PUBLIC OPINION.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1927, Page 1

PUBLIC OPINION.

TRLKCKAPII AX!) TELEPHONE. According to the British PostmasterGeneral there is a steady annual do- ) crease in the number of telegrams. This decrease can hardly he di:e to a "rowing preference for the more leisurely habit of ,letter-writ in". It may he presumed that we telegraph less because we telephone more, and to n number of people this choice of undeniable conveniences appears only a choice of evils, but tilt' two are evil in different ways. From the recipient's point of view the telegram is a terror and the telephone only a liore. There are many who can never get over a certain shudder of apprehension at the unexpected sight of an orange envelope; in the moment of tearing it open the mind has time In conjure up visions of every possible domestic catastrophe The ling of a hell on the other hand portends only some tiresome person wanting to ask a tiresome question, or it may tie only a wrong, number. As we drag ourselves to our feet we feel “sorry we have been troubled.” but we do not feel frightened Tn the ease of sending a message the position is reversed. Wo are frightened of dropping our two pennies in at the wrong time. We are frightened of the unknown and irascible person for whom we did not ask. or of being snubbed if we protest mildly after nothing particular has oecured for five minutes. There is nothing positively alarming about sending a telegram, hut if is a bore in find one string with no pencil attached to it and the next with a pencil that jibs unless it be licked into obedience. Tl is also a bore to try to get fourteen essential into twelve incomprehensible words. —The “Times.”

TKLKVISIOX IX TV All. Tn time of war the invention would he of very great importance. A searchlight which can illuminate aircraft in the sky and yet itself remain absolutely invisible, is. naturally an instrument whose potentialities can hardly he estimated. Xight, the great cloak for all military operations, nil! no longer give security, for here is a means of following an enemy’s movements when lie believes himself to he in darkness. Attacking parties advancing for a night assault could he swept with the infra-red rays, watched on a television screen. and without warning, overwhelmed by gunfire, when within easy range. Hostile aeroplanes approaching under cover of darkness will he disclosed to the ‘’eye” of the ‘‘televisor” once they arc nicked out by the invisible rays, and they will have no means of knowing that they have lieen located and are watched. Aeroplanes fitted with an infra-red searchlight and television apparatus could sweep the ground, and. in the event of any hostile movements being seen, the images could he wirelessed hack to headquarters.—lT. F. Tiltmau in “The World To-day.”