CHATS WITH THE CHILDREN. By Patch.

Otago Witness, Issue 1943, 14 February 1889, Page 35

CHATS WITH THE CHILDREN. By Patch.

Now, my dear young readers, I have been taking a holiday in earnest. I did not intend to neglect you so much as I have done, but it cannot be helped now. I have been to that marvellous city of Melbourne. I left with the Manapouri, and we had about 40 teachers on board— enough learning to sink a ship— but they were all jolly, and we had a very pleasant time after we had recovered from our dose of seasickness. Have you ever been seasick ? It is awful. On leaving the Port hearty cheers were given by those on the wharf, and those on board gave hearty cheers back, but we gave no more cheers or looked cheery for a couple of days. Mr Edwin, the gentleman at Wellington who tells us what the weather is going to be like, had not ordered good weather for us, so the boat pitched and rolled gleefnlly and made us look very rueful. Our countenances soon began to lengthen, to whiten, and to look siskly, and we one by one disappeared — sometimes with dignity, but generally very hurriedly, for our stomachs were much overburdened. Most of us tried some cure. One steward told one to drink Worcester sauce. He did so, and sauced the steward for his advice ; a second steward advised one to eat as much as he could, but the food would not churn and go the right way ; a third steward recommended what is called a " lemon squash," and a fourth said " brandy was the best." One teacher pinned his faith on hot water, but he was no better than the rest. Bromide of sodium was tried, some having taken it regularly for 48 hours before comiug on board, at the same time taking pills in the bargain ; but all cures failed, and with nearly every one it was a case of " inside out." One cabin furnished a touching sight on the Thursday evening. Four young men in it— dreadfully in earnest, and acting in unison— in a stooping attitude pressed their stomachs reverently, and emptied them diligently, solemnly, and painfully, now and then looking at each other pathetically as if to say, " Why is this thus ?" We soon got round, however, and had plenty of fun. Two or three nights we had concerts, and the night before we got to Melbourne the captain had the upper deck dressed with flags, and lit up with tiny electric lights for a dance. We had a herriug supper, too, winding up with votes of thanks, " For they are jolly good fellows,"— meaning the capfcaiu, officers, stewards, &c, — and "Auld lang syne." Don't you think that was a pleasant evening ? Changes. If you took a trip to Victoria you would notice among other things — 1. That in going you would have to put your watch back every day, and incoming back you would have to put it forward, -how much we shall find out directly. 2. That the Victorian summer days are shorter than ours, but it you stopped there a winter you would find that their winter days are longer than ours. 3. That the Victorian dawn and twilight are shorter than ours. Now, what causes these differences? All circles are divided into 360 degrees — the imaginary circle around the earth as well as any other ones ; and as the earth goes round once in 24 hours you will find by dividing 24 by 360 that it takes 4min to move round one degree. But how do we know when 24 hours or a day has passed ? Supposing all our watches and clocks were to go wrong, how would we know how to set them right, and how do we keep them right ? Time depends on the sun, and every place, ; properly speaking, has different time from any other place east or west of it. Just as you imagine there are imaginary circles going round the earth, so I want you to imagine you see a circle in the heavens, extending due north and south, and passing through the sun. Now, when any place is right under that imaginary circle, it is 12 o'clock at that place, and any place is under that imaginary circle when weseethesunat its highest point in the heavens. We can always tell, then, when it is 12 o'clock by noticing when the sun is highest in the heavens. If the sun has passed that point, or in other words, if we have passed under the imaginary circle, it is past 12 and if the sun has not got to its highest point, we have not passed under the imaginary circle in the heavens, and it is before 12 o'clock. So whenever it is 12 o'clock afc any place all places east of it are past 12, and all places west of it are before 12. Now look at your map and find out the difference between the time of any two places one of which is east or west of the other. You will see degrees marked on the top and bottom of the map called degrees of longitude. Find the number of degrees between any two places, multiply by four, and you have the difference in minutes. Look at the map of Otago or the South Island and you will see a line running north and south— these lines are called circles of longitude— near Dunedin marked 171 deg. Then look at the map of Victoria and you will see a line running through Melbourne marked 145 degrees, so there is a difference of 26 degrees or 104 minutes. As we are east of Melbourne we see the sun 104 minutes before the Melbourne folk, because the sun rises in the east and appears to travel west, so that when it I is 12 o'clock with us Melbourne is 104 minutes behind us— that is, the clocks there show about 16 minutes 10. So we could send a telegram from Dunedin to Melboure, which would leave here at 12 o'clock noon and it would get in Melboure before half-past 1Q the same morning. That's curious, isn't it ? On board ship, going to Melbourne, you would have to put your watch back about \7 minutes a day as long as you are steaming dne, or nearly due, west, because the vessel goes about 300 miles a day, or between four and five degrees. In coming from Melbourne you must of course put your watch on, because Melboure time is behind ours. Here are six questions for you to answer : I.' When it Is' 12 o'clock at Greenwich for London, will do) what time would you say it was in New xorit ? ,'" ?I eu lfc iB 3 o<cl °ck p.m, in Copenhagen what ia it in Florence in Italy ? -— a=3. What ie the diff eren,ce Ju'miqute3 between Lou-

