RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 105, 28 January 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events

(By

Kickshaws.)

The Ranee of Sarawak says that she has never met a wrestler. They are the fellows who can supply unlimited scissors. ♦ • * A noted economist states that one cannot get very far without treading on somebody’s corns. Naturally, the people who foot the bill are the ones that compain most. » * • We note that Mr. Hull is to have an assistant, and we presume that it will now be no longer necessary for a Hull to be on deck all the time in a storm. ♦ ♦ * Some readers may have been a little mystified about the ability of Clouston’s aeroplane to take off In the tropics owing to its wing design. Actually, the problem is quite simple. Every design ?f aeroplane depends for its ability to rise in the air on the air itself. If the air is not there the aeroplane cannot rise. There are various ways in which the air may be less there than normal. When the barometer falls it means really that there is less air about. If the barometer fell by some miracle, 20 inches, very few aeroplanes could rise at all. In the case of a heav-ily-laden machine designed for high speeds a variation of an inch or two may make the difference between an easy take-off and a difficult one. Temperatures also affect matters. Hot air is thinner than cold. Tropical air at mid-day is very hot and much thinner than at night. Machines that are designed for tropical use have to take notice of this fact. The combination of a hot tropical day, a low barometer and a high-sited aerodrome may mean that a machine cannot take off at all if it is laden to extreme limits. The average passenger machines are designed ' so that they can overcome all these conditions on the route for which they are scheduled to run. Record breakers out for speed sacrifice something otherwise they would not break records.

The South Island, it is declared, should do its own publicity. We folk in the North Island put across hut pools a la Rotorua, with almost monotonous regularity. We have our Taupo and we have our outsize fish in tin: north. We mix these all up with a few of the better-looking Maori guides and serve it up ad lib to those who will take note of it. The. South Island nuiy also have hot pools and Maoris, but nobody seems quite certain on this point. Anyway, all this is the monoply of the north, and no good South Islander would deign to touch it. What, then, can the south have to sav for itself? It is a land where things are bigger and longer, higher and rockier, twistier and straighter, worser and better. It is a land where it is hotter and colder, windier and calmer. It is a land where'everything is one larger or smaller. The roads are straighter and smoother, twistier and rougher. It is a land of extreme flatness and extreme steepness. The precipices are deeper, the ravines more ravenous. I lie lakes lakier. If one wants to watch muddy water going under bridges, wily, the West Coast is the ideal place

One feels that the fortunate Individual told to advertise the south might enjoy himself hugely, especially if he came from the North Island. He would find the unknown land Inhabited by folk who are more friendly than ever. He would find It difficult to find these folk, because they are hiding in ones and twos between their mountain ranges. They are tucked away in their hidden valleys and tablelands, lost tie hind multitudes of long-legged sheep. He would find a warm welcome for the news he brought of the outside world. He would find that, whereas the North Islander contrives to use his overdraft to acquire this year’s model, the South Islander acquires his underdraft by sticking to the model of the year before the year before the year before. Maybe, it is for this reason that publicity posters of the south, if they be really truthful, would contain more ‘out-of-date motor-cars than anywhere else in the world, except perhaps the island of Bermuda, where motor-caijs are not permitted.

The South Island might well advertise its twilight. The land where rhe sun sets slower. They might, indeed, point out that in the north the sun sinks to bed and snaps out the day in a twinkling of the stars. There is no peaceful period between night and day in the north. It is either light or dark. One cannot read the newspaper in the open at 10 p.m. in Auckland. In Wellington one can never read the newspaper in the open because of the wind. There is a lot that the south could say for itself. It is a land of gooseberries. Couples find them on all the hills. Somehow, the cherries in the south a re bigger and juicier, the peaches more peachier, and the bananas blacker. Experts, who should know, say that the South Island is 100,000 years older than the north. In the light of this vast experience, it may be that the south has seen the vanity of publicity. The North Island skips about like a restless child, boasting and bragging about its qualities and its geographic deformities. The rhythm of the north is rush, rush, rush. The south goes at a slower tempo, grinding its corn for the north to eat.

Britain leads the world in air routes, it is announced, with a total of 68,240 miles. The United States of America comes second with 61,532 miles. Just over 10 years ago the situation w.ts very different. The world boasted 80,000 miles of air routes as compaied with over 300,000 miles to-day. Germany led the world with her 18,’KJO miles of routes. America came second with 10,000 miles, France third with 13,000 miles, and Russia somewhere, but extreme secrecy made it impossible to obtain an accurate estimate Great Britain’s contribution to the world’s air routes was then a mere 5000 miles. Britain took the lead in 1936 when, at the end of the year, her air routes totalled just over 53.000 miles, compared with those of the United States of America, that amounted to 52,000 miles. France was third on the list, and Germany fourth. Actually, Britain may claim to have pioneered the first air mail service as long ago as November, 1784. The first air borne letter arrived in London by balloon on that date. This letter is preserved at the -Snell Museum, Massachusetts.

“Would you kindly settle an argument for me?” asks "T.D.” “I think I read that a prince, before he Ims a dukedom conferred upon him, ranks lower than a duke, is this so?” [Technically, there is no such rank as prince in British Royal circles. Unless a child born to royalty automatically inherits some title, he or she would be a commoner, as was the case with the son born to Princess Mary "Prince” is a courtesy title, except, of course, when the title goes with something else, such as Prince of .Wales.l