RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.") People in New York, we note, are in the habit of leaving their neckties in telephone directories. This just shows what happens when a go-getter gets the wrong number.

It seems that 34 spare-time musicians in Germany have been taken into custody under a new law. Whatever the shortcomings of the Hitler regime, at least it has that in its favour.

A speaker states that the North Island and the South Island are separated by Cook Strait, and we suggest that educational experts may well take this as proof that their efforts have not been altogether in vain.

“In your column recently I see you mention the making of ‘real besoms’ at the little village of Tadley-God-Help-Us, in Hampshire. Possibly some of your readers may be curious as to the origin of the tag ‘God-Help-Us,’ ” says “Hampshire Lass.” “The name was. until some few years ago, just Tadley. In the early days of flying, an aeroplane, having got off its course, descended in a paddock in the district. The village folk, who are yokels in the true sense of the word, approached the unknown monster in fear and trembling. When the pilot popped his head out and asked the name of the place, they said, ‘Tadley—Gawd-Help-Us,’ and fell to their knees. The pilot continued his journey and marked the place down on his map as it had been given to him. I cannot vouch; for the truth of this, but my home was in Basingstoke, a few miles away, and the story was generally accepted in the district as being true.”

Mr. James, who has leaped into prominence owing to his dried fruits case, is not by any means the only man who has become famous in this manner. There is, in fact, no better method of attaining immortality than that of becoming a leading case. A London woman, Mrs. Manley by name, who told a policeman a fib, leaped into immortality when the law lords ruled that to say you have been robbed when you have not is “to do ah act tending to public mischief.” Until the end of time prosecuting counsel can remind the judge of Mrs. Manley’s fib. Although the ranks of the immortals are not filled rapidly in this way, every year three or four modest individuals become leading cases. Mr. Nurdin, who sold eggs from a pushcart in Soho, was raised to a position of legal fame when a child got hurt while playing with the cart, when it was temporarily unattended. Mr. Nurdin and bis cart established the important fact in the Law of England that a child cannot be blamed for negligence when it does what a child may be expected to do—which is to get into trouble.

Perhaps there is some consolation in losing a leading case, as there is in winning, because the loser as well as the winner has his name inscribed in the roll of legal immortality. Smout v. liberty, for instance, is written for all time on the rolls of the law; despite the fact that Mr. Smout was only a butcher and Mr. liberty did no more than die on his travels. Mr. Ilberry, in fact, went off to China and died, while his wife, good soul, continued blissfully to deal with Mr. Smout, the "family butcher.” Mr. Smout, on hearing of the demise, instead of writing a letter of sympathy, sued Mrs. Ilberry for the meat that had been sold during her husband’s absence. Mr. Smout lost the case, but had the consolation of knowing that what he did had never been done before. He established once and for all a wife’s right to contract for necessities. They are of aU sorts, these famous people of the leading cases. There is young Armory, who crystallised the unwritten law of “finders keepers,” with legal reservations. There are the six young carpenters who went to a "pub, paid for the first round of drinks but not for the second, yet could not be held trespassers for the minute of their entry, and then there is the Redemptorist Father who rang a noisy bell all day —until he became an unsuccessful leading case—and now there is James with his” new case of fruits. » » *

Parliamentary reference to the big question “when is a man intoxicated wisely refrained from answering the question. There are, all told, some 100 words in slang dictionaries indicating various shades of intoxication, and there are nearly as many tests to jJrote matters. In spite of this it is still admitted that it is very difficult to introduce a standard test for drunkenness, or an indicator to graduated degrees of drunkenness. In the army, of course, a man was, and still is, drunk or sober. Even that does not solve the problem, although doubtful cases are often given the benefit of the doubt. For a long time policemen considered a man sufficiently sober it he could enunciate such tonguetwisters as ‘British Constitution” or “I stood outside Burgess’s fish sauce shop welcoming him in.” It was once shown, however, that counsel for the prosecution was unable to say tlivst sentences correctly despite the fact that he was perfectly sober. *

Many ingenious tests have been used to prove whether a man be drunk or sober, but nearly all of them have beeu unreliable. In some police stations it was considered proof of sobriety if a man could ride round the room on a bicycle without falling off. One man who considered such a test too easy stood on his head and drank a cup of water. The Bench was satisfied that this act was full proof of extreme sobriety aud dismissed the case. A very commou test at one time was to make the suspected toper stand with his feet together and eyes shut. If he swayed it was proof that he was not sober. The Recorder at London at the Old Bailey. Sir Ernest Wild, invited a doctor giving evidence in a drunk case to step out and try the test on himself. The doctor swayed, the jury stopped the case and the Romburg test, as it was called, fell from favour. It is well known that disease as well as drink may cause perfectly sober people to fail iu most of these drunkenness tests. One subtle iiue of argument is that the police have m> right to make tests without the consent of the man accused. If he is able to give consent a charge of drunkenness canuot be made because drunkenness destroys consent.

“I see that ‘Canterbury Plain’ is asking for the date of Captain Moonlight's arrival in New Zealand.” says “G.H.J.” “I have read Rolfe Boldrewood's ‘Robbery Under Arms’ and the leading char acter is Captain Starlight; so there is a chance that ‘Canterbury Plain’ is mixed iu the .names.” “Nonem” also points out that ■'’Canterbury Plain” may have in mind the bushranger Garret who held up a number of people at Maungatua. ik-'i- Dunedin, in the early goldfield day s.