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Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 265, 5 August 1937, Page 10

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Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.! The official policy for the fruit industry, it has been decided, is State direction. The public will be interested to note in what direction the plum crop goes. The Arabs, it is stated, want a roundtable conference about Palestine. In ■the hope, we understand, that a round table will square tlie circle. •k ♦ * Tlie trouble with the shoe industry in New Zealand seems to be that the pub-’ 1 lie insists on being in the other fellow’s shoes. » » » “Aritlimatock’’ writes: “Is the reply given in your Monday’s issue correct as to the distance from Auckland of the two trains travelling in opposite directions, i.e., one from Auckland to Wellington, the other from Wellington ? Should not tlie correct answer be that the Auckland train is nearer Auckland by practically the length ofthat train? (The forepart of an engine is not a train, yet the two trains actually meet when the front part of the two engines become level with one another. Only when the two trains were completely side by side, and then only if they were of absolutely the same length, could they be said to be both the same distance away from any given point. But the lengths of the respective trains does not need to be stated to show that they meet when the fronts of the engines are level.” The bear that was causing all the trouble in the Balkans is said to have weighed 9001 b. Heavy as this bear may have been; it represents a very small total compared with the weight of other land animals. Strange to say, the heaviest land animal lives in the sea. I There are whales that turn the scale at 150 tons, nearly all of it being fat. In contrast one could buy 130,000 fleas to the pound weight. It is a nice thought upon which to go to bed. If one wished to buy elephants a good one could- be obtained at the rate of one to every six tons. In the past there were bigger beasts than elephants, but they were so heavy all their energy went in holding themselves together. Few people realise that man has succeeded in breeding dogs that weigh more than man himself. A St. Bernard of 16 stone is not aji impossibility. Our ideas of weight in animals are apt to be rather hazy. Bears, for example,, are far heavier than lions, in the proportion of two to one. * # One might imagine that there was no limit to size in flesh and blood. Actually there are very definite limits, above which disaster occurs. There is no hind animal heavier than an elephant -because, after experiments lasting 30,000000 years, Nature proved that her building bricks were incapable of standing up to the strain. Above a certain -limit the proportion of muscular en- • ergy that goes in eating increases abnormally. ’ Prehistoric monsters that weighed 30 tons had to spend all their time eating. Conditions in the sea are different, as« the weight is water borne equally all over the surface of the creature. Nevertheless, it is doubtful if flesh and blood could hang together beyond a weight of some 200 tons. There is, moreover, a definite limit to smallness in various types of animals. The heart regulates the smallness of the average mammal and other creatures that use a similar type of heart. Beyond a certain smallness the heart is compelled to. work so hard to provide blood for its own muscles there is none left for other purposes. * * But for the newspapers it is doubtful if the annual grain race would exist to-day, at any rate so far as the public is concerned. ’ For some reason it is considered in keeping with clipper tradition to call this event a race. Actually it is a drift. The vessels all belong to one man, who, indeed, owns practically all the windjammers of the world. He knows full well that it would not pay to carry enough crew to handle all the sails that make for a fast passage. No modern sailing vessel carries enough crew to handle stuaaiDt, sails. A modern sailing vessel has no weapon to combat light airs. For that reason fast passages are not considered For a windjammer to earn money it is certain she did not make a fast passage home. The vessels are not dryi docked in Australia for reasons of eco- , omv. They start late for England aim delayed by winter storms in the. South - Pacific and midsummer calms in the : Atlantic. From a commercial point oj > view grain races are unknown to-day. J It was different in the old days when there were no steamships and a bonus j was paid for the first home.

In connection with the annual grain race and sailing ships generally many people are apt to imagine that a sailing ship travels slower than a steamship. For long distances this may be so Nevertheless under suitable conditions there are sailing vessels that can overhaul steamships. The Herzogin Ceulie, for example, in ballast with a g blowing and no sea had been known to reach a speed of 20 knots 'She could have held her own with the Maori on the run down to Lyttelton. There sailing ships that have made the pas sage from New York to England in only twice the time taken by record-breakin giant liners to-day. The fetrathearn. for example, is reputed to have made the trip from East River, Aew York, to Liverpool in nine days. This sailed along at anything up to 1< knot-. For long distances, say Australia jo England, calms reduced the speed for sailing vessels. A evert the Flying Cloud made the trip from Liverpool to Melbourne in 69 days, cov ering 13.880 miles, approximately -00 miles a day. * ♦ ’

So far as the Australian gram race Is concerned modern records tary-from 80 to 100 days. They must not be compared with the performances put up when there were competing Steamers and every effort was made to make a fast passage regardless of cost. The Thermopylae twice made the passage from London to Melbourne in GO days. The homeward record was made m 1853 bv the Lightning. The Journey from Melbourne to Liverpool took Go davs The Cutty Sark was not a record’breaker. Iler best run was 6< davs from Sydney to Ushant. On the New Zealand run we may make the journev to England to-day in a month or slightly more. Yet the clipper Crusader took only twice that tune, «•» days to be exact, from Lyttelton to the Lizard. On her next passage she took G 5 days from London to Port Chalmers. Few modern yachts can hope to put up the performances of the old-time clippers, which were built for hard driving in rough seas. Indeed, the clipper. 9 only serious rival in sailing speed is the flying proa of the Pacific savages. Those were aide to outsail any steamer afloat until the turbine was invented, speeds of over 20 knots being by no means rare.