RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 299, 14 September 1936, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

« Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.)

. Suicide, says a psychologist, i« a national habit. Moreover, it is one of those habits quite impossible to break once one succumbs to it. After a careful study of party politics, It becomes an even deeper mystery why one’s own party has an organisation and the other parties only machines..: « » / . A traveller says'that there is every reason to believe that blue bears exist in the Himalayas. There are even better reasons to believe that blue bears exist wherever Stock Exchanges are to be found. * * * ■' “Your artful reference to a privilege of membership regarding the fact that Australian lady cricketers may not be accompanied • by. their husbands, is reminiscent of a whr event,” kjtys “J.M.” ‘(Lounging officers and wives on the Eastern front bases were reminded that a war was oh. Lord Kitchener’s order, in American, was: ‘Scat,’ or do something ' useful. Result was ■’ an exodus- from Egypt, and the *B.B. Aaragon’ anchored amid champagne empties in Mudros harbour. There is, .after all, some affinity between ‘sport’ and war.” There have been so many instances of dogs waking people in burning . buildings—there was another instance recently—the time may come when ininsurance companies will reduce lhe premium to dog-owners. Perhaps New Zealand dogs are particularly clever. Certainly, a list of. the things dogs have done In New Zealand fires would fill .several columns. A year or so ago a half-bred retriever dragged his inaster from the fire into which he had fallen during a seizure. Not long ago a dog awakened sleepers in a house at Trentham. Hardly a week passes without some reference somewhere in the news io a dog saving somebody to trouble. In an incident at Liverpool, England, a dog not only pulled his insensible mistress from the fire, but tore off her burning, clothes and saved her life. A curious instance was recorded at Hull, England. A dog playing in an empty room turned ‘on the gas bv mistake. The result might have been fatal to people sleeptag in the next room, but for the fact that the dog woke bis master, who roused the house. ■ ♦ . .. ‘ * Possibly not everyone who has seen Landseer’s well-known picture or Bob—“A Distinguished Member of the Royal Humane Society”—realised that : the dog was no animal born of the imagination of the painter. Bob was a real dog and his story is a curious one. Bob belonged to a Londoner who used, to make frequent trips to America on business. In those days there were not so many restrictions on the movements of dogs, and Bob always accompanied his master. On one voyage the ship was wrecked. The crew had difficulty in launching the boats. Bob’s master was about to get into one of them when he slipped and into the sea. Two hours later another boat from another vessel came upon a man and a dog "bn a spar. The man was unconscious. His dog was bolding him up. Incredible as it sounds, this man was wrecked a second time on the same voyage. This time only the dog was saved. came to London, where he wandered about as a stray. People in those days were falling into the Thames, as they do even now. Many were pulled out by a dirty, ill-fed dog of amazing strength and friendliness. It was Bob up to his old tricks. * He was given a gold medal by the Royal Humane Society, a home and a free hand to rescue people. There is another well-known story of a dog, probably known to many pep, pie as Llewelyn and his dog, Gelert. This is, however, an instance of a dog story that is not based on fact. The story runs, of course, that Llewelyn’s dog Gelert was killed by his owner when he found blood on the dog’s jaw and his child dead beside him. The master of the dog , subsequently discovered that the dog had slain a woli that had attacked the child. Stricken with remorse, he built a shrine for his faithful dog which may be seen to this dav at Beddgelert in Wales? The real story is that an hotelkeeper started business there late iu the eighteenth century. Business, however, fell off late in the nineteenth century. The worthy proprietor gauged the temper of the times and fitfully evolved the famous legend of Llewelyn . and his dog Gelert. Mine host is said to have carried out his plans With admirable thoroughness, even to the making of a suitable shrine. Hundreds of Victorian visitors came to drop a tear beside the tomb of this faithful dog. and spend a night or two at the tan.

“The er -d clipping from a recent Alberta newspaper about the legendary origin of Mt. Egmont may be sufficiently interesting for your column, writes “R." “To me the legend seem; slightly astray. I lived in Taranaki for many years and remember being told that the Maori name for Mt. Egmont was ’Pukehahapapa. lhe course the fleeing, lover followed was also given as the bed of the Patea River. Perhaps you would be good enough to give the correct version or the Idgend in your most interesting columti.” ■ ~ , [The question about the Egmvni legend was referred to Mr. C. R. H Taylor, assistant librarian, Alexander Turnbull Library. He has kindly re plied:—“l can best quote from two authorities. James Cowan and S. I erej Smith. The former gives the story of 1 the name—‘Puke-haupapa,’ or Snowy Mountain, was the most ancient MaoriPolynesian name for Egmont, given to it by the first of the sea adventurer.who came sailing down the west side of the Fish 'laui. seeking new homes nn( j Ih , e lands than those of Tahiti and Rangiatea. Later came the name of Puke-o-Nakl, which comment orate! a female ancestor; the 'Puke' here refers to womanly curves, the charms of Venus. Tara-a-Naki was ■> subsequent variant, which in these days has been shortened to Taranaki. Th* legend is well told by S Percy Smith In his ‘History aud Traditions of the Taranaki , Coast’:—‘Mount Egmont (Taranaki) once lived in the neigh bourhood of Tongariro Mountain, it the' centre of the North Island, whose wife was Plhanga—that graceful wood e d mountain, with crater near its top now filled with water. Taranaki fell in love with idy Pibanga, much to the wrath of Tongariro, .’ho orderehim to leave, e’ ’’■ircing his command with so powerful a kick that Taranaki was driven away to the west. Tn h! flight lie followed down the course •>* what is now the Manga-nul-te-an branch of the Whanganui river, open ing up its course down to the main river. Tl ■■ in his flight, scouring out the Whanganui river itself.’ ”]