POSITION OF BODY AT SCHOOL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 6844, 24 August 1885, Page 2

POSITION OF BODY AT SCHOOL.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —l wish you would, through the medium of your columns, permit me to plead on our school authorities to give a little attention to tho sitting position of the children under them at school —especially girls. A year or'so ago two of my little friends were perfect models of correct physical formation, and now it is pitiful to look at their bent deformity, acquired by no other causo than that of projecting their chest over slate or copy. It is of serious consequence to health. —l am, &c, A. H. New Plymouth, August 24, 1885.

In one of the Ashburton schools a child was asked, " Who was tho first man ? " The answer given was " Abraham!' 1 Mr. William Old, jun., writes to us respecting the burning down of his house. He states that it was the lad Hellier who first saw the fire ; and that the water was only a chain and a-half away from the dairy, which was about six feet from the house. It appears that a saddle aud a rifle, which wero ia the house, wero saved. The dairy was valued at £20, an<l insured for £15. The account wo published was as it was told to us. ■ Soda crystals are now being manufactured in Sydney, and sold under the prico of the imported article. Another new colonial industry. The Borough Council of Tauranja have tried tho experiment of coating one of the comer street posts with luminous paint.The post near Messrs. Paget and Hulme's auction mart has been placed thcro as a test, and the results aro deemed quite satisfactory. On a dark night the phosphorescent glow from tho paint is clearly seen. ' ' Why are all pigs mud at least once ?—? — Because they always lose thoir heads at some time or other. Tho population o£ South Australia on June the 1 was 319,291. There are now nearly 1100 post offices in New South Wales, and more than 12,000 miles of telegraph wires. The value of tho mineral products- of New South Wales up to tho end of 1884 amounted to over £04,000,000 sterling.. The Chinese of Sydney have subscribed £800 for the relief of sufferers by a serious flood that occurred at Canton, a short time ago. Max O'Rell has written another book; j It will sec the li^ht in Paris in September. Arrangements lmvo already been made for an English version. According to Sir Johu Lubb'ock, " tho number of cases of imprisonment for indictable offencoain England and Wains on an averago of fivo years endine: in 1859 was 12,500 ;in 1869, 12,000 ; in 1879, 10,000 ; and in 1881, 9300. Max Mullcr has calculated that at the cloac o£ tho next two centuries thcro will bo in tho world 53,370,000 people opraking thf Italian language; 75,571,000 the French ; 157,480,000 the German ; 505,280,000 the Spanish, and 1,837,286,153 the English. Mr 11. M. Stanley, the exploivr, is of opinion that ono o£ the chief qualifications of au Af ricanmissionary is a good digestion. A captious friend questions this, and says : " Where the m'i9h ia tough it is tlio African whose digestivo organs need to bo in good woiking order." Whilo excavating at Dumfries a bed of peat was discovered. After sleeping from pre-hißtorio times, tho cranberry and other plants on being taken from tho moss and placed under a glass were found to be still living, and began to germinute, as some timo ago did grains of wheat which had been rolled up with a mummy baricd in the timo of tho Phaiaobs. Tho latest thing in explosives is blasting paper. Dynamite, it is claimed, is nothing tv it, and it ciul be inado at so small a cost that tho present condition of the dynamiters' treasury would suffice lo furnish enough 6f it to blow all England into •' smithereens." It is a patent of a Vibnheso by the name of Petry, and is now coming iut'o use in excavating- for building purposes. It is made of common blotting paper.