don and Canton ? i. What places have the samo time? 5. When it is 4 o'clock at Auckland what time ie it properly at Rivjrfcon ? 6. What is the difference in time between the most easterly and the most westerly points of New Zealand ? Send me the answers, and I shall publish the names of the six who send me the best and neatest answers. Difference In Length of Days. Imagine circles running round the earth, east and west, one passing through every town. Ask your teacher to show you with his globe how the earth goes round the sun, and you will notice that in tha tropics all circles are half towards the sun and half from the suu; but better still, I get a large ball, mark the circles on it, carry it round a candle at night as your teacher carried the globe, and you will see it proved better by the light and shade, but you will also notice in the hemisphere —the northern or southern —turned towards the sun that the farther the circles are from the equator the greater part of each of them is turned towards the sun and the less turned from the sun at one time. If two thirds of a circle is in the sun, then the day will be two-thirds of 24 — that is, 16 hours, and so on. Remember, the farther a place is from the equator the longer will be the day in summer and the shorter in winter, because in summer the circle drawn east and west round the earth and through that place will be more in the sun than the circle of any place north of it, and in winter there will be less of the circle in the sun than of the circle of any place north of it. All places south of the Bay of Plenty are south of Melbourne, so summer days will be longer and winter days shorter in those places than in Melbourne. Twilight with us (south of the Bay of Plenty) ia longer thau in Melbourne. The farther north or south of the Equator you go, the more slantingly the sun sets, and the more slantingly it sets the longer the twilight. It does not get dark till the sun is 18deg below the horizon. At the Equator the sun dips down direct, so twilight is very short; with us it goes down slantingly, and consequently takes longer to get 18deg below the horizon, so twilight is longer. When it ia summer in either hemisphere it is never dark at the pole in that hemisphere, because the sun does not get 18deg below the horizon. It is not very easy to explain these things without globes and maps, but I have tried to explain them as best I could in the space I have at my dis« posal.

—" You are the most worthless man that ever made a woman's life intolerable, John." And a week afterwards she sued a railway company for £5000 damages for killing John. The perversity of some women is past comprehension. — Helping Along. — First Kentuckian,: " Say, Colonel, there's a Mormon elder down the road preachin' to a crowd o' young women an' singin'' Would I were a bird 1'" Second Kentockian : " Well, I kin furnish the feathers. You git some tai co stick 'em on." —Philadelphia Kecord. —He liked to propitiate the family of the girl to whom he had been paying marked attention for a lengthened period. " Well, Bobby, my boy, are you going to become a great man some day ? Your mamma expects you to grow up a perfect marvel." Bobby (sententiously, and toying with a cake of cobbler's wax) : " Mar always expects wrong. She said you and Cis would be engaged more'n two years ago." —First Sweet Girl: " Oh, it was so~ro~mantic! We were at Brighton, you know. I got beyond my depth in bathing, and he saved my life, and after that we became engaged. Isn't it lovel} 1" Second Sweet Girl: " That's just your luck, dear. I worked out beyond my depth six times thiß season, and was saved by six different young men, but every mother's son of them was married." —Service Best Forgot. —" You saved my life on one occasion," said a soldier to a captain uncer whom he had served. " Saved your life," replied the officer ; " do you think lam a doctor 1" " No," answered the man; " but I served under you in thebattle of , and when you ran away I followed."