under currents

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18169, 6 November 1930, Page 6

under currents

HERE, THERE & EVERYWHERE.

(By “Gleaner.") w BITS OF OLD SHIPS. . In accordance with tradition, Sir Walter Runciman, present owner of the Sunb,eam, now on her way to be broken up, is having pieces of furniture made from the timbers of Lord Brassey’s famous old ship. It is seldom that a ship with a history, or, indeed, any ship, vanishes utterly when she reaches the breaker’s yard. A ship is something more than a vehicle; she has a personality, and there is always someone who wants to treasure a bit of her for “ auld lang syne,” or some curio hunter who wants a relic for his collection. . There is one notable exception to this rule. The collier Endeavour, a barque of 370 tons, in which Captain Cook made his memorable first voyage through the South Seas, was terribly battered when she returned to England in 1771, her sails and rigging were rotten, and her timbers leaked so badly that she was unfit for further service. She disappeared and left aoi a beam or a spar behind- * * * * a NO CENSUS NEEDED. We are to have no "census in New Zealand next year. When, in 1753, a bill was Introduced into the British Parliament “ for taking and registering an account of the total number of peoplefl” there was a tremendous outcry, chiefly on religious grounds, with much quoting of Scripture to prove such a proceeding unlawful in ithe sight of Heaven. ' In the House one opponent declared he could not have believed there was “ any set of men—and, indeed, any individual of the human species—so abandoned and presumptious as to make such a proposal,” while another reported that he agreed vyith his constituents in regarding the proposal as ominous of evil " and feared lest some public misfortune or an epidemical distemper should follow the numbering. Despite the oppositloh the bill passed the Commons, but it was promptly thrown out by the Lords, and the country had to wait another half-century before the proposal waa renewed and adopted. 4 * * * • A NIGHTMARE OF A GAME. There have, been several attempt* to improve thd game of chess, or, at all events, to make It more difficult and to free It from the incubus of “ book ’ play. A' year or so ago Senor Capablanca proposed to enlarge the board to a hundred squares and to add new pieces, with the object of throwing players on their own resources from the start, unassisted by memorised openings. His Ingenious suggestions met with hardly any support. The master players scoffed at them, though some admitted that & few slight changes might be advisable in order to rid the game of the mountainous accumulations of the analysts. Dr. Lasker, for instance, would have welcomed the abolition of castling. As fo rthe majority of players, they/were frankly amazed that anyone should think it desirable to make chess more difficult than it was already, and some of them unkindly'hinted that as Senor Capablanca’s unquestioned mastery of .the game had not saved him from defeat by Dr. Alekhine he was himself a proof that its possibilities were not altogether exhausted. . But now, chess is threatened by a new assailant whose ambition is not to reform but to supersede it. A retired schoolmaster In Slovakia has invented a game called “ Laureat, with fifty pieces a-side, deluding the Marshal, the Aeroplane, the Tank, the Cruiser, and so on. , Apparently all these formidable figures are to remain on the hoard throughout the battle, for they can neither capture ’ nql* be captured, and will achieve victory by “ the attainment of a certain position. It sounds like a nightmare of a game brought on by too great an absorption in the Incidents of the Great War. If it should indeed come to supersede chess it might conceivably tend to check the benefleient activities of the League of Nations; but" Gleaner■ does not think the anti-militarists need fear it, for he feels sure that few will take the trouble to play the new game,. or even to learn it. * * * * TO SHRIVE OR TO SHAVE? • Sooner or later the lesson has to be learnt that things are not always what they seem, but the disappointment of my four-year-old youngster, writes a correspondent, whose first visit to church followed closely on his introduction to a barber, seemed unnecessarily acute. When the surpliced choir entered, he stared at them, puzzled for a moment only; then a light dawned, and he tugged at my sleeve and said excitedly, “I sayare all those little boys going to hava their hair cut?" • # 3* # * THE PESGADORS. The Pescadors (i.e., the Fishers) a group of islands lying 30 miles west of Formosa are more windy than even Wellington is, as the annual number of stormy days a year is 237. THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD. Possibly it may be put down to the insidious influence of that League of Nations, but there is an obvious increase in world entanglements. Once upon a time few things were “ International ” to the newspapers except crooks and Red intriguers—but now avervthing is internationalised from Rhode Island Reds to rhubarb, and the International Poultry Congress has no sooner finished in London than the International Botanists begin meeting at Cambridge (England, not Waikato). It is a nice thing when a man cannot try Ho keep a few British bantams, or grow a little mustard-and-cress in his back garden, without being dragged into©the maelstrom of foreign affairs and Weltpolitik, look you! As an Englishman’s home his castle —or a mere breeding-place for another delegate to the International Congress of Rabbit Fanciers or Cosmopolitan Conference of Hedgers and Ditchers and Handy Men About the House?