HERE AND THERE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 64

HERE AND THERE.

the Breeding of Lions.— file recent birth ol a litter oi lion cubs in the Scottish Zoological Park is one of the most interesting occurrences that has taken place there, either regarded by itself or as forming the first of a probable succession of similar eseuts. In captivity the lion seems to breed by far the most i'luely of tile large cat.-, or, indeed, of any of the wild eats, and niters are produced not only in established zoological gardens, but aiso quite frequently in travelling menageries, though tome institutions are much successful than others in this matter, owing, probably, to there being something essential lacking in situation -or treatment. The institution which iias been successful far beyond all others in the breeding of lions is the Zoological Garden at Dublin, which has become famous for its "lion industry," as it has been termed, and derives a con sidcrabie linancial benefit from it. Dublin has sent lions not only to collections in Europe and America," but even to legions so remote as India. Burma, and Australia; and there arc two of them at Corstorphine—a generous gift from the Royal Zoological Society of ireiand. The fount and origin of the Dublin strain of lions was a pair imported from Natal in 1855, which produced their first young (a single cub) in 1357. The stock was increased, and new blood has been introduced from time to time, and the breeding lias continued, with occasional periods ot greater or less success, but on the whole with great regularity, down to the present time. The number of young produced at one time varies from one to six, or, some say, as many as eight. In the experience of Dublin six is the maximum for a litter, and the number most frequently produced is four. The tendency seems to be for a young lioness to produce a smaller number of cubs in her first litter, the number increasing as her breeding period advances, and declining towards its close. One lioness in Dublin gave birth during a period of 13 years to 55 cubs. A Westminster Abbey Story.— Many strange stories are centred in Westminster Abbey, but the following, which the Ohiiffch Family Newspaper says has been hitherto unpublished, is one of the most remarkable. Ninety years ago, a boy at Westminster School, which adjoins the abbey, burrowed through the sandstone forming the foundation of one of the walls, inside the cavity he felt a skeleton, from which he succeeded in removing what turned out to be a human jaw-bone. He took it home to his father, who visited the abbey, and formed the opinion that his son had raided the tomb of Richard 11. The bone remained in the family labelled "Jawbone of Richard II," until late in King Edward's reign, when the then owner sent it to the King with an explanatory letter. The hole made by the boy had long since been closed up, and its whereabouts could not be traced, but after many formalities Richard's tomb was opened, and, sure enough, the jaw-bone of the skeleton was found to be missing. It was replaced, and a parchment manuscript recording the circumstances was deposited in the tomb. So says our contemporary, but the story seems almost incredible. Who are Americans ?

When the- vexed question of the suitable name for the subjects of King George V all over the Empire is settled it might be interesting to inquire as to how the term "American" came to be applied to an inhabitant of the United States, as distinguished from all the other countries on the American continent. A standard dictionary explains that it is applicable to ''any human inhabitant of America, aboriginal or non-aboriginal, white, red. or black. - ' In practice this is not so, for no one would speak of a Canadian or a Mexican or a Brazilian as an American. though it would .be perfectly correct to apply the term to any inhabitant of any one of 21 different countries. Speaking before the American Society Mr U'hitelaw ileid on one occasion asserted that the name "American" was given to the people of the United States by the English three centuries ago, and. he added, "I venture to suggest that a use for centuries confers

