A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 258, 28 July 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Fairbridge School Reference was made in ' a , leading article in yesterday’s “Dominion” tc the Kingsley Fairbridge School, -Tbe Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School, situated at I’injarra, about 65, miles south of Perth, in Western Australia, was started by a young Rhodesian Rhodes Scholar, the late Kingsley Fairbridge. It is maintained by Fairbridge Farm Schools (formerly the Child Emigration Society) in England,-with the assistance of the British, Australian Commonwealth and Western Australian Governments. Founded in 1912, the scheme provides for the reception of 300 orphan children, and is a combination of school- and farm training, with holiday camps at the seaside. The children are housed in cottages, each containing a “family” of about 15, under the care of a mother. Attendance at school is compulsory up to the age of 14, but on Saturdays and during school holidays the boys have opportunities of helping on the farm— 7 tin estate of 3200 acres. The girls are trained for domestic service. The three Governments contribute five shillings a week each for each child, and each, with the Overseas Settlement Committee, contributes toward the cost of buildings on the £ for £ principle. The Rhodes Trustees and various war funds and many individuals have also contributed. “0.K.” Miss Hol tn, who has been suspended from the American Olympic swimming team, says she was told that it,would be “0.K.” to go to the bar on the ship while she was crossing the Atlantic. The term “0.K.” is an Americanism, and means, in general usage, “all correct.” The first literary record of its use concerns “Andrew Jackson, Esq.,” and is taken from the archives of Sumner County, Tennessee, dated October 6, 1790, when he “proved a bill of sale from Hugh McGary to Gasper Mansker, for a negro man, which was 0.K.” James Parton, author of the “Life of Andrew Jackson,” published in 1860. suggested that O.K. was a misreading of an ill-penned O.R. —Ordered Recorded. Some persons claim that Andrew Jackson intended to use an Indian word, and trace 'this to the Choctaw, “oke” “it is,” but there is no evidence that Jackson knew Choctaw or ever came into contact with Indians of the Choctaw tribe. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has not only recognised the existence of the term “0.K.,” but defined it as meaning that the details in the papers under examination were correctly given. Phoenix.

“Out of the ashes of the past a Phoenix, I hope, will arise,” said Mr. O. F. Nelson, at a meeting in Samoa when discussing methods of settling differences between Samoans and the New Zealand Government. There are several stories about the Phoenix, a fabulous bird of Arabia in. ancient’ days. The most generally accepted story is that when it had reached the' age of 500 years the Phoenix built himself a funeral pyre, consisting of spices, settled upon it, and died in the flames. Out of.the decomposing body it then rose again, and having grown up, wrapped the remains of the old body in myrrh, carried them to Heliopolis In Egypt, and burnt them there. The Phoenix was represented as resembling an eagle, with feathers partly red and partly golden. Europa Point. ( Peopile at Europa Point, Gibraltar, witnessed a spectacular warship versus forts duel, and simultaneously watched planes bomb Algeciras. Europa Point is a headland at the extremity of the peninsula of Gibraltar, just south-east of Europa Bay. To the north-west is whab is called Little Europa Point, and to the east Great Europa Point. Europa Bay is a small circular inlet in the south-west coast of the peninsula. There is a lighthouse on the point, 156 feet above sea level, with a beam risible at a distance of 15 miles. The distance across Gibraltar Bay to Algerciras is about four miles. The distance from Europa Point across the Strait of Gibraltar to Ceuta, on the African coast’, is about 13 miles. Cordova.

The Spanish Government claims that rebels are -fleeing from Cordova after executing civilian supporters of bhe Government. Cordova, on the main line to Madrid, stands on the Guadalquivir River, nearly 100 miles from Seville. Under tihe Moors its wonderful mosque was second only to the Kaaba of Mecca, so that Cordova was called the “Mecca of the West” Founded by the Carthaginians, colonised by the Romans, and beautified by the Moors, .Cordova is to-day but & “whitened skeleton” of . its elorious past. It is still, however, an important railway junction. The Moorish mosque, now used as a Christian church, is said to embody all t>he styles of Moorish architecture between 785 and 090 in one noble composition. The pulpit, composed of 35,000 pieces of wood, took seven years to make. It is 742 feet long, 472 feet wide, and has 48 watchtowers. It is now the largest of Christian churches next to St. Peter's at Rome. The population of Cordova la about 73,000. Broome. Broome, w here a pearl diver lost his life when the air-pipe to his helmet was severed by a whale, is a village on the coast of Western Australia. It stands on Roebuck Bay and is a cable and wireless telegraph station, as well as a centre for pearl fisheries. Broome is served by a jetty a mile long at which boats tie up at low tide. When the tide recedes the boats are left high and dry, because there is a rise and fall of 28 feet. In the last 60 years Broome lias produced pearls valued at £10.000,000. Apart from its pearl fisheries, it has no means of livelihood, for the land around is very poor, there being only four or five cattle stations in the immediate vicinity. Burgos.

Broome, where a pearl diver lost are said to have set up a provision.-1 government, is situated on the river Arlanzo, 230 miles by railway north of Madrid. Situated on a bleak hill, 2785 feet high, it has a long, cold winter and scorching summer.- It trades in agricultural produce, and manufactures paper and leather goods. Its cathedral, founded iu 1221 and completed in 1567, is one of the finest- examples of architecture in the whole of Europe. It contains 60 sculptured tombs, 4-1 altars and 100 statues. Burgos was sacked by the French in 1808. and four times unsuccessfully besieged by the Duke of- Wellington before he book it in 1813. The population is about 32.000.