Notes and Queries

Otago Witness, Issue 3838, 4 October 1927, Page 48

Notes and Queries

♦wtiiens for reply In coming issue to be rewired no* inter than SATURDAY night. wilt MOT be replied to through Questions must be accompanied by the name »»d eddrese of ihe writer, but a nom de plume may bo adopted for publication. “ Argument," Otakou.—Next week. “ Peg’s Hope,” Palmerston, wishes to know if Mount Egmont is visible on a fine day from the Main Trunk railway line. Yes. *' Dunedin ” would like to know what is the correct term to use when addressing the chairwoman at a meeting. “ Madame Chairwoman." " A Constant Reader,” Kakanui, wishes to know who composed the “ Colonel Bogey March." F. J. Ricketts, who also writes under the pen name of Kenneth J. Alford. “ Subscriber,” Arrowtown, wishes to know how to sweeten plum wine which has been made for six months and is too bitter. — Perhaps a reader who has had a

similar experieifce will be able to give this information. " Subscriber,” Otautau, wishes to know the most suitable time to cut back a wattle tree which has bloomed several years, and is now growing too high. Prune after flowering, or when in leaf, cutting back to suitable lateral or side shoots. “ Car,” Lumsden, who is renovating a hood of a car, and is thinking of giving it a coat of oil and beeswax, wishes to know what proportions of these to use. We cannot recommend a mixture as suggested. Garages use various preparations, obtainable as preservatives, and these give a fine gloss. A. W. M., Mataura, wishes to know where the agents or plantation owners for the Malay States are in New Zealand, or where he should apply to find them.Write Mr G. A. Bell, 35 Claremont street, Dunottar, who could probably supply the information required. "Inquirer,” Lumsden, wishes to know (1) if Amami shampoos are good for the hair. (2) What chemist stocks them in Dunedin. (3) If there is a reliable hair specialist in Dunedin. (1) According to report they are good. (2) Any Dunedin chemist will be able to obtain them for you. There are several, including both men and women—Mr Hendy, 104 Princes street; Miss Browne, Savoy Building; Miss Milsom, Princes street; Miss Mackay, Hallenstein’s Building. “ Flowers,” Tapanui, writes: ‘ I have a piece of ground at my back door, about 3ft square. A tank is alongside. Could you supply me with the following:—l want something to grow in this corner, which gets all the cold winds and rain and no sun, and should like it to be green all winter, and flower in the early spring and late summer if possible, and should like It to be bushy and not grow too high.” Plant one of the veronicas; they are hardy and flower in early spring. " Old Writer to Dot’s Page.”