NOTES AND QUERIES,

Otago Witness, Issue 2288, 6 January 1898, Page 38

NOTES AND QUERIES,

Qttestioiis for reply incoming issue to he received not later than Monday night.

D. L — Hogmanay is a corruption of the French term " au gui msnez," " Lead 011 to the mistletoe, ' a cry which in some parts of Fiance tha boys who go about begging on the last day of Dacesnbei aie naid to use IC3 use in England and Scotland was derived fioni Diuidic<il time-;, so that the origin which jou attach to it cuuM uot possibly be the correct one. The following notes from "Dictionary of Phras j and Fable" may be of interest to you :—": — " Hogmanay, Hogmena, or Hagmena, ho'.y mo n th. New Year's Eve is called Koimauay night or hogg night, and it is still tbe custom in parts of f-cot'.and for p rsons to go from door to d> or r>n that night asking in rude rbyme.-v for ctkca or money. In Galloway ths chief features are 'taking tlw cream off'th; water,' wonderful luck being attache 1 to a draught thereof ; aud ' ihq first foot,' or giving aomcthiug to drink to the fir»t person who enters the hou^e. A grand bo fire and a pr ce&sion, in which all persocn are masked and in bizarre costume. King H»co, of Notway, fixed the feast of Yule on Christmas Day, the eve of which used to be exiled hogg night, which iv the old style is New Yeai's Eve " A Sailor's Tassie.— The barque L^on arrived at Ho'iianea, North Island, on November 31 from the Bluff. From Hokianga she was to proceed to Syduey and Newcastle. Thebirque fioyjl Tar was on the list of exp xted arrivals at Melbourne on December 11. E. F., Georgetown. — Yes. J. C. — -VTi- Beverly kindly repli"! : Tf you mem an lSin pipe the p-essure wil' bi -3ft, 2ft being lost b> fr-ction. A w oden flume J8 by 12 w-mld requiie sft fall p?i mile to supply a 2?rin nozzle, leavitig about 40ft pressure. Anxious One. —You will find the inf jrmaticn you want in our retrospect of the pa t year, published elsewhere in this is&ue. Bjiooklands.— Can you not find a specimen of the grub which is causing the damage? We can only suggest syringing or spraying the leaves with a kerosene emulsion. How to Make Kerosene Emulsion —S A. N. writes:— To make ]sgal : Proportion one part keiosene to 14 of water. Discolv.; Jib &oft eoip in boiling water, and when thoroughly dissolved pout it into a vessel c/iit'imins ig-il kerosene; churn the liquid well for JO minutes by means of a garden i-yringe. This pruduccs a creamylooking liquid, which must be diluted for v c with ]sgal of cold watir. ' Intfjiested.— (l) The postmaster is bound to keep stamps of all denoniiuatious, and if he wakes a habit of not doing jo complaint fchnuld hi made to the head oilier. (2) Certainly he should. \V. B — The septaria boulders of tbe Moernki district are said to be the only natural cement discoveied in Otago. Th y resemble the Jfi g'ish stones -from which .Roman c;rne t was onginally m muf.vctured. According to Dv Hiaat the boulders follow the coa-t fionr Shag Point to Terdpupu Creole, theuce run Au a straight line to tbe Lit'le Kuri Cr<;ek, which is struck at a point about holf a mile fioaa the sea. la the fust four miles the deposit is a mere line of boulders lying on the beach or embedded in the cliffs, but on leaving the coast it expands into a belt fiom 20 to 30 chains wide and five and a-half miles L<ng. -Scp^arian no lilies or bouldeis have been used since the beginning of this century in the manufacture of L'oinin cement; they are found along the south and eastern coasts of England, from Weymouth to Lowest jft, and at several localities inland There are also solid masse* of similar stone at Harwich, in Suffolk, and Calderwood, in Lanarkshire. The s°ptarja-i boulders are well dispersed over the continent of Europe. Piactical experiments made witti cement fiom Moeraki boul 'cis ai-e fqually irregular and unsatisfactory. Mr J. T. Tlioitismi manufactured a considerabl ) quantity in 186S, aud tested it against Portland cement in. the following manner: — Two bucks were laid together with mortars of tbe two cements, and kept a month in water and a fortnight dry. The highest Jesuits obtained were— with Moeraki mortar, three to one ; and Portland, one to one. It took 4001b in both cases to tear asunder tie bucks. Assuming' thty were placed crosswise, this would give a tensile strength of 22ib per Eqiure inch. Subscriber. — All bread, except rolls and twi-ts, must be st Id by weight, and every seller of bread who sells it otherwise than by weight becomes liable to a penalty not exceeding 4'U, and could not recover tbe price of bread sold otheiwise than by weight. Every seller of biead who sells or oft'trs for sale any bread in any other maunfT than in French loaves or batch loaves of 21b, 41b, 61b, or 81b becomes liable to a penalty not exceeding £5. Every French loaf and batch loaf is lequhel to be stamped in Roman letters at least liv it; length at the time of stamping, and with a figure or letter stating the weight of such loaf ; and every baker who fails to do so is liable to a penalty not exceeding £5 Any person selling bi'ead not so stamped is liable to a penalty not exceeding £5. You will sec from this that the baker and the storekeeper are equally liable for selling unstamped bi'dad. The Surat.— " Catlins" writes :—" The vessel called the Seuiat, and wrecked at Gatlins Heads over £5 jears ago, was named aftev the wonderful living fckeleion Claude Ambrose Seuiat, born at 'Jroys, in the deparlrnebt of Chanipugne His pirents were poor. Seurat was weak but lualthy. He wjs likfl other children, but as bis bones increased in siz3 his flesh wasted away, and this was the case with him till he grew to be a maD. 11" was exhibited in England His height was sft 7in, and his weight only 7Slb." 'I he vessel's name was spelt '"SuntA," not "Sturat," and we are under the impression that she was called after the district in India, of tbat name. However, our conespondent's infoimation is of inteiest quite irrespective of the wreck of the vessel. Gibbstown.— (l) By paicela post, in a small but btiong canvas b^g (2) No duty would bi irayable ou them. (3) Ths postage is 2Jd. Batanui writes :— A entei-3 a protest again^b the winner of a boys' chopping match, itHi'iniug tint ihi boy ii over the prc^crib d age. Fourteen days is allowed for proof. "Who should the onus of proof lay with, the boy or A > A decidedly, unless it was provided tint competitors should prove their age if called upon to do so.