RANDOM NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 108, 31 January 1935, Page 8

RANDOM NOTES

Sidelights on Current Events (By Kickshaws.) There is to be a new system in tiie drawing of art unions in future. Anything that will better our luck will be welcome. » » » A best man who was hurrying to a wedding was fined £1 for ■ speeding. What a lot might have been saved if he had taken his time about it. Ownership of a ear, we are told, does not indicate affluence. It does, however, indicate clever salesmanship. ♦ ♦ # “In reference to ‘J.F.C’s.’ inquiry' about the flag of Hawaii, the September, 1934, number of ‘The National Geographic Magazine’ is almost entirely devoted to flags of the world. The American Consul-General ( will be interested in the following extract from the above: ‘The present flag of Hawaii was officially adopted in 1925 when a law was enacted accepting the old Hawaiian flag as the authorised flag of the territory, second only to the Stars and Stripes.’ ” —“P.N.B.” Its sfc * While on tiie subject of flags, it may be mentioned that flag etiquette reaches its height at sea, where the nicety of flag flying is given more care and attention than it is usually given on laud. When Hie King of England is afloat on some naval occasion, three flags are flown to denote that three offices are combined in the one person of the King. The Admiralty flag flies from the foremast of the Royal, yacht. This indicates that the Lord High Admiral is in the ship. From the main flutters the Royal Standard to tell the world that the Sovereign of Great Britain is with his fleet. The Union Jack flies from the mizzen to denote the presence of an admiral of the fleet. There is only one other occasion when the Admiralty Flag may be flown, and that is when tiie yacht Enchantress, sails with members s>f the Board of Admiralty. This flag also flies over Whitehall. It is never hauled down. When worn out. it is hauled down and a new one is run up simultaneously. The idea, it is understood, is to symbolise that the Admiralty is always at work. So anxious is the Admiralty to advertise this fact, that its flag is not c\en flown at half-mast when >iie King of England dies. ♦ * ♦ “I have been an ardent reader of your column and have learned many things from it, and wondered if yon would enlighten me on the following points which were mentioned in an argument which a friend and myself had,” says “Blackie.” “We were discussing which was tiie fastest flowing river in the world. My friend said the Amazon River was, but I said ‘No,’ because it was large, deep and wide. Am I not right? Also, we wished to know which river carried the most water to the sea daily. In another argument, which has no bearing on Hie first, we were endeavouring to find out if it were not. possible for hydatids to settle in tiie kidneys.” [Rivers do not have a constant speed. Usually they flow rapidly in their upper reaches and slowly at the sea. For that reason it is not possible to answer “Blackie’s” first question. The shorter rivers are usually swifter than the longer ones. Anyway Hie Amazon is not a swift riser in its lower reaches. In its upper reaches, however, it flows swiftly just as the Waikato River does in New Zealand, or, for that, matter, the Hutt River. As regards the quantity of water discharged, here are some figures for the five biggest discharges. They are in cubic miles of water per year: Amazon 528, Congo 419, Mississippi 126, Yangtse 125, Orinoco 122. As regards ' hydatids, they may settle in any organ in the body, not excluding the bones.] # * * Dogs have been having a bad time in tiie news lately. But there is much to be said on their behalf. Perhaps the most striking .tribute is . found in “Tiie Talisman.” This tribute will never be forgotten. “Ihe almighty who gave him lo be the companion of our pleasures hath invested him with a nature noble and incapable of deceit,” says Scott. “He forgets neither friend nor foe —remembers, and with accuracy, both benefit and injury. He hath a share of man’s intelligence, but no share of man’s, falsehood. He is the friend of man, save when man justly incurs his enmity.” This, however, does not explain why dogs insist upon barking at such benign individuals as the postman and the milk roundsman Byron, of course, wrote some of the noblest lines on the tomb of his Newfoundland, Boatswain. Dickens personally wrote the inscription for his dog, Mrs. Bouncer. ' “This is the grave of Mrs. Bouncer, the most faithful, the most loving of all loving dogs. Her happy life was passed, with the exception of the last four years, at Gad s Hill Place, Iligham-by-Roehester. Ibefact is that dogs do us good. “Before men can be gentie and broadminded with each other, they are always gem e and broadminded about beasts, wro.i Galsworthy. Perhaps he was thinkiuespecially about dogs. Women to-day, it is sa : d know far too much. It would be no exaggeration to say ’hat R secrets of State are known to a handful of women in addition to as manv men. Miss Frances Steven son. private secretary to Lloyd George, at the supreme world crisis ot the war knew as much as any person in the world what was about to happen, but she told no one. Miss Rosa Kosen berg, private secretary to Ramsa,. Mac Donald, must have known tacts that manv men would have liked to hare known. Just what some ot those lam ous men thought of their secretaries mav be gleaned when it is pointed on: that Thomas Hardy. Edgar Wailace. the Bishop of Norwich, the Head o the Criminal Investigation Department in England the Marquis of. Reading all married their secretaries. Never theless. there are still some jobs mt-., which women have yet to obtain admission. So far as is known there is no woman cathedral organist. There are no women judges, only one woman harbour-master, no woman has ever cleaned the windows of the Crystal Palace, and there are no women stock brokers, despite the good effect pretty woman has on ’change. An other curious thing denied women is to walk across the Forth Bridge. There is a notice forbidding them. Sc f«. as is known gate crashing is impos slide.