RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 25, 24 October 1938, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events

(By

Kickshaws).

In the island of Yap, says a traveller, women do all the work. We are beginning to understand why Japan put up such a fight to keep Yap.

Well, well, it’s certainly easier to meet expenses—one meets them everywhere.

An investigator declares that women painted their faces in the Middle Ages. They still do.

The scheme for New Zealand to absorb a proportion of the disturbed Czechs might well be copied by other parts of the Empire. However one looks at the aspect of world population, figures reveal that in 200 years the people of the world have multiplied six-fold. The time will come eventually when communities such as ours will not be able to choose their neighbours. That time is probably not yet. Nevertheless, one might as well start choosing now, rather than have unwanted neighbours thrust upon one later on by force of circumstances. There is no reason to believe that the world is full up yet. There are, all told, about 2,000,090,000 people in the world. It is a comparatively small total. Standing room for all the people in the world could be found in Wellington province, and then there would be space over. It has been estimated, however, that we must expect the population total to continue rising for another 300 years, when it will have reached 12,000,000,000. By that time all the empty spaces will be filled, whether we want them filled or not.

Although the world is not yet full, parts of the world have already reached that stage. In Europe, the population total has reached what is very near the maximum. Europe has 460,000,000 people. The theoretical maximum has been put at 560,000,000. Europe, therefore, may be considered full up. Asia with 1.000,000.000 people could hold another 1,500,000,000. South America could support another 1,200.000,000. Africa can hold another 2,300,000,000. Australia and New Zealand between them could support about 500,000,000. The time will come when these countries will have to find room for these increased totals. At the moment, we are lucky enough in New Zealand to be able to pick and choose whom we will have. In another 100 years surplus populations may be rationed out without the individual sanction of communities upon whom they are thrust. It would seem better I" choose our newcomers now rather than wait until the time when newcomers will be forced on communities. It has been estimated that even to-day a selfsufficing community in New. Zealand could total about 10,000.000 people. For purposes of taxation it would enable Mr. Nash to sleep peacefully in his bed every night.

A recent lecture on Robinson Crusoe s island of Juan Farnandez once more raises the question as to where the fictitious Crusoe did get wrecked. We all know that Alexander Selkirk spent four years or so on an island in the Pacific off Chile. Crusoe seems to have got wrecked in Lat. 11 N. 22 M . Defoe, it would seem, wrecked his hero somewhere near the Island of Tobago off the coast of Venezuela. Certainly, there was far more chance of things happening to his hero under these conditions than on the island of Juan Fernandez. We are then left in the position as to which we should accept, the island 6f the real Selkirk or the island of the fictitious Crusoe. We know that Defoe met Selkirk and asked him to collaborate in the writing of the book. Selkirk refused. Defoe seems to have been forced, therefore, to select some other island than Juan Fernandez. Indeed, Selkirk complained. despite this change, that Defoe coltled his diaries almost word for word.

If only Selkirk had known something of botany he could have amused himself for more than four years collecting specimens of vegetation that existed almost in no other part of tho world. Half the vegetation be would have discovered was unique. Anyway, Juan Fernandez was a not unpleasant spot on which to get stranded. There are many folk who would have preferred it to some cannibal isle off Tobago. Selkirk certainly had not the amenities of a Man Friday. He did not have a parrot to keep him company. No cannibals visited the island. There was nowhere whence cannibals could come. Instead, Selkirk could have caught enormous lobsters and there were sufficient fish to keep an army alive. At any rate Selkirk was spared the cafchi. ; of lobsters so that they might be traded to passing schooners for tinned salmon as is done by the modern inhabitants. To-day there is an annual e 'Christmas tour of Selkirk's island, and efforts are being made to place it on the map for tourists. Some critics consider that the one mistake that Selkirk made was leaving the island with its green wooded valleys and fresh streams. There are many places in the civilised world that are less attractive.

One may well wonder why castaways who have .contrived to settle down in out-of-the-way parts always seem so anxious to be rescued. The castaways of Disappointment Island, in fact, made one feel quite sorry for them when they were rescued. One may well ask what good came of Selkirk when he left h.’s self-made kingdom. The gregarious instincts of mankind seem to outweigh everything. Yet there are still out-of-the-way backwaters that would appear to be not without merit until perhaps one were doomed to live in them. There is a place in the Aures mountains of North Africa which Im ; been untouched by time or progress. Tet the people seem happy and contented, without the need for never-ending efforts to find Utopia. There exists in South America another little colony of Welsh folk who have refused to move with civilisation. This colony is known ns Trelew Cliubut. It consists of the survivors of a band of Welsh Pilgrim Fathers who emigrated in 1865. The community, now 11,0(10 souls, is engaged in farm work at the foot of the Andes.

“Some time ago I had an argument with a friend about the identity of the lady speaker who speaks for 2ZB. Iler name is Mrs. J. A. Lee. Could you tell me, through your valuable column, if this lady is the wife of Mr. J. A. Lee, Under-Secretary of Housing?” asks "Bettor.’’ (The National Commercial Broadcasting Service kindly advises that “Mrs. J. A. Lee, wife of the Undersecretary for Housing, conducts a session entitled ‘Woman’s Place in the World.’ Presumably this is (lie session your inquirer is seeking information otU’J