NOTES AND QUERIES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 46

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Questions for reply in coming issue to be received not later than MONDAY nighl. ,

Bushman. — Will -tire correspondent who sent a, query a few weeks ago about a small blue bird please send iis his name and address. A Schoolboy. — There is certainly no difference in the area contained in a square mile and a mile square, but there may be in the shape. A square mile contains 640 acres, and may be of any shape; but we presume a mile sqt&re contains four sides each of a mile in length. At best it is only a poor specimen of a catch. P. A. D., Miller's Flat. — Goods and live stock are not as rule carried by express trains. Subscriber. — The only method .of dealing with slaters is to trap them. ' Partly scoop out a few potatoes or apples, leaving the apertures not too big, and leave them about their haunts. Visit these at intervals, and turn the slaters you will find in them into a pan of scalding water. It will take some time to effect a clearance, but we know of no better plan. Anxious. — You should be able to get the certificate on payment of the ordinary fee. The fact of it being so far back should make no difference. G. S., Maniototo. — Try a hot soda bath (half a pound of baking coda to half an ordinary bathful of hot water). Ii it does not cure, the following is a good remedy, but it has a very disagreeable smell and will destroy the paint or tarnish the zinc of the bath, therefore a tub would be preferable: — Sulphuret of potash (crushed) half an ounce to half' a bath of hot water. Repeat in four days if required. Sun. — (1) The seasons are not caused by tho distance of the sun from the earth at different times. The chief cause of the greater heat of summer and cold of winter is that the iay3 of the sun fall" more obliquely on the earth's surface in the latter season than in the former. Thus in the 'tropics the sun's rays havt at no time so much obliquity ns to make one part of the year very sensibly colder than the other. (2) The minimum distance of the earth from the sun i 3 91,250,000 miles in. June, and the maximum. 94,500,000 miles in December. A. H., Invercargill.— After 1873. The Ordinance declaring certain trusts and vesting certain lands described in the schedule (including the 10,000 acres in the Forest Hill

and Lindhurst Hundreds, Southland), was passed m 1875, and came into operation on June 19 of that year. The Crown grants would issue within a few weeks or so after June 19, 1875.