RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 70, 16 December 1937, Page 6

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (By Kickshaws.> We never realised what a bull could do with china until Japan got going. * * * Home scraps, says a write:, may be turned into many useful things. 'Die shrewd wife converts them into new hats, dresses, and '-->xes • " chocolates. ♦ ♦ • A banker declares that ue would enjoy running a newspaper column for just one day. Give us just one glorious hour in a bank, and we would enjoy life for life. » * * “Your notes on water divining were very interesting,” says “J.H.,” w ti°se letter has had to be,abbreviated. "All minerals, liquid or solid, are easy to divine. Water can be divined only by its force of flowing. As regards leaks from Arapuni, this would be fairly difficult, as the rate of flow is very small: also, water flowing through a diversion tunnel produces a large draught, of air. It would be hard to say what the results would be. When divining water, it is not to say that one should use a willow twig, neither should the twig be gripped firmly, but if must be held correctly at both ends in the palms of the hands, and the well must not be sunk where the divining twig points to the ground. * * * President Roosevelt's demand that the recent Japanese apology must come from the Emperor is a shrewd blow at Japanese ideals. The Emperor of ' Japan is a little nearer to The deity than to mortal man. Indeed, when the Emperor of Japan rides forth on his famous white charger, Shirayuki. bought in England, the bowed crowds greet him in dead silence. Moreover, the tops of the buildings and all the windows on the route are vacant. Looking down on the Emperor implies disrespect. It is practically forbidden for any citizen to mention the Emperor by name or to discuss him or his family. Even American newspapers have got into trouble for this reason. Moreover, when an attempt was made in 1933 on the life of the Emperor of Japan his horses acted so well that the Emperor issued an order that each animal was to have a bunch of the royal carrots. No greater honour could have been paid any animal. Under the circumstances, one can well believe that it will be a bitter pill that their Emperor has had to apologise to anyone.

News that we are to have some polar bears in the Wellington Zoo when they can be enticed from their present place of residence at Beaumaris Zoo, Hobart, is at least something. The task set the authorities at Hobart is to entice the bears into their sleeping quarters where they may be readily’ caught. The apjieal to the hears to move to Wellington, concerning whose merits they appear not to have heard, can best lie made through the inner bear. Polar bears cannot resist codliver oil. We suggest that the citizens of Wellington send along a particularly Attractive sample. The brown bear, in contrast, will fall every- time for tinned milk or marmalade. The real fun begins when a monkey has to be caught. Butterfly nets deal with the smaller varieties. Hunger and a food trap are the only two combinations that are effective with larger monkeys. Snakes may be put into a travelling condition by lowering the temperature of their cage until they become torpid. Transferring a python to a new den, however, requires at least 15 men, who carry him in sections. * » .

People who pay an occasional visit to a zoo fail to realise that some of the creatures require handling far more frequently than is imagined. Brushing the coat of a tiger does not sound encouraging, but one of the largest tigers in the London Zoo purrs • like a cat when it receives its morning brush. Elephants have to be brushed down and kneel willingly for the pleasure it gives them. They are also given a protective coat of oil from time to time. Gorillas like being brushed, and enjoy being anointed with a mixture of water and petroleum to keep down insect pests. Giraffes, however, never allow themselves to be handled. Grooming snakes is hardly a sinecure. Yet they require constant attention. From time to'time the skins of all the reptiles have to be wiped over with a cloth soaked in disinfectant. When snakes are about to moult their skins have also to be dressed with olive oil. One might perhaps add that elephants have to have their toe-nails cut and subsequently sandpapered. Each foot takes at least half an hour to do.

Newspaper proprietors no doubt will commend the ruling of the German Supreme Court that every business man should read the newspaper. In fact, it appears to be one of the few' sensible rulings in Germany. Perhaps the ruling is partly biased by the fact that newspapers in Germany are controlled completely by Herr Hitler. Just what the business man reads in his German newspaper is unknown. Probably he is little Uifferent from the average business . man who reads newspapers printed in English. Do you imagine the business man iu «New Zealand reads the business columns? Maybe he does take a peep to see how his last little flutter is doing, but he turns first to sport. In England.in fact, no fewer than eight columns every day are devoted to this end. Crime comes second in interest, but in New Zealand for lack of crime, except in exceptional eases, finance takes its place. New Zealand newspapers devote at least three columns to this, if not more. The business man’s wife tells him all about the home news when he gets home, which is the fourth popular item in the newspapers.

It is with bewildered pride that we learn that a Wanganui discus thrower has thrown a discus 137 feet 3 inches. But it has always been a mystery to the non-athletic why athletes throw a discus at all. The only reason appears to be that the ancient Greeks threw the discus. Why the ancient Greeks did so, so far as can be discovered, was because it was a splendid builderup. These days of touics and sun-bath-ing, even that excuse fails. The discus is thrown to-day in order to see how far it can be thrown. Someone has thrown a discus 157 feet, and everyone wants to do the same. The job is made all the more difficult because the discus is a badly-designed article for throwing purposes. Moreover, nobody has the slightest idea how the ancient Greeks solved the problem. Personally, if we had a say iu discus-throwing, we would make a change to boomerangs. There is something about a boomerang appeals to spectators which, of course, is the only excuse these days for sport. Flinging plates about is too much a reminder of washing up.

“Would ‘Kickshaws’ please inform us on what date in 1935 was the present Government elected? And on what date was the Ministry announced?" asks “Wager.” [November 28 and December 6, 1935, respectively.]