NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 15, Issue 26, 25 October 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

If the world has not jumped out of the frying-pan into the fire the cable news suggests something very like it. Apart from what is happening all the time in Russia, we have Turkey and Greece at war; there is trouble in India and in Egypt; Portugal has a revolution on its hands; Karl has landed in Hungary in an aeroplane and threatens to again set Central Europe aflame; to say nothing of the possibilities underlying the political upheaval in Germany and the critical condition of affairs in relation to Ireland. The war to end war appears to have provoked universal unrest, and for the moment there appears to be nothing very hopeful to point to by way of compensation for a multitude of unpleasant possibilities. It may be that tho Armament or Disarmament Conference at Washington will clear the air, but the latest pronouncement from California suggests that the anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States is liable at any moment to occasion embarrassment to President Harding . and render futile his well-meant plans. In the circumstances the news that the British Government has at last let contracts for the building of her four great maderif warships is in keeping with the times.

Those good people who have been deploring tho increase of gambling as disclosed by the sums put through the totalisator in recent years are no doubt beginning to realise that tho ascending totals were 'merely a reflex of the times. Money has been plentiful under a period of high prices and inflated currency, and the average racegoer during the time of plenty has invested more freely than he otherwise would have done. It has been the same in regard to practically all classes of expenditure. Now the times are harder; money is scarce in many quarters; tho wage-earners being practically the only section of the community who have not yet suffered a reduction of income. So we are witnessing substantial reductions in Hie amounts put through the totalisator at recent race meetings. The anti-gambling section may congratulate themselves on the fact, but it is doubtful if it represents any improvement in the morals of the people or any betterment of their financial position. It simply indicates that the people have not the money- to spare for gaining, and so they stay away from the races, or if they go invest less than they have been doing in recent times. Ono might hope that this economy was prompted purely by a prudent regard for the future, but in tho majority of cases it would' be safer to attribute it to a shortage of cash. ,

Inequalities in the motion of tho moon are one of the long-standing enigmas of astronomy, and the London "Daily Mail” reference to them need not cause the nervous to- suppose that something has suddenly gone wrong with the universe. The theory of the moon’s motion has teen worked out from observations extending over 2060 years, but there are irregularities over long periods of time that have never been fully explained. 141 place, for instance', mentioned that tho mean motion of the moon was really less in the second half of the eighteenth century than during the first. It has been suggested that the deviation is only apparent, and is due to fluctuation in tho earth’s own movement, but this should be shown by apparent deviations also in the course of other heavenly bodies, and these do not ■ seem io havd teen observed. Professor Goddard, in America, is planning to fire a gigantic sky-rocket at tho moon which would explode on contact, and an error of twelve miles in the moon’s real position is scarcely likely to affect whatever chances he has of hitting his target. Professor Pickering, of Harvard University, who has been conducting lunar researches for many years at the Maudevillo Observatory, Jamaica, has noticed changes in tho moon’s surface which, in his opinion, strongly suggest that belli snow and vegetation exist on it. Our nearest neighbour in the heavens still remains much of a mystery to us both in herself and her movement.