HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3293, 25 April 1917, Page 60

HERE AND THERE.

• —An Expensive Infant.— John Jacob Astor, the posthumous child of Colonel Astor who perished in the Titanic disaster, spends £5213 a year, or more than £l4 a day, says his mother, Mrs William Dick, in giving an account of her stewardship of the iniant's estate. (The particulars are given by the New I'ork correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph."] Baby Astor was four years old last August 14. Mrs Dick's accounting dates from November 13, 1912, to December 31, 1915, during which period the received over £I2OOO from the trust fund of £600,000 established by Colonel Astor. Mrs Dick says she expended in this period for her son £16,072. The mother, as guardian, spent £1152 for clothes and toys lor the baby. Among the toys were included a speaking-book, 15 discs for a music-box, two boxes of horns, and balls. At Christmas, 1914, the millionaire baby found in his stocking a ij6 camel, a £3 lion, a goos'e (14s), a bea.r (15s), a donkey (£1 ss), a lamb. (6s), and a duck (Bsj. Twenty-five pounds was paid for the young Astor's first dress, and his long clothes cost altogether about £2OO. In December, 1912, he received a mink robe costing £ll6, and an ermine baby robe, £37. Two pillows cost £2O. Physicians received £1305, and attorneys' fees were about £BOO. Up to the time when Mrs Astor left home to become Mrs Dick she charges her boy with a third of the taxes, about £6770. Little John is also charged about £6600 towards the maintenance of the home. The baby's income tax for 1914 totalled £SOB. When Mrs Astor married last year she forfeited the Astor home and the huge trust fund. —Cordite from; Kitchens.— It is estimated that the army is nowsupplying from its camp kitchens enough glycerine a year to produce the cordite necessary to fire ten million 181 b shells. The army authorities were convinced last year that there was usable waste from the camps. A committee was appointed, says Mr J. W. Hope, its chairman. "We organised the collection of ail waste fat and bones from every camp in the Kingdom. They go to the nearest soapmaker for the production of tallow and glycerine. The fat contains" about 10 per cent, of glycerine and this is sent to the Ministry of Munitions. It amounts to 1000 tons of glycerine a year. Our contract with the "Government for glycerine is -at the pre-war price of £59 10s a ton, but glycerine, to-day in the United States is being quoted at £240 a ton. 'We have paid £30,000 a month to the various units during, the past six months. Each unit has its account with us, and from

what used to be wasted, it now secures a monthly cheque -which goes to the mess fund to provide extra ccmfofts for the men. The system has been extended to the base camps in France, where the fat is rendered down and sent hoane in barrels, and also to the navy, which used to pitch the waste overboard." Best Work after Fifty. "One gets rather tired of hearing that this is a "young man's age." It is not. Young men do great work nowadays and always have, and always will. But one does not often see them at the head of the financial or educational or literary world. After so-called "middle age" 'most of the world's great men haive clone their best work. Here are one or two instances : Darwin, author of "Origin of Species," written at the age of 50 years. Herbert Spencer made a rough outline of his "Sympathetic Philosophy" when 40 years old, wrote "Principles of Psychology" when 52 years old, and "Justice" at 71 •years. Packard Wagner accomplished more after the age of 50 than before. "Parsifal" was written when he was 64 years old. Haydn composed "The Creation" at 67 years of age," and "The Seasons") some years later. Christopher Columbus was 56 years old wdien he discovered America. Goethe did most of his literary work after he had reached 65 years. Probably his greatest work was "Faust," the second part of which was written when he was 80 years old. The Ministry of Munitions has an Inventions Department the business of which is to see that no invention or suggestion that may help towards victory is refused. .Since its inception the department has dealt with 29,000 projects—many of them belonging to the category of the obviously impossible. On the other hand, if the invention contains even the nucleus of a useful plan, the author has placed at his disposal the advice of examiners, who are all technically-trained men drafted from the Patent Office and of the military advisers of the department. He is given the "facilities of the drawing office and workshop actually on the premises, together with those which are afforded by the experimental ground. He has also the resources of various scientific laboratories placed at His service, and generally is afforded an amount of technical assistance which it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for him to obtain elsewhere at the present time, even at very great expense. Will Aeroplanes End War. This question is discussed'in the' first number of Flying, a new London paper. In his article "Aircraftsman" realises that an improper use of aircraft will make life unendurable, and that no nation will feel safe from a surprise attack which has for its object the wiping out of towns and the annihilation of their populations. Such a contingency comes well within the scope of any Power which has the means and the will to do it, and the Germans, we know, would do it to-morrow if they had men and machines enough. Let there be no mistake on this point. And let us not forget that, unlike armies and navies which require time to mobilise, tens oi thousands of aeroplanes can be got ready to strike in a few minutes. In view of this grave disadvantage—vital and decisive as it may be—the writer asks what will be the attitude of the various Governments

towards aircraft when peace comes. Will they have private flying, or restrict the use of aeroplanes for miliary purposes, and so put the brake on developements which might he turned to national advantage ?