THE MISTAKES WE MAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18565, 24 November 1923, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE MISTAKES WE MAKE.

ANCIENT ERRORS EXPLODED. • "* A USEFUL VOLUME. Do you think that bloodhounds, are savage? Well, they are not. Are you under the impression that the Marseillaise was a revolutionary song? Well, it. wasn't. Havo you been brought up in the belief that Nelson disobeyed orders at the "Battle of Copenhagen? Well, he didn't. ■* Like the celebrated Captain Corcoran, Though I'm anything but clever, I could talk like that for ever. And so could anyone else who had just been reading " Popular Fallacies Explained and Corrected" (The Old Westminister Press) by A. S. E. Ackermann.

It L a delightful book, and would be just the thing to pass the time if one were to be wrecked upon a desert island— fact, the more deserted the better, for the reader becomes so filled with the desire to burst the bubble of complacent ignorance among his friends and relations that he would be hardly likely to attain success in society, much less to promote harmony in the home. Seriously, though, it is amazing to find how many of our cherished ideas fail to pass the acid test of scientific investigation. For instance, if there are two points which have been firmly impressed upon the juvenile mind they are, first, that tho defeat of the Armada was a de-

feat of the " many by the few, and secondly, that it was due chiefly to a great storm, in short, to Heaven rather than to Howard. But, the facts do not support this view. "It is doubtful," says an eminent authority, "whether 120 Spanish ships of all sizes came into * the Channel, while the total number of their lighting men wa3 not more than 12,000. On the other hand, England had 197 ships and 18,000 men. The storm, too, arose only after much fighting had occurred and the English had driven the Armada into the North Sea- Thus the defeat was due, not to Divine favouritism but to the simple fact that England had tie better navy." After this, we are not surprised to find that dear old William Tell never shot the apple off his son's : head- " The Canton of Schuyz in August 1890 ordered the story of. Tell to be exnttnged (as being non-historical and .legendary only) from the school books of the canton-"

•Upon the host of other fallacies, legal, medical, scientific, and general we have no space to dwell. We "■ may remark, however,- in passing, that the King does not sign death warrants, alcohol does not keep out cold, quicksands do not suck, and Indian ink does not come from India. And so on. ad infinitum, or at any rate to the number of 1350 fallacies and 982 pages. v', • Yet there is one notable omission. Most people, if asked the origin of Freemasonry, would ascribe it to a union of masons at the building of the Tower of Babel or Solomon's Temple or some such period of hoary antiquity. Whereas it is a comparatively modern institution, a craft guild of the. Middle Ages, and in its present form dates, no further back than 1813. Why, then, is this popular fallacy passed over in silence ~ Can it be because Mr. Ackermann is a member of the ancient and . honourable order ? '

"THE STING-BAY." At a meeting of the Auckland City Council on November 15,, it was decided to sell to 1 a private syndicate, the operative portion of the municipal fish-catching and marketing business. 'The decision is the outcome of rather serious losses sustained over several years.