HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20000, 16 July 1920, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

, A famous Russian dancer wanted to' ■ insure her feet, for' £20,000, anti her hands for £20,000, but the insurance company would not insure both feet ■ and hands. 'I he dancer therefore decided to insure her hands rather than her feet, • feeling that the hands-were more important in Russian dancing. French wedding ceremonies, . even among tho poorest, arc occasions forreckless extravagance.. In Brittany they are said to bo more gorgeous than, in laris. At a pre-war wedding in tho termer place, wc are told that three bullocks, thirty-six calves and five slicep were slaughtered, and in addition to wines and liquors, over forty barrels of cider were emptied. A pet parrot on board tho steamer yuracao, which arrived at San Francisco Irani South Pacific ports,-'repeated the remarks of a sailor, with the result; that 3/4 bottles of liquor which had been secreted by members of the crew wore discovered and thrown overboard v Jetorc the ship reached the three-rm I<> hunt. ihc parrot died soon afterwards. Hero aro a few of tho uses made of sa ™«sfc and forest waste in America; sbbks, which look like silk •nd feel like silk, hut aro cheaper than tho real thing; sawdust sausage casings in which wood, converted bv chemical processes into viscoe, is used instead of the old typo of sausage casings, produced from the by-product or the slaughterhouse; wood-flour phonograph records, compressed under enormous power, to help make music-■ Irom sawdust; tanhark shingles, made from the waste hemlock bark after it has been through the tannery • and paper cork bottles to Help fight tho high cost of hying. A new invention, greatly accelerating speed at which kinematograph films may bo taken, has been demonstrated. ■ Y means of special electrical apparatus producing 50,000 sparks per second, it is possible to obtain 50,000 different positions of a projectile in the course °t its passage through the air. Experts stated hitherto, 2000 photographs per second had been tho record. I'ho now discovery means a revolution in oxeprimental science and in medicine especially m radiography. It mil le possible to study circulation of Mood, the play of muscles, and everythin" moving in tho body with much greater exactitude. i L m w is , aaser . t °d to bo one of the healthiest places m the world. AYit'n "..f 11 ™ 1 mortality of , about 14 per •IOJO par annum, with its vast open spaces covering some 5000 acres, with its splendid circle of Heights serving as ‘‘lungs” to its population tho capital affords many inducements' a s a place of residence. More than that., London has for long enjoyed a reputation as a good resort for asthmatics—so much so that a well-known doctor of tho last generation used to say that if a fog occurred while asthmatic patients from tho country were waiting to consult him thev obtained relief in many instances and went home without seeing him. Persons suffering from neurasthenia, too. are said to find benefit often in this stimulating atmosphere.

Another testimony from America to the strength of Britain was given oy Mr IV. P. Hamilton, editor of tho “ Wall Street Journal.” In the course of an address before the Yale Club, in April, ho said: “There has been talk of New York becoming tho financial centre of the world, but you will notice that New York bankets of any standing make no such claims, just as thoughtful Americans with a true sense of our weakness despise all this nauseating, sanctimonious parade of ourselves as the leaders of tho world in morals, culture and good government. London is tho financial centre of the world to-oay, rapidly becoming again tho free market for everything. Only the other day one of the greatest New York bankers said that New York might in time become the world’s centre with .. bankers as Ixmdon has. Wo haVe no such bankers now, and no tmeh banking-” Valuable works of art, and especially books and manuscripts, are leaving the country in a steady stream. Great families and wealthy men . have been hard hit by the war; great houses arc difficult to keep up. In certain neutral countries there is “ money to burn,” and the exchange is against Great Britain, observes “The Times” On one side there is natural eagerness to buy; on tho other a natural eagerness to sell; and while the country iu being drained of art treasures, tho National Debt gets little, or no relief through these large transactions. The task before the nation is, gradually, hut us quickly as may ho, to secure tho transference of the valuable works of art from private to public ownership on fair terms to. the present owners. It is useless to look to the Treasmy . for help. Wo must look, as before, to private enterprise, both to collect money, as the admirable national art collections fund has done, and to awaken the general public to the social importance of possessing artistic treasures. Yet some official assistance might, we believe, be given. In consequence of tho diminished import of coal and tho high prices of coal, the Swedish railways have for some time past been using their own supplies of fuel to a much greater extent than before. Besides wood, which has been used to a very largo extent on the private railways, peat has also been, employed with success. The minor private railways in the South of Sweden, m particular, have led tho way. bub larger railways too have followed suit, as, for instance, a South Swedish private railway -with a mileage of 413 km. has found this fuel so practical that it considers it can entirely pass over to peat-firing and thus find a substitute for coal both with fast express trains and with heavy goods trains, The fuel consumed on this railway, which corresponds to 17,000 tons of coal, has during 1019 been supplied by peat and wood, whilo the consumption of coal lias been brought clown to only, about 100 tons in certain months. Tho State railways, too, havo adopted peat on a small scale for use with slower trains. Their production cf peat ui 1 920 is estimated at 30,000—40,000 tons. The State railways have also had for some years past a factory- working for tho production of pant powder, a fuel which is considered to be quite as good as coal, but the production of which on a largo scale involves considerable difficulties. Tho Marshall Islands, once-under the* control of Germany, hut now under that of Japan, are seldom heard from, in the day’s nows; but a traveller describing the life of that central Pacific group of atolls, hi the pages of “ Tim Wide 'World.” finds them much benefited by Japanese supervision. One haa heard a good deal about German management of native peoples, and the Marshall Islands seem to have been no exception to the mie of mismanagement. The islands arc interesting because, unlike tho other inhabitants of the tropical Pacific, tho Marshall Islanders have developed a civilisation iu which women hold a. remarkably high place—so high , indeed, that when _ man of the islands marries, the' ordinary procedure of the rest of tho world is reversed, and ho is known thereafter by his wife’s family name. Kings or queons rule over small groups of the population, and chiefs or chiefwomen over yet smaller groups, but throughout the system of government and of domesticity the women are regarded as somewhat more importune than tho men. Japan, in takinn ov-m the management, of the islands, liegon by arranging a pilgrimage to Jakn bv the leading meii, in which the- <*- landers were entertained by the Japan eso Government and given opportunity to see what the nation of their new overlords was like; with the resup that Japanese management immediate- 1 |,y got tho co-operation of , tho . more important and uilluc-ntlal native, J