HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3249, 21 June 1916, Page 68

HERE AND THERE.

—The Greatest Toy Market.— New York is by far and away the world's largest, toy market. The annual volume of trade at wholesale prices is £15,0C0,C00, and of this a large part is shipped out of the country, mainly to the great fairs of Europe and Asia. * In the mechanical toys, and in toys made of iron, tin, lead, and brass, New York lias ranked first as the world's largest market f t 20 years. More recently the local toyinterest lias branched out in building wooden toy-making factories in the lumbering- regions, where much of the refuse from sawmills makes fine stock for toymakers, and can be obtained at such low prices that European makers of wooden toys cannot compete against the larger producers of American wooden toys who push trade throughout Europe and Asia. There are 9583 live patents issued by foreign nations to New York makers of mechanical and other toys. This assures a good market for those toys in countries which possess 200,000,000 'children. Exports of toys from New York begin to be large in July, and the trade holds out until late in October, when all large consignments for the great marts of Europe must be forwarded to meet requirements for Christmas and New Year trade. There are now residing in New York City about 125 Indians who do fine work in basketry and beadwork and in toys to the order of local toy trade factories. Rag dolls, all made by women and girls in that city, are sold in all countries. A Brooklyn woman, who a few years ago began making rag dolls for one retail toy shop, now employs 300 girls in her factory, and farms out work to SCO women in and around New York. A Harlem woman, who originated negro dolls handsomely dressed for sale to well-to-do coloured families, has built up a national business and has found a good market through loaal toy exporters to North Africa, where many kinds of American toys are distributed by caravans over enormous trading zones. —Crab Migration.— For some years past Professor Meek, of the Oullerc'oats Marine Laboratory, has made experiments by marking specimens of the common edible crab with a numbered brass label, tied on to one of the great claws, and liberating them at various places on the coast of Northumberland, with the object of determining their migrations, states a Nature observer. Quite a number of the marked crabs have been recaptured on the coast of Scotland. most of them hitherto in the neighbourhood of the Firth of Forth and St. Andrew's Bay, but in a few instances as far north 'as the southern part of the coast of Aberdeenshire. The other day ono of them was caught in a cod net much farther away, a few miles off Banff, in the Moray Firth, having journeyed a distance of about 200 miles from the place where it was liberated. It- is surprising that a crawling animal that moves so slowly as a crab should have made so long a journey. It was a carrying a large cluster of eggs, and it is an interesting fact that all the crabs which travel to the north are females, the males taking no part in the migrations, but remaining in the home waters. The explanation "given for the northward migration of the females is that the larval crab, after being hatched, is for several weeks a pelagic creature, subjected to the south-ward-going current, the northward journey of the parent being to compensate for this, while the eggs are either fertil-

keel before the journey is begun or later by means of the spermatheca. —Marvels of War Surgery.—

"I have seen two soldiers, with shrapnel bullets in their brains, sitting up in bed talking and laughing with their friends. Is there no limit to the marvels of modern surgery?" writes an orderly in one of the London hospitals. Judging from the marvellous achievements of our war surgeons, we do not think there is. Quite recently a Canadian soldier, whose lower jaw had been partly carried away by a fragment of shell, causing terrible disfigurement, was provided with a new jaw, built with a piece of the wounded man's ribs. In another case a lieutenant in a Highland regiment, whose lower jaw had been almost completely blown away, was doctored in a marvellous manner. The surgeon put a new floor to the man's mouth, actually induced two pieces of bone to grow on the lower jaw, fixed complete artificial teeth, and healed the remains of the lips, with the result that now the man is as normal as ever, and the only trace of his mishap is a slight scar by the mouth. In another case the successful reuniting of the spinal cord was made for the first time in surgery. A soldier whose spinal cord had been completely severed by a shell splinter was so treated that in a short time he was ahle to move his lower limbs and gradually recovered his sensory powers. Another wonderful operation was the extracting of a fragment of hand grenade from the heart of a Parisian sergeant, the cure being established beyond all doubt.

—Woman Customs Watchers.— Under the stress of war conditions, the British Government services are fast losing their prejudice against the employment of women. Not only are they engaped by the hundred in clerical work in most of the offices, but nearly all the lifts in White Hull are now worked by women. They have also been tried on more important duties, and some time ago the work, requiring much tact and discretion, of investigating the war claims of dependants was handed over to them from the pension officers. The latest, and not the least, novel experiment in the utilisation of women's services is to be found in the decision, approved by the Treasury, to employ them as temporary Customs watchers. The rates of pay offered are:—ln London, not exceeding 21s a week; at the outports, not exceeding 18s a week. When the attendance exceeds 48 hours a week, overtime at the rate of 6d an hour will be paid.. Something in the nature of a uniform will also be provided, caps and armlets being supplied. This is the first time in the history of the Customs that a woman has worn the Customs uniform. As a rule the position of Custom-, watcher was reserved for ex-soldiers, sailors, and retired policemen. The duties are of a s'mple character, consisting mainly, as the title indicates, in watching over dutiable g iods and locking and unlocking bonded warehouses. Changes at Monte Carlo.— There is no gold to be seen in these days on the gaming tables at Monte Carlo. A Times correspondent says that 80 per cent, of the players are women, unlike the oid clientele; plain bourgeois and peasant types of faces abound. "The loss of a few francs matters greatly in their lives, and I see several leave the tables in much distress after losing a guinea. In the sumptuous refreshment rooms many of those who had come early are drinking a glass of beer and munching a sandwich, often brought with them wrapped in a newspaper. The glitter and brilliance of the multitude who gathered here hi former days has disappeared. The gold, coin that shone so lustrously against the green baize of the gaming tables has vanished. The atmosphere of bacchic beauty of this enchanted landscape, of these hanging gardens which rise tier upon tier above the sea, of this environment of sensuous splendour which made Monte Carlo a pagan sanctuary unique in the world, has faded away. Can it be otherwise when the temple of Janus stands open?" Canine Sagacity.— The instinct possessed by dogs to recogi nise at once when life is present in a human body has proved the value of their use on the battle field. Red Cross dogs are used by both the French and Russian Army Medical departments, and are said to be doing excellent work. There are several hundred such dogs in use in the French army, which are trained to search out the wounded, and then to lead the ambulance men to them. One of the sailors rescued from the Formidable, which was torpedoed off Lyme Regis, owes his life to a dog who drew attention to the body, which he refused to leave when the rescuers had passed the man as dead. Another instance of the same kind occurred in the retreat of the French before the advancing- Germans at Fere Champenoise. when a dog was seen to have scratched a hole in a newly made crave, and was dragging a man's coat. Spades were brought," and the body of an uncon* scions but'living man was recovered. The conversion into a whaling steamer —work lives by the use of dogs. —Pitt's Income Tax.— ''The income tax a= we know it to-day had its immediate origin in the time "of Pitt," says Mr Harold Cox, in the Sunday Times. "The tax then imposed for the purpose of carrying on the Napoleonic wars was put at the high figure cf 2s in the pound. There was. however, an earlier income tax in our history, though. it happened to be named a land tax. This was imposed in the year 1692 'for carryin"- on a vigorous war against France/ and was fixed at the rate of 4s in the pound. The total sum to be raised by income tax and super-tax is estimated at £195.000.000, or almost exactly as much as "our total revenue from all sources in the last year before the war."