RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 191, 11 May 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events (

(By

Kickshaws.)

This talk about insulating New Zealand—well it’s getting cold enough for it right now. The Russian 1937-plan for the chemical industry failed, we understand, because someone threw cold H2O on it. Well here’s to the sitting members now standing and the standing members who may be sitting and those who find themselves unseated. Tlie grim discovery in Sydney of a trunk containing 100 human skulls is a reminder of au amusing contretemps that occurred in Poland some eight or ten years ago along very similar lines. When all Poland opened its morning newspapers, horror and consternation were registered on reading that a criminal of the worst type was at large. In the carriage of a train running between Warsaw and Lodz the police had found an abandoned parceL It contained 52 human ears carefully packed in cotton-wool. So fresh was their appearance the police reported that the crimes must have been committed within a matter of hours of the discovery. Everyone was agog. Inquiries throughout the country failed to discover anyone with two ears short, or even one. The mystery was the most baffling of modern times. Every expert had a different theory. Such, clues as there were led nowhere, until a man rushed into police headquarters and frantically demanded back his ears. “Give me back my ears,” he cried. He admitted that the ears were his property. ’He was an anatomical demonstrator. The ears were made of rubber.

It must have come as a surprise to many people who read or beard the speech of the Leader of the Opposition that no fewer than 80,000 people had forgotten they had a post office savings account. Yet this capacity to forget deposited money appears to be inherent. The squirrel with its forgotten cache of nuts is nothing to man with his forgotten nest eggs. The books of the Bank of England alone show, forgotten sums amounting to more than £8,000,000. The amounts range from a few pounds to nearly £200,000. No doubt there are many reasons for this forgetfulness, such as sudden death, loss of memory, and secret investments which it has been unwise to collect. Yet it all goes to show that people do hide away nest-eggs and then for some reason or other forget all about them. . The fact 'that this trust in official honesty may become a little embarrassing, even in a young country, is reflected in the 80,000 forgetful people of New Zealand.

The causes responsible for people not claiming money in some eases take us back to the 18th century. Speculation in those days was deemed a sin. It was common practice for men to invest under assumed names. In this way large sums of money were lost to their heirs, because the moneys so invested could never be claimed, if indeed they were known to exist. In some cases people did not take the trouble to elaiffi the dividends but allowed them to accumlate year after year. One old lady who died in England live or six years ago had not drawn a penny from £lO,000 worth of railway stock. Indeed she had used the scrip to cover her cookery book. Those who do not believe that people will omit to claim money owing tl'£m should get in touch with 'the Bell Telephone Co., Illinois, U.S.A. This company is the owner of a quarter of a million pounds that it wants to restore to overcharged subscribers. Tlie company wrote, advertised, and telephoned subscribers that the money was due. Nevertheless, there remained this quarter of a million pouuds out of the four millions that was owing. Many subscribers apparently couldn't believe black and white, or were afraid there was a catch in it.

One so rarely reads these days of vessels “presumed to have sunk” the disappearance of the Anglo-Australian in mid-Atlantic comes somewhat as a shock. It seems strange these days of wireless that a ship can vanish as completely as a man lost in a desert. One may ask in vain what happened to the Kobenhaven. She was equipped with wireless. She was well found. Her lifeboats were in good repair. Her captain was a first-rate navigator. The crew were experienced. Her last radio message was received on December 22. A lonely watcher on the headlands of Tristan da Cunha is believed to have been the last man on land to see the craft. Five years later a piece of wreckage bearing her name was washed up on an Australian coast. Several ships have scoured the South Atlantic in search of her. The wreckage that drifted some 7000 miles in five years is the only link we have. There are all manner of suggestions as to what happened.

Possibly even a greater mystery than the disappearance of the Kobenhaven occurred in 1926 when the Asiatic Prince disappeared on her maiden voyage. This vessel was equipped with wireless. She carried modern life-saving devices. She sailed from Seattle for Shanghai with 44 European and 138 Chinese pasesngers. In her strongroom were silver bars worth a quarter of a million. Constant wireless communication was made until she was within a few days of her destinationShe then suddenly gave the distress signal “CQD” four times slowly, but the message stopped iu the middle of giving her position. Two American warships, a Japanese destroyer, aud several other vessels rushed to the. approximate position. The Asiatic Prince had vanished. One explanation is that the Chinese passengers belonged to a gang of thieves. They seized the vessel, broke open the strong-room, sank the ship and sailed away iu boats.

“I wonder if you would be kind enough to tell me about a Mauritius stamp I have in my possession?” asks “L.” “Some time ago I saw in a paper that they are quite valuable and I wondered whether mine was too. It is'a 3-cent stamp of a mauve colour and has a shield in the centre divided into four parts comprising a sailing ship, a group of palm trees, a key and a star.” [Mr. G. F. Harrison. N.Z. Philatelic Society, kindly advises as follows;— “The Mauritius stamp referred to was issued 1895-99, priced in Stanley Gibbons, London, catalogue (used) at 3d each. Colour stated in catalogue, dull purple and deep purple. Should think it is the same. Most of the rare stamps of Mauritius are tlie ones issued about 1847-59.” J * ♦ * “I have a line or two of a poem iu my head and am wondering if one of your readers could give me the complete poem or the name of the author,” writes “Otaki.” “I believe it is entitled ‘God give us men,’ and the line I have running iu my mind is, ‘Men whom the lust of oflice will not kill.’ I enclose a stamped addressed envelope for answer in case anyone sends in the complete poem.”