—“ Louisa,” Waitahuna, has supplied the following recipe for Louisa cake in answer to your request in a recent issue:—2Joz sugar, beaten with 2oz butter, mix with yolk of one egg, and add about soz flour into which has been put quarter teaspoon baking powder; mix all well together, roll out Jin thick, and spread with jam. Mix with white of one egg, 2oz sugar, 2oz coconut; spread on top; bake for 20 minutes. “ Twenty Years’ Subscriber,” Invercargill, asks : “ How many gallons will the following round tanks hold made from roofing iron:—(1) sft diameter, 4ft 2in high; (2) sft 3in diameter, 4ft 2in high (over all measurements). (3) What diameter would a 600 gal tank be if 6ft high?” Mr H. M. Davey, consulting engineer, replies : “ You say * over all measurements,’ but the internal measurements are not known. This would not matter much in a thin sheet iron tank, but you omit to say what the tanks are made of. However No. 1 should hold 510 gal, No. 2 562ga1, and No. 3 should be 4ft 7in in internal diameter.” "Interested,” Invercargill, -wishes to know (1) the names and addresses of the electroplating companies in Dunedin; (2) the names and addresses of the electroplating companies in Christchurch; (3) the award wages for an apprentice in such a trade. —; —(1) and (2) The names and addresses will be found in the directories which should be readily available. (3) There is no provision made in any award for electroplating. The rates, as they appear in the Engineers’ Apprenticeship Order, which might possibly embrace the class of work indicated, are as follows:—First year, 15s per week ; second year, £1 2s 6d per week; third year, £1 10s per week; fourth year, £1 17s 6d per week; fifth year, £2 5s per week. D. M‘C., Sumner, writes: "(1) What are the words of the recitation or monologue called ‘Fascar?’ I do not know the author. Also the recitation ‘ Striking the Rock.’ (2) Could you give me a recipe for Spanish cream? ” (1) Can any reader oblige us with the verses inquired for? (2) Spanish Cream: loz of gelatine, one quart of milk, Jib sugar, five eggs, piece of butter the size of a walnut, flavouring ot vanilla, lemon, or coffee essence. Soak the gelatine in a cup of water. Boil the milk and the butter, and dissolve the gelatine in it, stirring well. Take off the fire, cool a little, and add the sugar and the beaten yolks. Keep stirring and bring nearly to boiling point again. Cool and add the flavouring and the whites beaten stiff. Place in a wet mould and turn out when set. "Inquirer,” Tapanui, wishes to know (1) if Kelway’s Langport Mammoth swede turnip seed is procurable in New Zealand, and. if so, where he could procure it. Some years ago the Otago Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Association sold this kind of swede. . (2) What would be a cure for a dog who has a dry cough, and has matter at the corner of his eyes. He has no appetite for food, all he will take being a drink of milk. “ Agricola ” replies : “ I have been unable to locate any agents who stock Kelway’s swede turnip seed in Dunedin, nor can I trace a New Zealand agent." (2) In bronchitis the cough is described “ hard,” but in all cases a cough is invariably connected with some derangement of the respiratory organs or air passages. Its warning should never be neglected. Dalziel recommends the following cough mixture : —One part paregoric • elixir, with three parts of the syrup of oxymel of squills. A teaspoonful is a dose for a 201 b dog. “ Wahao,"» Mangahao Hydro, writes: “In a discussion on the Summer Time Bill it was stated that under the new conditions

