Untitled

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 287, 4 September 1928, Page 12

There resides in Maungaturoto an old gentleman, sixty-one years of age, who, although he has had not a day of schooling in the course of a hard life, possesses a wonderful talent for- manipulation oi figures and is callable of some really marvellous feats of mental gymnastics in any connection involving tigurcs (says the “North Auckland Times”). Mr. Andrew Brown, rejoicing in the .popular-ae-corded appellation of "Scotty.’ is indeed an interesting character, and one may profitably while awaj many nn hour listening' tc him solving mentally, in a flash, problem:! upon which a skilled accountant would concentrate solidly for several minutes or more with pencil and paper. Mr. Brown has cultivated his uenchant for figures and has himself invented sever’ methods of lightning mental calculation. Despite the possession of such a wondcrtul gift. Mr. Brown has been labouring all his life. It seems a great nitv that the services of one who might have been a great mathematician should have been lost merely for want ol being “discovered.”

Mercury Bay is noted for the variety of fish found there, and recently a ribbon fish caught in sheltered waters was-de-stroyed by the fisherman, who was unaware of a standing offer of £2O from an overseas university for fish of that species (says the Thames correspondent of the “New Zealand Herald”). Recently Mr. L. Colhouu hauled up a strange-look-ing fish. It had the appearance of an elongated eel and is Bft. in length. It has a flat, broadened head, vhich tapers to a long point. Ther. are two rows of teeth set back on the lower jaw and a single row of teeth in the centre of the top jaw. The fish has been frozen.