RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 232, 29 June 1939, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights On Current Events k ßy Kickshaws). The only way to stop undressing Incidents in China, it would seem, is a full-dress showdown by Britain, France and America. « « * Well, well, it seems that the import restrictions are hitting local manufacturers on the raw. ♦ # A local municipal elector’s’ association suggests that I.R.A. methods are the only ones of which official notice is taken. We suggest that the association produces a few minor reports first. According to a news item, the buildings at the Exhibition are in process of being painted in all manner of vivid hues, but the full effect cannot be observed until the job is done. Kickshaws hopes that, when the job is completed, it will have no unexpected effects. Quite a lot is being learned about light and colour. Professor Bissonnette declares that dazzling colour stimulates through the eyes the activity of a small gland at the base of the brain. This gland reacts by throwing into the blood-stream certain powerful hormones which control the love impulse, both in men and women. In this way turkeys have been induced to mate and lay eggs in the off-season. It will now become obvious why Kickshaws hopes that the vivid hues are being laid on with all due care. We do not want, on the one hand, to go to extreme austerity as regards the crowds at the Exhibition, nor de we want folk who visit the show to give way to uncontrolled raptures over what does not concern the beauties of the Exhibition itself. Mr. Painter, please take care!

Just in case there may be some difference of opinion as regards the potency of the colours 'being laid on the buildings of the Exhibition, the rough summary below may serve as a guide. Purple, for example, has long been considered of psychic significance. Close contact with this colour, indeed, is capable of making some people physically sick. As a colour it signifies temperance, nevertheless. Blue and green have behind them long traditional histories associated with healing. Blue, moreover, signifies chastity, loyplty and fidelity. Green denotes eternity, love and selfless thoughts. These should he excellent Exhibition colours. Red, in contrast, is a dangerous colour. It is symbolic of uncontrolled passion. Red has always been an emblem of unrest and the colour of martyrs. In Elizabethan days, maidens were told to wipe their faces with a red flannel, and later on the red flannel petticoat came into vogue. Red tape appeared later. Red, we would add, is calculated to produce insomnia. Yellow, blue and green, arc said to be the basic colours. Yellow is a material colour, and, it is said, is a good colour under which to display fruit, and may be used to cure sciatica and that tired feeling produced by endless walking at exhibitions.

At the height of the silver dispute in America, Mr. Roosevelt, is stated to 'be fishing by some coincidence close to a depository where lie 40,000 tons of silver. Nevertheless, we feel that the silver is safe enough. The silver and gold deposits in America aro hidden in underground vaults. The walls, roof and floor are of granite two feet thick. Fabricated steel coils, furthermore, are inserted in a concrete protective device so that a human baud could not be inserted even if the concrete were removed. As a further precaution around the vault, above ami below, there is a clear space of IS inches visible from every angle. These spaces are dotted with mirrors which enable guards to obtain an uninterrupted view from every side by day and by night In concrete turrets above ground * machine guns are mounted. Sensitive microphones have been placed at all important points, inside and outside, the vault (o detect the slightest unusual sound. These microphones are wired to a switchboard in lhe guard-room where a motorized cavalry unit is ou dutv night, and day. We feel, there fore, that Mr. Roosevelt will continue to fish quietly and the citizens of the United States have nothing to fear.

Whatever may be the financial shortcomings of the world the authorities in America have taken great pains to keep abreast of the times in the matter of anti-lockpicking devices. One never knows what the British Mint thinks about these matters. The American mint at Sa’n Francisco, however, is determined never to permit a cent to be issued unofficially. The place is more Impregnable than a fortress. Two. alarm systems are wired into the building as well as a radio communication system.' If the regular lighting is tampered with a self-starling power generator lakes the load. Gun towers cover all approaches. The whole area may be floodlit and arrangements have been made to drench all approaches with tear gas, by means of a network of pipes. The front and back door each have electric-ally-controlled steel doors, only one of which can be opened at a time. There is indeed a mint of trouble for anyone wanting to collect a few cents on the cheap.

"Could you settle an argument?” says “J.P.C.” “Would you kindly'describe, per medium of your column, the plumage of the New Zealand bellbird; also the difference, if any, between the bellbird, mocking bird and tui?” [Mr. W. R. B. Oliver, Director Dominion Museum, kindly advises that :— "The boilbird is distinguished by its general olive-green colour. This changes to yellowish-olive on the abdomen and sides of the body. The head is glossed with deep purple. Patches on the sides of the body ami the undertail coverts are pale yellow. The iris is red. The length is about TJ inches, the bill being just over half an inch long. ‘Mocking bird’ is another name, for the bellbird. The tui is a much larger bird, easily recognized by the tuft of white feathers at the throat. In is a shining metallic green with bluish-purple reflections on the shoulder, upper-tail coverts, and breast. The hind-neck is ornamented with plumes curving outwards, and with a white line down the centre. The central wing coverts have the outer portion white, and this forms a conspicuous bar. The total length is about twelve and three-quarter inches, the bill one inch. There is no difficulty in distinguishing these species, even in flight. The throat plumes of the. tui at. once mark that species, which, moreover, lias the tail rounded. The bellbird is evenly coloured and has a slightly forked tail.”

“The reference at the end of the problem on Roman numerals is not quite accurate,” says “R. 8. “The 23,000 mentioned there —if the number is correct —for some portion of it is omitted —does not. I think, refer to prisoners, but to the amount of copper captured. As far as 1 can make out there is no reference to prisoners al all in the inscription. The symbol used there is the Greek letter phi—(l) it a later development.”