CHOICE EXTRACTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 183, 21 November 1876, Page 3

CHOICE EXTRACTS.

ACTIVE LIVES,

The chief function of the queen bee in the hive is to lay eggs, from which the ftttttre population wit! spring. A healthy queen during her life is estimated to lay the enormous nunibsr of 800,000 eggs. Often in the heat of summer for months together she will lay 2,000a-day. Whether these eggs are all alike, or whether some are distinctly worker-egg 3, and some are distinctly drone-eggs, is one of the numerous questions upon which all the beekeepers are at issue. The working bees form the life and prosperity of the hive. To them belong industry, labor, patience, ingenuity—in short, all the virtues of the race ; and while each knows his own duty, and does it, the effects of a'l are directed towards the weal of the community. The working bee never lives longer than nine months; they labour so incessantly tnat it is supposed they never sleep THE SCISSORS EDITOR. The scissors editor of a newspaper is commonly the butt for many jokes ; but the foil -wing is the opinion of one whose (ttctnm on tUe subject is worthy of notice. S >me cati the ability of the n jwspapcr and t.ie talent of the editor by tie tjti iatity of o i Jnal matt r. It is a comparatively an easy matter for a frothy writer to potir out daily a column of words—wonb upon any and all subjects. Hts ideas may How in one weak, washy, everlasting flood, and the command of his language may enable him to string them together like bunches of onions, and yet Has paper may yet be a meagre and poor concern. Indeed the mere writing part of editing a paper is but a small portion of the work. The care, the time employed in selecting, is far more important,

and the tact of a good editor is better shown by hi 3 selections than any:l.:-:j -;•>-; and that, we know, is half the battle. But, a3 we have said, an editor ought to W estimated, and his labour understood and r-.r-pivciated by the general conduct or h:s j::tp«-r, its tonJ, i:s uniform consistent course, its aims, its management, its dignity, and its propriety. To preserve these as they should be preserved is enough to occupy fully the time and attention of any man. If to all these be added the general supervision of the newspaper establishment, which some editors have to encounter, the wonder is that they find time to write at all. HABITS OF THE CARRIER PJGEONS. The carrier pigeon, .when travelling, never feeds. If the distance be long, it flies on without stopping to take nutriment, and at last arrives, then, exhausted, 3nd almost dying. If corn bs presented to it, it refuses, contenting itself with drinking a little water, and then sleeping. Two hours later it begins to eat with great moderation, and sleeps again immediately afterwards. If its llight has been prolonged, the pigeon will proceed in this manner for forty-eight hours, before recovering its normal mode of feeding.