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New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIX, Issue XXII, 20 November 1897, Page 696

A recent statistical estimate places the number of newspapers which are annually printed at the enormous figure of 12,000,000. A mathematician, apparently with considerable time at his disposal, in order to give a more comprehensive idea of this nuimier, has calculated that a surface of 30,000 square kilometers could be covered with these papers. The paper alone weighs 781,240 tons. In case one machine was forced to print these millions at the rate of one a second 333 years would be necessary. Placed one upon another the papers would reach to the height of 80,000 meters. Assuming that a person devotes five minutes a day to reading his paper the time used by the entire population of the world in reading newspapers each year amounts to 100,000 years. A sea captain has found that the sails of a ship when filled with a number of small holes bear it along- more rapidly than when they are perfectly whole. He says that an ordinary sail cannot receive the full force of the wind owing to the bulk of stationary air that fills up the hollow of the concave canvas. We speak but plain and sober truth when we say that the competition in medical practice at the present time is excessive and ruinous. And this is true of all ranks in the profession. In a very’ brief article like the present we cannot include all the circumstances bearing upon the case, and therefore, especially as they would convey no intelligent view of the facts to outsiders, we do not give statistics. But what we feel and know is that the vast majority' of doctors in full practice have to reckon with a diminishing instead of an increasing income year by' year; that old men are steadily elbowed out, and, not having been able to save any money at all in early life, they are often driven to starvation; whilst young men coming in and endeavouring to establish themselves, quite justifiably, in practice against their older rivals, are often compelled to resort to methods which are nothing less than degrading. The following is a generalisation from 20 years’ practice in London:—Of every six men who take a house and put up a doorplate without buying a practice, five are compelled to leave the house within two years. They leave, with their little capital expended, and with despairing hearts, to renew the struggle elsewhere.—'rhe Hospital.’ Hu King Eng, the first Chinese woman doctor, is a great success in the Flowery Land. Having studied and taken the. degree of M.D. in the United States, after seven years’ hard work, she is now in charge of the Siang-Hu hospital at Foo-Chow, and a story is told of a coolie who wheeled his blind old mother a thousand miles on a barrow to take her to the woman doctor. A double operation for cataract was the result, and the old woman can see as well as ever. Dr. Hu King Eng is to be one of the delegates to the Women’s Congress to be held in London next year. She belongs to the Christian faith, her grandfather, a mandarin of great wealth and power, having been converted late in life. The young Duchess of Marlborough possesses splendid capabilities, and after breakfast every morning is to be found for two hours poring over the accounts of the great estate. Notwithstanding her immense wealth, Her Grace is said to know the value, of money better than any woman in society, and though very generous in many ways, is careful to a degree in the expenditure.