NEWS AND OPINIONS

Evening Star, Issue 21518, 16 September 1933, Page 2

NEWS AND OPINIONS

THE OLD ENGLISH SPIRIT. “ I’m for toleration and for drinking in an inn,” sang a character in one of Mr Masefield’s poems. > One native worthy with similar views has perpetuated them in his will. Mr Ambrose Gorham, the fine old sporting squire of Telscombe, in Sussex, has left the gift of the living of that village to Brighton Corporation. But he has directed them “ to prefer a sportsman and not a total abstainer from alcohol and tobacco.” Squire Gorham, as a landlord, looked well after the bodies of the villagers of Telscombe; he presumably knows the sort of persons who will best look after their souls. He urges Brighton Corporation not to pay exaggerated attention to any suggestion or advice which the bishop of tho diocese may profess in regard to the selection of an incumbent. That . fine old English spirit! MS. OF KEATS’S ‘ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE.’ The Marquess of Crewe has presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, his manuscript of Keats’s ‘ Ode to a Nightingale.’ This is unquestionably one of the greatest treasures of its kind in existence, as, apart from its general interest, it contains about twenty important corrections and some variations from the final text. The heading is ‘ Ode to the Nightingale,’ and it is almost a shock to discover that the word “ magic,” which seems so inevitable in the penultimate line of the seventh stanza, was the result of revision. What Keats first wrote was “ Charm’d the wide casements,” and in the following lino “ perilous ” was the immediate substitute for “ keelless,” and “ faery ” is spelt “ fairy.”— 1 The Times.’ FLYING POLICE. ( The growing use of the aeroplane for police purposes will be watched with interest. Experiments have apparently been carried out in the Midlands with a view to discovering (quite after the manner of one of Mr Buchan’s earlier stories) how far persons endeavouring to hide in open spaces such as moorlands can be detected from the air. The suggestion that car bandits, though they cannot be literally arrested from the air, can be branded by being bombed with indelible dyes seems rather more far-fetched. But meanwhile the Egyptian Government is understood to have ordered a number of aeroplanes for the particular, purpose of countering the drug smugglers on the frontiers. That appears a quite reasonable proposition, though machines have been ordered of considerably higher military value than would seem to be necessary , for this special purpose. But. the principle is right. Now that the air has become a highway the police must take advantage of it like other highways.— ‘ Spectator.’ * f • • FATHER OF THE TIN RABBIT. Greyhound racing was introduced into England eight years ago, according to tho London ‘ Sunday Express,’ by Charles A. Munn, “a wealthy American sportsman.” Last year, it is added, 22,000,000 people paid for admission to British greyhound tracks. * * CATTLE FOR QUEENSLAND. Queensland is dependent upon her primary products, and great hopes are 'entertained for the expansion of the beef exporting business. Much of the cattle raising country is in the far noi’th, where beasts are subject to certain tropical ailments and pests. With the object of counteracting tropical evils and producing a strain, of cattle that will successfully withstand the ravages of climatic ills and pests, a Queensland syndicate has imported Nineteen zebu cattle from Texas. Those animals have been imported because of their powers of resistance to tropical diseases. It is not altogether an experiment, because on a few of the large stations in the north there is already a strong strain of the zebu breed in herds which have proved their partial, if not complete, immunity from diseases. Another important factor in the, conquest of tropical troubles is the establishment by the Government of a bureau of tropical agriculture at South Johnstone. South Johnstone is the centre of the great sugar growing areas of North Queensland, situated between Cairns and Townsville.