POSTSCRIPTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 49, 26 August 1930, Page 8

POSTSCRIPTS

Chronicle and Comment

Br PERCY FMGE

Sir Maui Pomaie comes home to his people.

Sir Otto Niemeyer has warned tha Commonwealth against the folly of gambling on the belief that ''something will turn up."—Quito so. It may not bt trumps next time. : . ■ '

Pr.ofouad observation by King Fuad of Egypt. "A highly moral man is pot always qualified to be ( a Government $ Minister." —But it doesn't take ,Wm » , lifetime to make a fortune in Big Busi« ness. % .

Back from a sojourn ia the StateSi a lady speaks of the "dry humour* whjeh sho found very characteristic of the American peoplo._A curious ■phenomenon in a country with su<rfi ''wet* proclivities. ■ ', ■.

Piscatorial npte. ,XJp in Queensland waters they nave taken a rare Bailfish: which has been appropriately "dressed1 * and consigned to the Museum, Thji follow would rather overcrowd a goldfish, bowl. Ho i 3 nearly 7ft long, wjta' a sword-like snout, and endowed with a large.spotted dovsal fia resembling * sail. When tho snilfish gjama the .■accelerator the dorsal fin closes like a» umbrella and sinks into a deep groove along tUo back,- This fish is credited with a speed of sixty miles an hour, ana the capacity to leap across 4Qft of water. He will have to break all tho known s'ailfish records if ever Zaa* Grey gets on his track,

Eeports of the progress made by radio, in the States and Canada were brought back by a -traveller who expressed amazement at tho advance in all depart* ments of the science.—Through this coU xwn's special service verification of that statement is jmssiblo, For example) with.' a ''radio stethoscope?' of hia own inven* tion a Buenos Aires surgeon has felt' the pulaa pf a subject as far off as London, But one of radio's greatest triumphs possesses strong utilitarian possibilities. A poultry farmer in the Middlo West testifies that, his: pullets have increased their output since he installed a- loud speaker within eaxshot of tho nests. Laying went up 18; per cent, in a given time. Why not carry the idea further 'and apply it t» tho bricK-and-mortar industry? That would, be a searching test. ,

Britain has bean bested at crickeS and Bugby this year, but 'another opportunity of winning a "Test match awaits her. What is designated thai . First International Bridge Contest is toj take place in London early next montb« Three hundred hands wil!\be played at "Duplicate" between two teams of four; representing Amorica and the Mothei1; Country., Every hajid played" by the BngUsh pair against the Americans in one room will bo sent to the eeeondi room to be played by the American- •

pair there against the other English! pair. The contest will extend over sisj days,—Tho innovation is "welcome* Bridge, along with its' strenuous oietojj pastimes, may well help the causo o? universal peace. The Japanese arai playing baseball, tho Gdraans crieketi and Soccer, and the French "rugger1* game is so enthusiastic that a meeting] of the Gauls aael, say, a Harvard-Talo] combination would make an. Auckland-' Wellington clash look a "kid-glove"! affair. When shove 'a'penny, crown and anchor, quoits, and thread-the-needla races are-admitted to the international sphere, the League of Nations ca« safely pack up and go home.

Notwithstanding the competition of free verse manufacturers, Ezra Pound and Lord Birkonhead, William Shakes* peare—or should it be Bacon?—com tinues to hold his own, and more of it^ The Bard of Avon has not yet made hia debut among the Esquimaux, but al valiant Dutch Boer with a name like:* sneeze is preparing a Shakespearian premiere in Bcchuanaland. This Dutch! Allan Wilkie reports a steady stream; of aspirants for the role of Othello, and an overwhelming rush of candidates yearning to star in the inaeabre scenej ■ of tho witches in "Macbeth." He' i£ troubled, however, about securing-th£ right 6ort' of Titania and Rcfialind,; though' there aro several Falstaffs m sight. Again, a. Mr. Henry JTolger has bequeathed £2,000,000 for the promotion of Shakespeare study 5n America* This is in addition to a modest £400,00^ that the late chairman of the Standards Oil Company had already set aside toj build a marble home iv Washington iaj which to house his priceless store oiS Shakespeariana. The collection consists! of over 20,000 volumes, and is describe^ by experts as the most valuable outside) the British Museum.

/'Change ana decay in all aroun<S I see," sang on muted string a hymnologist for whom apparently life had' momentarily lose its savour.- The* scientists, whether they intend it or not,' encourage that mild form of melancholy; by fumbling in the future and waring their spectral discoveries in our faces* For example, take one of the leaders! at the World Power Conference held dnJ Berlin recently. Discoursing on sufri atomic energy, he painted an arresting) pietureiof "resources so illimitable! that the idea of fuel economy is noti to "be thought of." An exhilarating} prospect. Bnt—there is always a.but^ —that power is so | securely locked awayj that it might as well bo in the remotest star. Wo might have guessed what was! coming. -The saniG dispenser of.thrills! also sounded; a warning .. . the universe is "running down." Alarmisti statements of the kind are to be depre« cated. To reassuro possible apprehcnV sive roadere, we put on record the-con* sidered opinion of still another scientist! who declares that the sun is good forj another 10,000,000 years. Anyhow, before then, perhaps, means will be found of winding up the cosmos again.

Further evidence of sociological and moral progress. Six newspapers and fifteen books have been banned by the Minister of Justice in the Irish Freo State, acting on the advice of the Board of Censors. The reason assigned for the prohibition is that they devote an unduly large proportion of space to crime nevys. In the little Fascist Stato of Thuringia tho authorities have decided to proceed with rigour against all cafe proprietors who serve up jazs music or Negro songs and dances with the drinks.—^Ve are all for culture ourselves, but these look to be extremist measures. The World "War would have been fought in vain had'not Kemarquo come to the rescue, and why shouldn't wo know in detailed analysis the .palpitating emotions of the felon about' to be "bumped off"? As for our Thuringiaii brethren, they appear to be atrifle too sensitive. Howover, we arc prepared to support a prohibitive tariff on saxophones, steel guitars, and "negro" songs, .which are the work of debased "white trash" who have never oven .heard of Harlem, or observed a Louisiana "mammy" in her .nnlivo habitat . . . ' . ■