a job of harvesting and threshing would cost more in wages. As work cannot be started any earlier in the morning, and will.be continued till dark as usual, there will be more time worked between 5 o'clock and knock off. Thus it is maintained that there will be paid for at overtime rates more hours than under the old conditions. The opposition states that no overtime rates are now paid for to harvesters and threshers, and that consequently only straight time is paid in both cases. Could you tell me (1) are overtime rates on harvesting and threshing now paid, or is straight time only paid? (2) Will there be any extra wages payable on such a job through summer time being adopted?" (1) (a) There is no award relating to harvesting, and consequently there are no restrictions on hours of work or rates of pay, nor are overtime rates payable unless provision has been made therefor in the contract of service, (b) In regard to threshing mill owners for parties to the award, their employment is governed by the Otago and Southland threshing mills’ employees' award, clause 1 of which fixes the hours of work between 6 a.m. and 7.30 p.m., or, if desired by a majority of the workers, between 6 Ji.ni. and 6 p.m. No work can be done outside the aforementioned hours except in order to finish a stack, or when threshing grass seed in broken or windy weather, and time has been lost, in which cases only overtime rates are payable. (2)

Skm, Otautau, wishes to know the best process by which to remove hair from a deer skin, and the best way to tan the same skin. The following method of tanning skins (deer and other light-weight skins), supplied by Messrs WTF. Pfitzner and Doist, may suit you :—Put the hide in a mixture of lime and water so that the hair can be scraped off easily. The hide should be laid on a flat and clean surface, and scraped on both sides to take off the hair, fat, meat, etc. It should then be left in clean water until the tan liquid is ready. The liquid consists of one 4gal bucket of wild peach or quondong bark added to 20gal of water. When cold the hide can be immersed in the solution. Care should be taken that the tan is not too strong until the hide commences to show the colour of the liquid. Then the liquid can be made as strong as possible by adding more scalded bark. The addition of three buckets of bark will in most cases prove sufficient. All that remains to do is to air the hide once a week. The process will take three to four months. Care should be taken when airing the hide that it is not allowed to become dry and stiff. When the hide becomes heavy it is a sure sign that it is nearly tanned. After the hide is tanned it should be washed in two or three waters, but not allowed to become dry until the dressing is applied. When the tanner is applying the dressing—a mixture of mutton fat and beeswax—the hide should be hung over a rail, and the dressing well rubbed into the leather on the flesh side with a block of wood. The hide can then be left to dry ntil required for use. If the dressing is not applied the leather will become hard and wrinkly, and will stretch, crack, and break when used. Any red bark will tan leather. Tanning a rabbit skin will take three weeks, a kangaroo skin six to eight weeks, and a hide three months..

" Subscriber,” Glenomaru, wishes to know of something which would destroy borer in furniture. The white pine borer may be observed on the walls and ceilings of affected houses in November-December, possibly later. The female beetles lay their eggs in cracks of dry timber, and the grubs in hatching out bore tunnels through the wood. Some time in November the grubs are full fed, and bore a hole about the size of a turnip seed to the outer air, and at this time drop a whitish powder from their holes, which usually are found on unpainted timber and in dark positions. Shortly after the hole is made the adult insect emerges. W’hen the powdery dust is : :n falling the wood should be sprayed or sponged with an insecticide so that the old grubs will be poisoned as they eat their way out of the wood, or the young ones as they eat their way in. The adult borers practically are at rest during the hours of light, flying freely at night, at which time they lay their eggs. Brush with a solution made by slowly adding loz of sulphuric acid to a pint ot water in which 2oz of copper sulphate has been dissolved. If the borers are too deeply seated for this treatment sprinkle the affected portions with quicklime, and with a brush move it about with the purpose of causing some of the lime to penetrate the small holes. Then sprinkle or, better, spray ammonia water over the part. Ammonia gas will be instantly disengaged by the quicklime, and this gas is very destructive to insect life. Here is another method which is said to be fatal to borers, and is worth a trial: Put 2oz of copper sulphate and 12oz of hot water into an earthenware or crockery jar, and then very slowly add loz of sulphuric acid. Do not pour the water into the acid, or you will have an accident. Stir with a wooden stick until solution has taken place. Saturate the wood with it, and it will destroy the borers. More than one application will be necessary to make it penetrate.

LAW QUERIES.

(An*w*r«d by * solicitor of the Supremo Coeoft •4 New Zealand. Letters and Telegrams must bfi addressed to ‘'LEX," e/o Editor, Otago Witney Danedia.]

" Ruling.”—Received too late for reply this week. “ Newsagent."—As there was no contract for delivery of the paper the newsagent would have difficulty in prosecuting his claim successfully in the court. “ Motor.”—As there was no agreement in writing on the matter it would be a question of fact for the magistrate to decide after hearing the evidence of both parties on the matter. “ Inquiry ’’ asks: “ A and B own two adjoining properties. There is a roadline to B’s property fences on both sides by A. B’s property has a gate beside the main road in front ot A’s house. Can A make B remove the gate to the true boundary? ” The commissioner of Crowp lands for the district has control of the matter. H. M. asks: “A and B have a gorse boundary fence. A’s side of the fence has not been cut for some' six years, and has grown to a height of Bft to 10ft. B has ■ cut his side every year.?. Can B.compel A to cut his side of the fence?” You should bring the matter under the notice

of the inspector for the district of noxious weeds, and ask him to serve the necessary notices on your neighbour. Rata ' asks : " Some time ago I forwarded to a college a sum of money, being full payment for two sets of notes covering the whole course in each of two subjects which I was studying. I received a few notes on one of the subjects, but did not receive any notes on the other subject. I obtained a receipt for the money sent. What action should I take?” You can sue for the repayment of the money paid by you, less a reasonable charge for the notes supplied to you.