no knowledge that there bad been a war or that he had a wife in Messina. Later he married in Naples. As man number three he had a bent for marrying, taking a third wife shortly after wards.

The state of loss of memory is medically termed amnesia. There is very little more than can be said for this condition in the light of modern knowledge. The mind is composed of many parts, and those parts normally work in unity. Under certain conditions the mind may become divided up into separate parts all in conflict. An apparently normal individual under some strain or shock may realise nothing until he discovers himself in South America, when he ought to have been in New Zealand. It is quite impossible to analyse what is going on In a human mind, or, for that matter, anj mind, even the simplest. For tha. reason little is known as io bow these conditions arise. The condition does not appear to be due to any organic trouble in the brain such as lesions. It is in fact more closely related to hysteria than anything else. ♦ * *

"I wonder if you could inform me through your column the following facts relative to a modern turbine-pow-ered liner,” says "L.D.M.” 1, the working steam pressure; 2, the nozzle velocity of the steam as it enters the turbine- 3. the r.p.m. of the turbine; and 4, the r.p.m. of the propeller. All the above at the liner’s top speed. 11 4251 b. per square inch; 2.110 ft. per second ; 3. 3080 r.p.m.; 4. 220 r.p.m. The above facts refer to the Ranga tlra.]