CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 109, 7 April 1934, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer”). ' According to the chairman of a Re. ferees’ Association, his fellow members “had laid themselves out week by, week ...” A change from the players doing so. * * * * * Ties and shirts will be brighter, hats will be lighter, and trousers will be wider in 1934. This is the view arising from the recent Men’s Wear Exhibition in London. There is to be an increasing tendency towards brighter colours for the erstwhile soberly clad male, and the fashion experts are domg their utmost to fan the smouldering embers of masculine ambition in that direction into a healthy blaze. At this year’s show some of the shirts on view were exceedingly bright. It is also expected that this will, be another “flan-nel-bags” summer, with a _ pleasant green varied by a range of pin stripes as the most fashionable shade. There will be another effort to popularise the boater, which was received with mild approbation last year.

To enjoy a new book by Charles Dickens more than sixty years after his death is the unusual prospect promised by the pending publication of his “Life of Christ,” which the famous novelist wrote for his children. In this latter connection it is interesting to remember that several famous authors, both old a-nd modern, have written books primarily for their children, or their child friends. Charles Kingsley’s “The Heroes” and Walter de la Mare’s “Broomsticks” are well-known examples, and, of course, there is the immortal “Alice in Wonderland which Lewis Carrol began on “a golden afternoon” to amuse three little girt listeners as they drifted in a rowing boat down a quiet stream; and later wrote down, only, as he said, o please a child I loved: 1 don t remember any other motive.

What is this stream-lining process of which we hear so much nowadays: 1 asks the man in the street. In short, it can be described as the scientific method of designing to minimise resistance to wind. And not only are motor cars, aeroplanes, and high-speed, trains being modelled on the new method. Stream-lined buildings may possibly result from experiments which are being carried out at the National Physical Laboratory at Twickenham, London, regarding the relation of wind pressure to building design. An unsuspected danger to buildings in the path of high winds has been revealed by the experiments of engineers on a shed at Manchester and on a scale model'of the shed in a wind tunnel at Twickenham. They have found that one effect of a high wind on a building is to produce » strong suction on the leeward side and the danger of this is greater than had been thought. “This result,” states tlie report or the engineers, “is of considerable importance from a practical point of view, since there is no doubt that in the majority of cases the damage to property caused by high winds is due to the momentary reduction of pressure on the leeward side surfaces sometimes combined with an increase in the pressure inside the buildings.” * * * • *

Little did the Romans think, in their invasion of the North of England nearly 2000 years ago, that the reconstruction of "their towns would provide labour for unemployed men of the present age. Yet that is taking place today. Thirteen unemployed men have found work near C-orbridge-on-Tyne on the reconstruction and excavation of a town which the Romans started to build by unemployed labour nearly 2000 years ago. Corstopitum was the largest town in the north-east, and the labour was conscripted. Then the Romans left—no one knows why—and the town was abandoned unfinished. A great storehouse, 200 ft square, was not completed, and when a journalist visited the excavation a guide pointed out a large stone in the centre of it that had lain there nearly 2000 years—left just as the mason was dressing it! The Romans certainly left in a hurry. Their haste is even more emphasised by the finding of two hoards of coins. When excavations were first started an urn was found in a rubbish heap. It crumbled when touched, and a shower of gold coins fell to the ground. There were forty-eight coins in all, and they are now in the British Museum. Then another hoard, 149 coins in all, was found in the chimney of a Roman blacksmith’s shop. These discoveries have proved to be the greatest finds of gold coins in Britain. King John knew of Corstopitum, for when he stayed at Hexham he employed men to dig on the site in hope of finding treasure. He was unsuccessful. Evidence of King John’s efforts have just been brought to light.

An am»sing controversy has been engaging attention in England of late and has some prominence due to the fact that the august authorities of Whitehall have joined issue with rural Barcombe, an attractive English village if evor there was one. Indeed, the whole thing might almost be said to be an affair of Church and State. The Jackdaw of Rheims earned a certain fame, but what will history have to tell of the Woodpecker of Barcombe? For it is a woodpecker, a common but hard-working bird, that is causing all the trouble, both in Whitehall and the parish of Barcombe. Barcombe Church has a spire of which the local populace is exceedingly proud, and which until recently was a complete joy to the rector. Nothing disturbed either spire or the tranquility of the village until the arrival of the woodpecker, who cleverly discovered that the wooden tiles of the spire housed colonies of succulent grubs. In a mood of delighted enthusiasm the bird lost no time in digging out what promised to he a continuous square meal. Even during the services the congregation and the agonised preacher could hear the peck, peck, peck of the industrious beak. When some 400 holes had been bored in the spire the rector called a parish council meeting to discuss the position, and it was decided after an indignant debate that there was only one thing to do—shoot the woodpecker. But before the village marksman could take aim from belli nd a strategic headstone in the churchyard somebody remembered that woodpeckers were protected by Act of Parliament! What then to do? The rector resolved to take up the question with the Home Office, and ask permission to execute just this one woodpecker. The letter reached Whitehall, but Whitehall was not in a hurry to reply. It never is. Besides, this was an issue involving a possibly dangerous precedent. At length went the answer to Barcombe: “The Home Secretary cannot give permission for the shooting of the Barcombe woodpecker.” As though sensing what had happened, the insatiable bird commenced to peck harder than ever, so that the steeple threatens to look like a sponge or a piece of cheese. Now, more as a gesture of despair than of hope, the parishioners are talking of killing the grubs in the spire. This, they feel, would not only be “within the law,” but would deprive the woodpeckqr of a motive.