RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 278, 20 August 1938, Page 10

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) Once upon a time an apple a day kept the doctor away, but it looks as if the Government’s health insurance scheme is going to be more effective. In some countries increased arma* me. ts have affected the steel industry and in others the steal industry. * ♦ * Well, anyway, the original way of paying the Director of- Commercial Broadcasting was abandoned before it started working backward. » ♦ » “A short while ago, in ‘J.'he Dominion,’ a man wrote an article on* the purchase of land round Wellington,” writes “K.M.D.” “I understand it was early in Wellington’s history. He stated that the Maori’s birthright was sold for trifles such as cooking pots, jewellery, blankets, etc. Would it be possible for you to tell me the amount f land purchased?” [lt is not known to which of several references “K.M.D.” refers. It is a fact that nearly 100 years ago the first deed of purchase of land by the New Zealand Company from the Natives was signed. It was dated September 27, 1839. Wellington Harbour, with its islands and surrounding country, was sold “in consideration of having received full and just payment for same.” Included in the goods enumerated were 100 red blankets; 100 muskets; 21 kegs of gunpowder; one cask of ball cartridges; 48 iron pots; two cases of soap; ope case of pipes; two tierces of tobacco; 1200 fish hooks; 50 steel axes; several yards of cotton duck, calico, ribbon; 10 dozen looking-glasses; 21b. beads; and one gross of jews’ harps.

If a. learned geologist had told the folk in Auckland that they were sitting on a volcano when the respective merits of Auckland and Wellington harbours were under discussion, Wellingtonians would have considered this fact st knock-out; especially as it seems that Wellington is not sitting on a volcano at all. All that we can do now is to rub in with a sense of smugness that it is the dead volcanoes that are the most dangerous. One could point out that Vesuvius has taken long sleeps. In fact, the eruption in A.D. 79 was the first in historic times'. Experts had decided that Vesuvius was Long since dead. One geographer named Strabo, who suggested this was incorrect, and that Vesuvius might go off ‘pop” at any moment, was ignored. Dloreover, after the towns of Herculaneum, Pompeii and Stabiau were completely destroyed, Vesuvius took a nap for 500 years. Again Vesuvius became a peaceful, verdure-clad mountain. Goats grazed in her crater upon rich green grass. Then in 1631 she poured seven rivers of lire down her sides. One descended into the Bay of Naples, and the sea boiled for days.

One might perhaps point out that Mt. Pelee, in the West Indies, had long been inactive before the top blew off and a gust of hot gases destroyed 30.000 people. Two immense blasts of steam shot out of the mountain. One went straight up, the other down the mountain. Only one man escaped, a prisoner in an underground dungeon. Out of eighteen vessels at anchor in the harbour, only one escaped—the British steamer Roddam. We have a feeling that Aucklanders better keep quiet about their harbour. After all, Tarawera had been inactive so long a lake had formed. In the same spectacular and unexpected manner the island of Krakatoa blew itself to bits in the eighties of last century. The ashes from this effort went right round the world and the bang, it is said, encircled the world twice, although it was inaudible except to sensitive instruments. In the circumstances, Auckland can keep its harbour.

The blast of poisonous gas from Ruapehu that is stated to have produced the famous desert on the eastern flank of the mountain many years ago was probably of sulphurous origin. A similar area, only on a gigantic scale, is to be observed on the frontier between Baluchistan and Persia. The desert in this case covers an area the size of Wellington province. Neither bird nor beast can survive there to this day and plant life is extinct. The crater of the “Dlountain of Hellfire’’ has been pouring out dense clouds of poisonous ammoniacal gases for years. This is the only mountain that is known io produce this type of poison gas. When the “Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes” was produced by the explosion of the volcano Katmai, in Alaska, in 1912, sulphurous gas was ejected in enormous quantities. It is death to approach the vents. Before the Chilean earthquake in 1857 poison gas bubbled up through the sea. The number of fish and crabs that were killed was such that they formed on the beach a* wall three feet high and twelve miles long.

Lindbergh’s recent activity in connection with the polar air routes conies at a time wMn this means of travel has behind it some considerable exploration. If we omit the earlier efforts last century to find a north-west p" sage, it is still correct that the Great Powers have been busy on polar air routes for the last quarter of a century. Thanks to the fact that the world Is Slightly flatter at the poles and to the fact that the North Pole is the backyard of nearly every land masr, polar routes offer attractive savings in time and distance. For example, the shortest way to England from New Zealand is via the North Pole. The Panama route is the second shortest and t’ ? route via the South Pole the third. Speaking in London 10 years ago, Stefansson emphasised that Britain’s dreams of last century—a short route to the East—was now open t< realisation owing to the conquest of the air. As long ago as 1922 this idea had been discussed. Several routes were drafted out. One route was Liverpool to Tokio via Iceland; another London to Tokio via Norway

If our atlases presented the north polar region in the same aspect as it does the Dfediterranean it would become obvious that the Polar Sea was almost an inland sea. It separates the continents of Europe and Asia from North America. The route to Japan from England would be 5000 miles as compared with 11,000 miles by the normal route. Dloreover, the polar route from Europe to North America has the advantage that hops of not more than 600 miles would be required. It may bv that development will not make this factor important. Fast passenger n tchines may prefer the shorter Atlantic crossing, but slower goods traffic, no doubt, will take the Arctic route. It Is perhaps significant that during the last two decades no fewer than six expeditions from different countries have been busy exploring the possibilities of the north pola • routes. The disadvantages are summer temperatures of 30 degrees below freezing and winter temperatures of 70 below. Bad storms and sleet are the chief reasons why this route so far has remained comipergaUy