SPECTABILIA
TEE increased practicability of the aeroplane promises a solution to one of Australia's problems, that of pro- viding proper medical aid for small populations spread over very large areas. Previously, where telegraph lines existed, a person desiring medical treatment made his way as best he could to the nearest telegraph station and received a diagnosis and prescription over the wires from the doctor who might be many hundreds of miles away. With the coming of the " flying doctor " a new era has begun ; impassable roads will not impede transportation. People in England who live within a stone's throw of a dentist or doctor can hardly realize what life in the Never-Never Land has meant in the past, especially for the women. Now with the coming. of the flying doctor and dentist a new era of existence for the pioneer opens up. * * The American automobile industry turns out approxi- mately three and, a half million cars per annum. The great years of expansion in the American motor trade were 1922 and 1923. In 1920 the motor output was 1,800,000 cars ; in 1922 2,300,000, and in 1923 3,500,000; since then there has been little change. Has the " saturation point " been reached ?
* * The Tourist trade has become a matter of great importance in France. According to statistics compiled by the Matin, English-speaking tourists bring into France nearly one million pounds a day. 'Whether the figures are accurate I have no means of knowing, but the total must be a very large one. During 1925 220,000 Americans landed at French ports. The French National Touring Office is now planning further action to attract to France more and more British and American visitors, especially middle-class Americans. Trans-ocean travel, especially from the prosperous United States, will, I believe, undergo enormous developments during the next twenty-five years. If I were a capitalist, with large sums of money lying idle at the bank, I should build a great chain of up-to-date hotels with modern improvements throughout the British Isles, and I would set aside each year a considerable sum of money for carrying out a proper advertising crusade in the American Press. Every motor owner in the United States is a potential visitor to Europe, and there are twenty million of them. • I hope that the protests which have been 'appearing in the Press about the post-mark advertising idea will bear fruit. The leading article in the Times says all that there is to say on the matter briefly and pointedly :- '' The fact is that there is a principle involved, the principle that the Government is responsible for the dignity of the nation, and that principle once admitted forbids the use of the national buildings or the national services as vehicles for the competing advertisements of rival traders. The Postmaster-General has made a mistake ; let him frankly admit it, and withdraw his proposal."
As the Times rightly says, there is a principle involved. If our correspondence is to be defaced with advertisers' announcements where will a line be drawn ? Will any Government property be safe ? If postmarks are to tell as " to drink Blank's teas," why should not an enterprising Chancellor of the Exchequer in search of revenue sell the right to affix electric sky-signs on the Government buildings in Whitehall, or posters in public parks, on battleships, on pillar-boxes or on Post Office vans. Now is the time to make our protests.
* * Can there be too much concentration, too much care- fulness at golf ? One school of golfers says no, but there arc many people opposed to this point of view. I was playing well up to my handicap in a competition on a seaside links last week on a sultry day. But a plague of small flies was my undoing. On green after green just as I had taken up my stance for putting two or three flies kept walking across and round and round my ball. Having been taught that most amateurs do not take sufficient trouble I proceeded to chase the flies away. But no sooner had the original ones been removed than others appeared. What was I to do ? To putt the ball, flies and all, or keep on waiting for a lull in their . onslaughts ? I adopted the former course, with the . result that after playing well through the green my putting was lamentable. What do the super-golfers_do,?
• Perhaps Mr. Bernard Darwin or Sir William Beach Thomas can tell us. Would their diagnosis of the situa- tion be that the malady from which I was suffering was not over concentration but not enough of it ? Perhaps if I had concentrated properly I should have been 'un conscious of the existence of the flies. Mr. Moody, the Chairman of the Exhibition Committee of the National Radio Show at Olympia, says that there are gathered together here " examples of the finest receivers and components produced - within the confines of the habitable and howling globe." I have no doubt he is right. The Show will be a great success to judge by the attendance on Monday, always a slack day, and the Wireless enthusiast can harvest catalogues by the handful, while the average householder and housewife, who know little of crystals and super-heterodynes, can find machines of all sorts and sizes, from £2 to £100, which by the simple turning of a knob will draw down from the ether the music of the B.B.C. * * A correspondent sends me a copy of a letter he has received from the Bureau of Biological Survey, United States Department of Agriculture at Washington, in which particulars are provided of those American States that have adopted a State flower. It is not possible to give the full list, but here are a few :—Alabama, Goldenrod ; California, Golden Poppy ; Delaware, Peach Blossom ; Florida, Orange Blossom ; Iowa, Wild Rose ; Maine, White Pine ; Mississippi, Southern Magnolia ; New Mexico, Cactus ; North Carolina, Oxeye Daisy ; Ten- nessee, Maypop or Passion Flower. " TANTLIM.
Previous page
