NEWS AND NOTES.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1930, Page 6

NEWS AND NOTES.

A TYRE TEST. Captain Dick Grace, who has many thrilling “movie stunts” to his credit, was engaged lately in a remarkable utility stunt. In order to test the resistance of motor-car tyres to heavy shock, lie drove an - eight-cylinder tourei' at full speed against a three foot brick wall. The car was specially constructed so that the tyres took the whole of the initial impact... The car itself was practically wrecked-, hut the tyres did not burst. Grace was thrown out/but suffered only severe bruises. A .slow motion picture of the crash shows that the tyres were flattened against the rims and the rims wore buckled, but the tyres returned to normal when the pressure ceased. The part of the brick wall above ground was shifted several inches. BURMA. Burma, at present administered as part of the Indian Empire, is a province of 238,000 square miles —rather more than twice the area of New Zealand. The population is roughly thirteen millions. There is ho racial affinity between Burmese and the peoples of India, and there is good ground for the claim that if India received selfgovernment Burma should be given an independent status. The Burmese themselves arc a light-lieavted folk, inclined to be lazy, and they have higher standards of comfort than cither Hindus or Chinese. Indeed the immigration of Hindus and Chinese coolies is 'object" ed to strongly on that ground. The potential wealth of the province is very great, and already it has a valuable output of timber, tin, silver arid other metals and petroleum. .

UNITED STATES RULERS. The statement hy Sinclair Lewis in his speech o nreceiving the Nobel Prize for literature that “the business lords rule the United States” is practically an echo of'the opinion expressed by Mr James \V. uerard a few months ago. The ex-ambassador to Germany, in a pamphlet advocating a protective tariff for the British Empire, referred to the forty men who rule the United States. A storm of criticism immediately rose in the'United States, and he was asked to name the men. He listed sixy-ifour, who, he contended, being too busy to hold political office, determined who should hold office. This list contained the names of leaders in finance, industry, journalism, amusements, and labour. To democratic America, this view of “the power behind the throne” being bankers and capitalists was particularly distasteful and it .was sarcastically asked why AT. Capone, the gangster leader, had been omitted. After tlie cloudburst, of critl eism that fell upon Mr Gerard, Sinclair Lewis cannot hope to go scatheless,