HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17350, 15 May 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. THE EXPANSION OF EDUCATION. The gaiety of nations- -and especially of this nation—-would be diminished very considerably if Air G. K Chesterton went dn strike. The nearest approach he gets to this is to let off coruscations of striking phrases. as when lecturing in London the other day*on “ The Expansion of Education " He said, “ Psycho-analysis is a bad imitation of the Confessional.” Parenthetically, G.K.C.- also said that he would like to see an infant class started for the millionaires who controlled politics through the press, in which they could stand in a row and be instructed in the more infant branches of human knowledge.

WIFE'S REVENGE OX missionary.

A strange story of the vengeance of one of the rejected wives of an Amazonian Indian Chief who had been converted from polygamy, is told by the Rev Father Cary Elwes. cousin of the late Gervase Elwes, the famous Singer. The Rev Father Elwes,. who has returned home after twenty years as a missionary among the Amazonian tribes, succeeded in persuading a native chief to renounce his polygamous belief. One of the rejected wives followed the missionary and his native servant froth village to village in the interior until she gained access to their hut and poisoned their food. The servant died within four days, while Father Elwes was seriously ill for a long time.

RAIN MAKING RCfe

At Samara not long ago, six peasant* were tried and sentenced to terms o» imprisonment for digging up a dead body and floating it down tn Volga The man had died of delirium iremens and it is a widespread belief in, Russia that to throw the dead body of a drunkard into the river will bring rain Consequently this type of crime recurs when there is a prolonged drought. In Southern India the gigantic figure of a woman is streXched on a low open "fourwheeled carriage, which is dragged round the streets by the peasantry, accompanied by ear-splitting tom-toms, drums and bugles. This performance is said to bring about the breaking of a drought. When rain is wanted verv badly in the Punjab, priests bathe as a rain charm, while the aborigines of Australia burn human hair in the hope that it will bring about a downfall.

THE FIRST BANKS Few things play a more important part in our lives to-day than the system of banking. The word bank originally meant a tradesman’s stall, and the first bark in anything like the modern sense existed about 2700 years ago. We learn about this bank from clay tablets discovered near Babylon. Apparently the first- firm of bankers was that of Egibi and Son, who flourished in Babylon about 600 or 700 B.C. The early Chinese were in the habit of issuing paper money—indeed, they got into difficulties by issuing too much. There was a bank in China about A.D. 1000. But banking as we understand it to-day did not begin until the twelfth century, when the Bank of Venice was established. This was followed by the Bank of Barcelona, in Spain, and the Bank of Stockholm, in Sweden. The latter was the first bank in Europe to issue paper money. This was in 1668. Other early banks were the Bank of St George, at Genoa, the Bank of Hamburg, and the Bank of Amsterdam. **»* A LINER’S SAFETY CHAIN. The terrible effects which might result from carelessness in a blacksmith’s work are well illustrated by the great importance of every Jink in the chain of a ship's anchor. The anchor chains of the Lusitania were 330 fathoms long—nearly 2000 ft —with a weight .of 125 tons ! Every link has to be carefully welded at the proper temperature. Such work requires infinite care, for in no case is the saying truer that the chain is only as strong as the weakest link. On every single link in such a chain the safety of a * giant vessel and the live 3 of perhaps 2000 people may depend. The earliest blacksmith’s forges known were holes in the sides of hills, called boomeries. The Romans invented the first bellows about the year 350. using a bladder of goat skin. Nowadays enormous ingots of steel are heated in furnaces, and the hydraulic forging press is taking the place of the blacksmith’s hammer and anvil. The' hammer wielded by the strong arm of the village smithy becomes instead a hammer equal in weight to one of thousands of tons! HUNTING THE WHALE. The Greenland whale fishery, so far as this country is concerned, is almost non-existent. The harpoon-gun was too deadly, and the “right” whale of the Arctic appeared likely to become as extinct as the dodo. Then news was circulated that the ocean around the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic was ‘‘alive'’ with whales, and, just as gold-seekers rush off to any new field where gold is reported, so the whaling fleets all turned south. To-day the whale fishery around these islands is more profitable than all tho other fisheries of the world put together. No time is wasted returning to port with a. “catch.” Floating factories have been established where the blubber can be treated, and so valuable is this that the rest of the whale's carcase is often sent adrift, a waste of tons of valuable material. During one year a score of whaling boat* operating from South Georgia, killed five thousand whales. the oil from which filled 200.000 barrels. Six barrels represent a ton. and as whale oil sells at from £lO to £25 per ton. the catch of this fleet was worth half a million, pounds.

NOVEL BURGLAR ALARM A burglar alarm, which acts both a* a watch dog and a detective was recently shown at the Business Efficiency Exhibition in Central Hall, Westminster. It is an apparatus which can be attached to a safe, or jewel box or to a valuable picture, and on the interference of a thief all the. alarm bells are set ringing in the house, a flashlight is ignited and a photograph of the intruder is taken. “ for future reference.” A “ Daily Chronicle " representative wag informed that the slightest touch on the safe will set the alarm going. It is also a precaution against fire as any attempt to burn the front of the safe puts the apparatus in motion. If the alarm is tampered with, to discon, neet it. the bells are set ringing The principle employed throughout is an electrical one. and the combination of the flasher” with the camera focussed or. the safe, door makes any attempt to open the safe register the person’s picture. This is the first time such a combination alarm has been invented. and arrangements are being made for Scotland Yard experts to eisg amine its possibilities. *