RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current

Events

(By Kickshaws.)

Bernard Shaw declares that he does not intend to make any more public speeches. That may be true, but he certainly can’t be Shaw.

That Japanese idea of a sliding scale for taxation is all very well provided they can find a way to make the slid ing scale scop sliding upwards.

It is reported that the Democrats in America are drafting a New Deal that goes one better. It looks as if a reshuffle is imminent.

“I remember reading many years ago that there was standing-room on the Isle of Wight for the total population of the globe (say 2,000.000,000) says “J.D.” “Can you inform me and several of my friends if this is correct: Ou the face of it it does not appear to be feasible, but one never knows. Please accept my thanks for your in teresting column.”

[Comfortable standing-room could be found for the entire population of the world in two-thirds of the Isle ol Wight. The county of Yorkshire, England, could find similar accommodation for 70 times that total. Moreover, all the people on earth could be packed in a box slightly less than threequarters of a mile in each dimension.] ». <S »

It seems that in a recent international essay competition some writers placed New. Zealand “on the borderland of tumultuous space.” That may be so, but people in other parts of the world will go on doing it unless we take steps to enlighten them. Community geography is always a somewhat hazy affair. We have all heard of Everest because people insist on climbing that mountain. How many of us really know where Everest is. or the route required to get to it? Like New Zealand, Everest is on the border of tumultuous space—largely because the Tibetans do not flood the world with travel brochures. It must not be thought that we have not progressed in placing New Zealand on the map There was a time when New Zealand was “on the other side of the world’ and was dismissed on that account. Today even quite intelligent people in England know that New Zealand is par 1 , of Australia, or at the utmost, a small island off . its shores. This is something. Maybe in a decade or two the outside world will really know where New Zealand is—it we spend a million or so to tell them.

Possibly New Zealanders know all that there is to be known about thei" own geography. It is, perhaps, pertinent to ask how much we know about the geography of other countries. Bagdad, for example, might feel a little distressed if a New Zealander told a resident that the place was in Persia. Possibly there are some Nev. Zealanders who would create tension between France and this Dommion by giving Mont Blanc to Switzerland. For some curious reason London is alwaj s considered to be the world’s greates' seaport It may come as a shock to some people to be told that Antwerp is the world's greatest seaport, being a long way ahead of London and New York on a tonnage basis. Further more, the layout of the world is often misleading. Edinburgh is, for example, west of Bristol, and, of course, a long way north. One can discover by careful investigation—after schooldays are over —that New York is not the capital of the United States of America. This last discovery is indeed a tribute to what publicity can do for a place.

It is not surprising to see that the suggested 40-hour week has resurrected the age-old problem of man versus machine. On the one hand we have the ideal of machines doing all the work and men having all the leisure. On the other we have the idea, of men being paid to do all the work and the machines out of work. It is, however, a curious fact that machines have increased the problem by increasing the population. What the relation is between the two is still a matter of expert argument. The fact remains that a population that lives on the land, without machinery, usually increases slowly. The population in Britain was more or less like that up to the 19th century. Ou the arrival of the machine the- population of 9,000,000 people of 1801 became the 40,000,000 of to-day. The more people the more machines were required to supply their wants. So the curious civilisation of our days has progressed. We have now come to the stage, or even passed it, where a man and two boys can produce as much cotton as 4000 men could previously produce. Soon, so say the machine enthusiasts, man will be able to sit back and watch the wheels go round. Eve no longer spins, and very soon man will delve no more—that is the problem. ♦ * *

“Have the pearlers of Broome been indulging in a little leg-pull with Mr. Waldron, the travel author.-’ a>K-s “J A W.” “When a youngster, I spent two or three years on Thursday Island iu connection with the pearling industry. I have never seen a shell 11 inches in diameter, although I opened hundreds daily. I don’t say they don’t exist, mind. Mr. Waviron says that •one may go for many mouths without ever coming on an actual pearl.’ Had he qualified this statement by addin;': ‘of any great commercial value,’ he would have been correct. Seed pearls one finds in plenty, but they lack commercial value. Mr. Waldron told ‘The Dominion’ reporter that ’the best of the divers earn up to £3OOO or £4OOO a year.' Never in your life I When I was in Thursday Island the pearl shell industry was booming. The shell was then fetching about £3OO a ton, and divers were being paid—there were about forty white divers there in those days—£3o for every ton of shell brought to the surface. And, if the very best of them —including a few Japanese crackerjacks—earned £6OO during a season, he was doing remarkably well.”

“One thing in connection with the Royal Family does not appear to have been noted,” says “Hamurana.” “The late King George V and his four sons were all born on a Saturday: The late King George V, born June 3, 1865 (Saturday) ; King Edward VIII, horn June 23, 1894 (Saturday) ; Duke of York, born December 4, 1895 (Saturday) ; Duke of Gloucester, born March 31. 1900 (Saturday) : Duke of Kent, born December 20, 1902 (Saturday). Saturday seems to be an auspicious day in royal circles.” ♦ $ *

Owing to a technical hitch it was stated yesterday that there were “only eight million barrels left in the ground in America” when discussing oil problems. This should have read “eight billion,” :md the subsequent, “nine million” should also have been "nine billion.”