All Sorts

New Zealand Tablet, 27 December 1906, Page 38

All Sorts

Animals to tho 'number ol 70,000,000 are killed - r-yearly for the sake of their fur.

When a- fish loses any of its scales, by a wound or other means, t-hey „ are ntver renewed. . < "Christmas Island, in the Pacific Ocean, was dis^ covered by Oaptain Cook on December / 24, .1777, and so called Sn honor oi the season.

Civilisation, does not tend to' the horse's longevity,. 'In the wild stefce_ he lives, to- be thirty-six or foirty years old, while" the domestic horse is old at twenty-

five. Druggist. — Try it again, little' one. What* was -it your mamma told you. to get ? . . : Little girl ' (with another- severe menrtaleflort) — I' think' it was * I died of opossum.' I want ten cents' worth.- _ ' .*.'.'

She— l asked) Dr. Price at dinner if he thought raw. oysters were" healthy. • r.

He— What did he say ?

t- She — That he never knew • one to complain.

Among insects -the 'most intelligent are those of the

ant tribe,

while next to

them rank wasps.

come" some, way lower down the scale. Beetles are "hopelessly "stupid, Jjufc- even they are hot as bad" as butterflies affU moths.

- LiUle Willie, aged five, was very interested watching - the telephone maij -repair the telephone/ Alter a little time he; inquired :

--' Please, have you any more speaking tubes to spare ? ' ' ~ — ' Yes, my little man,' replied tbo. 'workman, ' lota of

> ' Well,' said little Willie, *L do wish- you'd put one into our baby, because she can't speak at all.' Arabian horses show remarkable courage in battle.

et is said that when a horse of this breed finds himself wounded, and knows instinctively that he will wot

be able to carry his rider much longer, he. qilckly retires, bearing his master- to a place of safety while he__ - has yet sufficient strength. But if,' on the otherhand," the rider is wounded and falls to the. ground, the animal remains beside him", unmindful of danger, '.neighing imitil assistance is brought. -* -

_Not*the' least surprising discovery an Englishman of the Plantagenet period would make, if he could visit , the Grocers' Exhibition at the Agricultural" Hall, would-be (says' the 'Daily Chronicle.) that "there -—is sjuch a person as, a -' retail grocer.' -A retail" grocer : is' as impossible, according to strict etymology, as> a ' weekly journal,' since a "grocer,' or 'grosser' as it used 1o be spelled, is -really a trader ~' in gross ' — that is to say, in large quantities, wholesale. pur ancestors spoke of ' grossers. of fish ' and ' grossers of -wine,' and an Act,, of Edward 111. expressly mentions that grossers ' dealt in all manner of goods. In those days ' spioer ' was the word for ' grocer' in the modern sense. But it happened that the Grocers' Corn-

pauy, founded m the fourteenth century, specialised in spicery, and so ' grocer ! gradually took the place of ' spicer.' c'

By 1910, or maybe even earlier, the population of "the Greater New York will be three times what it is now, or, in round numbers, will be twelve millions, according to a computation made by Dr. W. H. Guilfoy, Registrar of Records to the Department of Health. According to the same authorflty, the oity'.s population "will* be doubled by 1927. Dr. Guilfoy has based his -estimates on the State census of- 1905 and the federal census" of 1900. These show that the growth .of the city annually- is 3.13 per cent, compounded. On June 1, 1905,- the population of New York Uity-was 4,014,304; - on June 1, 1910, it should be 4,700,442'; on September~23, 1927, - there should Be 8,028,608 persons living within the tfity limits, and on October 12, 1930, there should be 12,042,912, if the growth continues at the rate it has in . the last half decade. - But the chance that this huge total will be reached considerably sooner is- great, because the death I'ate is continually decreasing. For the five years 19TJO-'OS the average death rate per thousand was 19.40, wMle for the year fending Jjune 1, 1906, it was only about 18.00 -per thousand. If. tfriis last rate i| maintained, or is bettered, as seems pi'ob'aible, there would be .a gain in population of 1.40, or more per thousand.. This is not taken into consideration in Dr. Guilfoy's estimate. This wooild mean that the doubling of the city's population would be achie-yed. at least a year earKer than stated.