CURRENT TOPICS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 162, 10 June 1939, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS

(By “Wayfarer.”)

A runaway horse was stopped hv a schoolboy, who waved a white handkerchief in front ot it. Me can only suppose that the horse was astounded to see a schoolboy with such a while handkerchief.

Recently there died in Oklahoma, at Hie age ol about id years, a lamed Osao-e Indian recluse named John Stink (Ho-tali-moie). One of Hie many legends about him was that fie went down with smallpox about oU

years ago. Ho wont into a coma, was thought- dead, and carried oil' to a lull top lor the vultures. When lie revived his tribesmen treated him as a <dn>st and ostracised him. It is said that in the last 10 years he spoke no more than hall a dozen "Olds.

Tu the Bristol Channel, miles Irom the mainland, is a storm-swept island of granite that, once the lair of pirates and smugglers, is to-day tlie home of twelve people—among them, a Canadian, its name is Lundy, it is two and a-lnilF miles broad, a mile wide, and. once notorious for tlie havoc among ships that the storms off its coast created (in a 370 ft cavity in the cliffs—the 'Limekiln’—there is still a significant tangle of wreckage), it io to day a piaeo for excursions by pleasure steamer. The island's story, like that of so many of these remote members of tins British Isles, is age-old and enthralling. There are signs of a chapel built UUO years ago; there are the ruins of tlie castle of a . thirteenth-century owner (Lundy is still in private ownership): and when, some years ago, a clergyman went to the island to he inducted as its vicar, lie found that, according to the records—admittedly there are few—his immediate predecessor was Sir Nicholas Coinyn, who held tlie living, now merged with that of Appiedore. Devon, in 133->. Landing on Lundy’s treacherous coast —two lighthouses, foghorns, and gunsignals give warning of it—is always difficult. There is stone from tlie island in London’s Victoria Embankment.

“Welsh coal and the “Welsh miner—by me world’s judgment, the world’s Pest. And so it is mat coal oversnad-

uws every other Uelsli industry—it employs nearly 200,000 workers—and cile niiontkla Valley lias become the most lainous of all coal-mining centres. Only half a century was needed to bring "tltc Rhondda” that fame: 18GU hail gone by beioie the wealth beneath tho lulls was discovered ; until then it had been "a glorious green valley with a scattered population living in crude farm houses.” The “scattered population” numbered about a thousand. At the end of tlie 30 years it had risen to over a hundred thousand, and coal was going out of tlie Valley to every part of the world. Comparison of the export figures provides eloquent illustration of tlie remaking of the Rhondda Valley—-of tlie business that brought into being dozens of new towns—“Pontypridd, Dinas (where the coal was first discovered), Tonypandv, Ystrad, Tylorstown, Trcorcliy. and the rest: in 1572 Cardiff sent, three and a half million tons of coal on to the high seas: in 1912 Barry. Cardiff, and Penarth among tbom (they are within a lew miles of each other), exported twenty million tons. In the meantime ail Britain laid provided the Rhondda with immigrants, and with (lie new life that developed round the pits, unique cultural, musical, and poltieal activities came into being. They found expression in religious movements, in revolutionary organisations. in choirs (many of them have sung far from tlie Rhondda), in dramatic societies. Tlie Valley became celebrated as the home of poets, irade-union leaders, nrcaclinrs : from it came singers, footballers, boxers, whose names became internationally known. No part of tlie South Wales coalfield can finite match tlie spectacular story of the Rhondda.

The appearance oF a meteor calculate:'. to have flashed no more than 20 miles above “Wellington, recently, draws attention to a peculiar discovery made by several astronomers in the United States about a month ago. Variable stars have long puzzled astronomers, and a prime example is (lie group known as R Coronae Borealis (seen in the Northern Hemisphere only). Tt had been noted for several months that this group, for no apparent reason, had alternate spasms of brilliance and then dullness.

One explanation for such erratic behaviour has been advanced by an observer at Harvard University. He says that the group is composed chiefly of carbon, the least volatile of the elements. It evaporates more slowly than any of the other elements anil condenses more rapidly. The sun frequently ejects matter from its atmosphere and- it is reasoned. R Caroline Borealis may very well do likewise. This east-off material condenses rapidly, since it is carbon, and forms a so-utv cloud which obscures the light of the stars. One per cent, of the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere of R Coronae Borealis could cut out 99 per cent, ol its light. The observer supposes that as the cloud dissipates the stars appear bright again.

Another unusual star was described to the American Astronomical Society not long ago by Dr. Ralph B. Baldwin. of the University of Pennsylvania. Gamma, of the Cassiopeia (visible in the Northern Hemisphere), is 400 times brighter than the sun and nearly five times as hot. A year ago Gamma began to grow brignter. like a nova or exploding star, and astronomers were sure that tlfe increased brilliance would he accompanied by the generation -of additional heat. They were mistaken, however, for the temperature of Gamma dropped from 28,C0i)deg. U- to lo.OCCdeg. A lew months ago the star attained its greatest brilliance and suddenly “took a nose dive,” said Dr. Baldwin, as its light ebbed. It is now at normal temperature again, hut is racked by tremendous disturbances and is “Bloving away its atmosphere.” The most logical explanation seemed to he that Gamma’s compressed atmosphere expanded so rapidly that its gases were cooled. Thus the star grew brighter and cooler at the same time.