Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8264, 29 October 1912, Page 8

For tho first six months of thia year the total number of visitors to tha London Zoo was 473,848, an increase of over 60,000 as compared with the corresponding period in 1911; while the receipts for admission increased by more than £IOOO. The shooting fish, a native of tho Bast Indies, has a hollow, cylindrical beak. When it sees a fly on tho plants that grow in shallow water it ejects a single drop of water, which seldom misses, and, striking the fly into/ tho water, the fish obtains its prey. Cooing couples who indulge in tha questionable habit of courting by post may bo interested to learn that it is a punishable offence in Austria for lovers to vary the official position of a postage stamp, whether on a card, or on' a letter, to indicate their sentiments. There are some astrologers in China, but not many, as astrology is a very perilous profession. When.ono of these so-called prophets predicts an event which does not occur he promptly loses his head. Native compositors of the “Journal of Kantanga,” the first Congolese newspaper, which has just appeared in the Belgian Congo, have cone on strike. They claim that all their names should appear on the front page. Cinematograph films are made of two substances—oUe has celluloid as its base, the other a composition known as acetate of cellulose. Tho latter is becoming more popular, as it is less in« flammable.