The Otago Education Board's chief inspector submitted to yesterday's meeting of the board the outlines of a scheme for a potato-growing contest, open to all public schools in Otago.
The conditions under which the competition will be conducted are that a square pole of the school garden be laid down in potatoes by the pupils, all the incidental work to be done by themselves. There are no restrictions as to the varieties of seed and manures, and points will be given for weight of crop, weight of tubers from individual stems, and also for notes and accounts of the work.
The board agreed to these conditions, and accepted with thanks an offer of the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Society to provide four prizes of the value of 5 for the competition.
• A novel test of strength was seen at the Stadium, Sydney, a few days ago.
At one end of a stout rope were 12 men, comprising a tug-of-war team; at the other end was attached a horse.
The men were on the stage, their feet firmly fixed in wooden racks, and below them, on a patch of peat, stood their opponent-a draught horse, known as Bay Prince, the property of Mr T. Dahm. When the word "go" was given the men commenced to pull and the horse began to tug. Five hundred people commenced to applaud the horse, but in vain. It was not in the picture. The dozen picked pullers dragged it towards the stage, and in spite of the efforts of a young man at its head Bay Prince could not keep his ground. Two men were taken off the rope by the chivalrous Mick Fitzpatrick, captain of the team, but still the horse was over-powered.
• A correspondent writes that he has come to know how one curious surname originated. Lately he came in contact with a man named Bochel, originally called Bauchel, and, out of curiosity, asked him how he acquired that strange surname.
"Well," he said, "it's this way: I was born in a sma' toon on the Moray Firth and in the place there was a number of people of the same surname. My name is John, and my great grandfather's name was the same, but being a bit o' a swell in those days he wore shoes, which in Scottish are called 'bauchels.' Now, the nee'bors called him John - Bauchels so as to distinguish him from several other people of the same name in the same town. Eventually they called him 'John Bauchel' as a nick-name, and his children were a' Bauchels, and not Broons. So ye see, my grandfather was 'John Broon Bauchel' and his children dropped the 'Broon' and called themselves plain 'Bachel,' and so I am John Bachel or Bochel as the people sound the word." Our correspondent adds that all the above story is quite correct as he has heard of it in the locality referred to.
The word "Bochel" or "Bache" comes from the Gaelic word "bachall" a shoe, or, as it is used in English to-day, brogue.
• If a meteor falls on a man's land, is it his, or does it belong to the man who finds it?
An Irish tenant found a meteorite one day, and (said Miss Mary Proctor, who is giving a series of lectures on astronomy in Sydney) the owner of the land claimed it, on the ground that it had been agreed that all the minerals on the farm were his. To this the tenant replied that the meteorite was not there when that agreement was made.
Then the owner of the land claimed it as being flying game, but while he and the tenant were arguing, the customs authorities seized the meteorite as an article from a foreign country on which no duty has been paid. - ODT, 20.9.1912.
