NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1989, 7 April 1892, Page 24

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Gout asks :— (1) When a child passes the Seventli standard and is ovor 15 years of age will the parent have to get the consent of the school committee to allow that child to attend school another year ? (2) Has the teacher the P°wer to refuse to teach tna * cliild? (1) No. (2) No, the teacher has not the power to refuse to teach the child Inquirer writes :— I should be obliged if you would recommend through your Notes and Queries column a paint or wash for the outside of a plastered brick house to prevent the wet from washing it off. Many have heard of the brilliant stucco whitewash on the east end of the President's house at Washington, U.S. The following is a recipe for it, with some additional improvements learned by experiments :— Nice unslaked lime half a bushel ; slake it with boiling water ; cover it during the process to keep in the steam. Strain the liquid through a fine sieve or strainer, and add to it, salt one peck, previously well dissolved in water; rice 31b— boiled to a thin paste, and stirred in boiling hot ; Spanish whiting Jib ; clean nice glue lib, which has been previously dissolved by soaking it well, and then hanging it over a slow fire, in a small kettle, immersed in a larger one filled with water. Now add hot water sgal to the mixture, stir it well, and let it stand a few days covered from the dirt. It shoiild be put on hot. For this purpose it can be kept in a kettle y on a portable furnace. Brushes more or less small may be used, according to the neatness of the job required. It answers as well as oil paint for brick or stone, and is much cheaper. It retains its brilliancy over 30 years. Colouring matter, dissolved in whisky, may be put in and made of any shade you like ; Spanish brown stirred in will make red-pink, more or less deep, according to quantity. A delicate tinge of this is very pretty for inside walls. Finely pulverised common clay, well mixed with Spanish brown, makes reddish stone colour. Yellow-ochre stirred in makes yellow wash, i but chrome goes further, and makes a colour generally esteemed prettier. In all these cases the darkness of the shade of course is determined by the quantity of the colouring used. W. L. ' Cambrians.— (l) The drivers employed on the Dunedin trams are, we believe, paid at tho rate of L 2 per week. (2) Write to Messrs Smith and M-Kewen, the haulage contractors, at the tramway sheds, Cumberland street. M. J. M.— The remains of the Prince Consort and the Dukes of Albany and Clarence aro interred in the mausoleum at Froginore. Gko. writes :— Would you kindly inform mo through your columns as to the position of Ruwenzori Mountain, and if it has any other name. I understand that the name occurs in the list of mountains for Standard 111, but hitherto I have failed to find it in any atlas. It is not mentioned by any authorities we have at command. Can any of our readers afford any information on the subject? Pumice.— ln answer to your query in last issue Messrs Moritzson and Hopkins, Manse street, inform us that the name of the grass you wish to obtain is Chirwin's fescue, and that they can supply you with seed at 8d per lb or 60s per cwt. Would-he-S.-B.— (1) Boil linseed oil in an earthern vessel. When it has come to a boil keep it on a slow fire, just simmering. This is a work of some hours. Have ready a clean piece of pipe stem, dip it in now and then, andiet it drop on a cold flagstone. As it cools put it between your fingerand thumb, and go on till you find it sticky enough. When cold add about one-eighth of Stockholm tar, and you will have a birdlimt that will answer all your requirements. (2) Vere Foster's drawing copy books are obtainable at Braithwaite's Book Arcade for 4d each. (3) Good tumbler or fantail pigeons are obtainable at Bills' Bird Depot, George street, at 15s per pair. J. T. B.— Malt is obtainable at the City Brewery, Rattray street, in quantities of from ono bushel upwards at 7s per bushel in Dunedin. Settler.— (l) If the skins are green, lay thorn flesh up, and spread equal parts of salt, saltpetre, and alum, pulverised finely ; roll the skins closely, and "let them lie for a few days. Then wash thoroughly, and scrape off any flesh that may remain on the skin. Then soak the skins for 24 hours in a weak solution of salt, borax, and soap. Then wash in soap suds ana soak again in a weak solution of alum and salt, equal parts. Then wash in warm water and dry. 1 hen work the skin to soften by rolling and rubbing. (2) For blue : Boil in a decoction of logwood and sulphate of copper. Brown : Steep in an infusion of walnut peelings. Drab ; Impregnate the wool with brown oxide of iron, and then dip it in a bath of quercitron bark. Green : First imbue with the blue, and then with the yellow dye. Orange : Dye first with the red, and then with the yellow. Red : Take 411b of cream of tartar, and 4Jlb of alum ; boil the wool gently for two hours in the water containing the above ; let it cool, and wash the following day in pure water. Infuse 121b .of madder for half an hour, with lib of chloride of tin, in lukewarm water ; filter through canvas ; remove the dye trom the canvas, and put in the bath, which is to be heated to lOOdeg F. ; add 2oz of aluminous mordant, put the skins in, and raise to the boil. Remove them, wash, and soak for 15 minutes in a solution of white soap and water. Yellow : Cut potato-tops when in flower, and express the juice. Steep tho skins in this for two days. (3) Next week. (4) Packing eggs in brine is not a good plan for preserving them, as the yolks become too hard and • the whites too salt when boiled. If you do not care about using brine water, pack them tightly in dry white salt. They will keep for seven or eight months thus treated. The following is, however, the best method of preserving them : — To 4gal of boiling water add half a peck of new lime, stirring it some little time. When cold remove any hard lumps by a coarse sieve, add lOoz of salt and 3oz of cream of tartar, and mix the whole thoroughly. The mixture is then to be let stand to temper for a fortnight before use. The eggs are to be packed as closely as possible, and to be closely covered up. Thus treated, if put in when newly laid, at nine months after they will eat quite as good as though laid only six days before, though of course not quite like new-laid. Farmer writes:— l buy a property fenced in, bounded on one side by a public road. This road is fenced on my side. My neighbour claims to have put this fence on my side in mistake about 10 years previously. If so can he remove it? He cannot lawfully remove it.