a title that will still hold as long as grass grows and water runs."' Decimal Coinage Scheme.—■ Plans for a scheme of decimal coinage i adopted to the present currency la liugiand have just been drawn up by the Decimal Association, The committee pro-, pose to make the florin, which is the tenth part of a sovereign, the unit coin. The ilorin is a satisfactory unit in that its adoption would cause little change in the goiu and silver coinage of the country. J here are at present 96 farthings in ailorin, ana unuer the new system there vvoulu bo 100 cento The new coins necessary would be made ui nickel or bronze, there being 10 and live cent nickel pieces of the approximate value of and respectively, ami four cent jjieces corresponding to the present penny, two cents and one cent piece:- of bronze. The sovereign and half-sovereign would be retained as 10 florin and five florin pieces. The florin would be the unit or 100 cent piece, the shilling the half-florin, and the sixpence the quarter-florin. Such a system of currency, the Decimal Association argue, would not disturb our present coinage, and would be in accordance with Lie -am.iard adopted in most of the Euro. pean countries, as well as in America and Canada. —Kiel as a Garden City.— The Kieler Zeitung says that all available building plots in Kiel are being j turned into vegetable gardens. Thousands of people are taking advantage of the line weather, and are busy transforming the hitherto waste laud into gardens. A large -plot by the Wrankelstrasse, in the heart of the city, has been divided into 50 gardens, and the great open-air skating rink, the pride of Kiel in winter, now has 18 gardens. Thousands of private flower garden- around the city are being converted into vegetable plots. The "Shark" Tapers.— Jamaica is the land of romance, and its museum of curiosities contains the famous Shark papers, which have a special interest to-day. The brig Nancy, on August 28, 1799, was captured by H.M.S. Sparrow. When the matter came before the Prize Court the owners of the Nancy (Germans) swore freely and falsely as to the nature of her business. Their lies were confounded by the production of the vessel's real papers. These had been thrown overhoard when the Sparrow aliased her, and a shark swallowed them. The .-hark was caught by the Ferret off Jaemel, and so the papers were recovered; Lieutenant Fitton. who caught the shark, had its jaws set up on shore with the inscription, "A collar for neutrals to swear through." The head of the .'hark is in the United Service Museum, London. The papers of the Nancy, recovered in the above remarkable manner, are to be seen in the Jamaica Institute's .Museum. —High Prices for Ship.;.— At the Baltic Exchange, London, at an auction of ships, the first bid for the King, a steamer of 4144 tons gross, built in ISOS, was £IOOXOO, and tlie last, was £115.000, at which the vessel was withdrawn. An opening bid of £40,000 for the Nation, a steamer of 4415 tons, built in 1905. led to a final bid of £86.000, and the vessel was also withdrawn. The third steamer offered—the Gledhow, of 2661 tons, built in 1891—-was sold for £38.500, after a first offer of £25.000. Exactly a year ago—March £O, 1915—she was sold for £2O,CCO. One of the most striking of recent shipping sales was that of the Chilian steamer Gobernador Bories, which was sold just before the war for £II.OOO, was resold early this vear for £1CO!OCO, and has just been resold for £135.000. She is a vessel of 4598 tons, built in 1893, and when war broke out was in course of conversion hit oa whaling steamre —work which was never completely carried out. ■ —Drying the Zuyder Zee.— The problem of removing the water from the flooded district of North Holland has not yet been solved. About 40,000 acres are now inundated in that province (writes the American commercial attache at The Hague in a recent report to Washington). The average height to which the wafer must be lifted is only three to four feet, but the total amount to be pumped approximates 7,000,000,000 cubic feet. This flood has revived the project of drying the Zuyder Zee, and a Bill is now before the Netherlands Parliament, for appropriating money for this work. The cost is estimated at £18,000,030, part of which is to cover indemnities to fishermen and for similar purposes. The cost of the dams will probably be less than £10,000,000. The principal clam would be about 15 miles long, averaging 20ft in height. One of the most important results accruing from the drying of the Zuyder Zee would be that the new dams would take the place of the several hundred miles of dykes that now protect the lowlands from the Zuyder Zee. Shakespeare's Religion.— This is a subject which many people seem to be discussing at the moment. The Bishop of Birmingham has been taking a hand in the controversy and said that from his works one could safely affirm Shakespeare's wide grip of the Bible with its spiritual meaning. He had considerable insight into Christian doctrine. . . He condemned drunkenness. He had a great objection to weak inaction, and a strong feeling of there being good in everything. He was intensely human in sympathy. Prayer seemed to appeal to him; but what was perhaps most attractive in Shakespeare's religious writing was the way in which he contantly pointed out that our lives were -to be used not for ourselves but for the (rood of others. Indeed, religion in its highest view was to be found in Shakespeare's writing, 'ihe bishop's complaint as to the critics of another country who claimed Shakespeare was that they did not consult Shakespeare himself at all. They constructed a German Shakespeare, and* said. "That is what our Shakespeare was." Anything less like the real Shakespeare than the one made in Germany had never been seen or dreamt of.