HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18452, 1 May 1928, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. Private Economy. “ Even more important in its practical effect than economy in public expenditure, central or local, or other action by the Government, is economy in private spending.” says the “Round Table.” “The possible accretions to the available fund from this source are far larger than can flow from governmental saving. During the war an immensely successful appeal was made for voluntary saving ‘ to help to win the war.’ Is a similar response to a similar appeal impossible to-dav to help to rewin national well-being? .... It is not bvmere thriftiness, or abstinence from luxury expenditure, that the big accretions which are needed can be won for the capital fund of the nation. The prosperity of the nation hangs upon the economic use of its material resources. If private ownership is to continue to be the basis of our economic life, the individual owner of wealth and the individual owner of a business must recognise that in return for public recognition of his right to remain in possession he has a national duty to manage his private property and his business in a rational way with an eye to the welfare of the whole community. Private waste is a sin against the public good, and private mismanagement of a business or industry is paid for not only by the individual but also by the nation at large.”

Traffic Control Taught In a Tunnel. Sixty feet down in the ground at South Kensington. S.W., is one of. the most remarkable technical schools in the world. It is in a disused section of a tunnel adjoining the west-side platform of the South Kensington Station on the Piccadilly Railway, where there were stored during the war, as a precaution against damage by air raid, the pictures from the National Gallery and the Crown jewels from the Tower of London. This school has been opened by the Underground Railway to keep the staffs acquainted with the latest devices in traffic control. The tunnel, which is entered from the platform, is fitted with a section of track, and here are explained the mysteries of control. A toy train operates the automatic signals. It is claimed that the system is absolutely proof against error. An experienced man in the signal-box could not allow one train to run into another, as the second train would be stopped automatically. A fortnight’s course is given to any employee, from labourers upwards. They have to pass an examination, and are then eligible to become signalmen when a vacancy occurs. Even if they do not intend to become signalmen, all the men are encouraged to take a course to make themselves familiar with the working of the system.

About the Earwig. Perhaps no creature is so thoroughly misunderstood as the earwig Man gives it an idiotic name, and then explains his own idiocy by saying it creeps into people’s ears and sends them mad. “Earwig” is merely a corruption of "earwing,” a name derived from the supposed resemblance of the spread wing to. the human ear. The wing of the earwig represents one of the most remarkable folding devices to be found in nature.. It draws up the exquisitely delicate tissue of each wing, gathers it into pleats as one might fold a tablecloth, cross-folds it to reduce its size, and then packs each neat little parcel beneath the elytra. The forceps, which most people regard as a weapon of offence, are used in the in the packing process, but they mav have other purposes. Certain species of earwig are wingless, and an they also possess pincers, the instruments may have various uses. But even with the aid of those useful little tools the packing of an earwig's wing is no mean feat. The Rev. J. W. Wood, whose industry as a field naturalist never seems to have been fully realised, tells usffiow, with infinite care, he succeeded in unfolding the delicate wings by blowing them open with a finely pointed tube, in order to prepare a diagram. He describes the task as one of the most difficult he ever attempted, and certainly no human fingers would ever succeed in putting the wings back again The earwig may claim to be the first of insects, if not of all created things, to display definite signs of maternal love. Butterflies, moths, and other insects, after laying their eggs on some food plant, leave their offspring to their fates: indeed, the parents usually die before the young are hatched. Bees, wasps and ants are often quoted as showing loving care to their children, but the fact is that the actual mother knows and cares nothing whatever about her progeny, which, in their earlier stages, are handed over to hirelings. It is in the earwig alone that we find the guarding and nurturing spirit awakening—the mother watching over her eggs, collecting and replacing them if disturbed, and finally drawing her little ones together and brooding them as a hen does her chickens.