Multum in Parvo.

Otago Witness, Issue 1583, 25 March 1882, Page 6

Multum in Parvo.

If the Baroness Burdett-Couts survives her marriage ten years (says a comtemporary) she will have paid, without interest, £750,000 for a husband, taking her loss consequenton marriage at £75,000 a year — an expensivo luxury, but she could afford it.

A Moscow paper has received a telegram from Shanghai stating that the Chinese Government has very largely augmented its Mantchuri troops, and is constructing fortifications. This ; course is giving rise to much comment in St. Petersburg. Twenty-five buildings in various parts of Philadelphia were set on fire by means of tho electric wires from a store near Thirteenth and Chestnutstreets, and several perons weroslightly injured by shocks received. A telegram, dated St. Petersburg, January 4th says : — ' The Novosti asserts that in high Government , circlos the question has been mooted, of, imposing an export duty upon corn in order to increase the resources of the Imperial Commissariat department.' Since 1840' the "Atlantic steamers have increased their average speed from 8.3 knots to 15.6 knots, or nearly double, while the consumption of fuel per hovse-power has been diminished about sixty per cent. It is understood that Professor Nordenskiold contemplates another Arctic expedition during the year, the main object of which will be to prove the possibility of regular communication, for commercial purposes, with the coast of Siberia.

John Bright, in a recent speech, urged that school children should be taught self-respect, respect of their playmates, respect of thoir parentß, kindness to animals, a love of truth, a love of industry, and an idea of what is meant by prudence. A conference of representatives of rival bodies of Good Templars was held in London recently, with the object of coming to an agreement on tho subject of the admission of coloured races/ which led to a disruption 'a few years ago. Neither party, however, would give way. • Tho New Y,ork saloon-keepers have formed an organization called the Union for Rights, The object is to secure protection against what they term the unjustifiable attacks of the Temperance Brotherhood. One of the London Hospitals is about to erect a convalescent home near Gravesend, which will be one of the largest in the Kingdom. Sir >Sydney Waterlow, who is one of the governors, has just communicated to his friends that one .gentleman has sent him a cheque for'£ll,ooo towards the institution, and that another has sent £5000. '

From 8000 hypsometrical measurements, Dr Ohavanne has calculated the average height of the entire continent of Africa to be not less' than 2150 feet. This high figure is evidently due to the great extent: of the high plateau in - that country, surpassing even .that of Asia. # ;. "Jt, .is^.sfated .that, the profits .of the Paris Eleotriwil, Exhibition, amounting tp upwards of "£l6,opOj are" to ( ' be 4 spent. 1 in founding ' a . researcnMaboratbry for 'electricity in Paris,; which will be alike ' available to Frenchmen, and foreigners. A French gentleman has invented what he) calls a 'snuff pistol.'. It; has two barrels, and being applied to the nose, bri touching a spring 1 traderneath\with the 'forefinger, both nostrils ' are instantly filled, and a sufficient quantity! driven up the head to last the whole : day. \ ' How mucfy'hv -life .and money, the North. Pole has cost 1 And if it were found, it is not worth the* powder to blow 1 it up. The same 1 ■ energy, expended, in practicable' ( and useful! enterprises might, probably would,, accomcomplish something worth the effort. — Old' Fogy. . A rumour, has. reached the Academy, of an. important 'find' of Egyptian antiquities on: th Oxus,-near Bokhara, including personal' ornaments of the richest description. > This would indicate a remote commercial intercourse • between Egypt and the far> East. „ „'- , f Dr Hammond says that when you poke the, end of .your finger in your ear the roaring' noise you hear is the sound of the circulation in, your finger, which is' a fact, as any one can' demonstrate for himself by first putting his ■ fingers in his ears, and then stopping them up with other. substance. >

It is stated that a new York company of capitalists have taken -a contract to build 400 miles fj-of :_railway .through"^ Newfoundland. Rich mining regions have, it is said, been revealed by clearings recently made by the forest fires, and it is announced that the company gets the>pick of these lands under its contract. The Kansas State Grange has issued a paper. on education,' proposing that the usual course of the public schools be abridged in an intelligent manner, and that the time saved be devoted to such practical . instruction as shall give children a taste for agriculture, a love of nature, and a sense of the dignity of farming. life.

Orders have been given in connection with .the White Star line of ships at home for a gigantic . ship of. some. 7500 tons, 550 feet in length, and 50 feet beam, which is to be called the Majestic, and which -is to eclipse in ' internal splendour all existing ships. , Will some physicist step to the front and explain the phenomenon of an almost universal outbreak of the small-pox ? ■< It is not confined to the great cities, but makes its appearance simultaneously in villages and places remote from railroads. It is in the air ?— Cincinnati Commercial, Ist January.An American railway contractor, Mr A. W. Eudd, of New York^ recently placed an order for 300 locomotives with a manufacturing house in England. The locomotives are intended * for the Boston Hooaac Tunnel and Western Railroad. , The last Duke of Portland was a peculiar character. He was always tearing down and building up, making underground passages and a subterranean riding-school, disguising himself as a 'navvy' to escape attention, and hating women. The present' Duke is quite a different person, and has just settled £100,000 on his stepmother. *

Two Leipsic chemists have patented a process for obtaining liquid sugar which does not crystalise. This result is said to bo effected by adding to a purified sugar solution a small quantity of crystalised citric acid, which combines with the sugar and deprives it of its tendency to crystalise. An important discovery of the remains of a very large temple, with a long subterranean gallery, supported by three rows of columns, has been made at Sauxay, near Poitiers, by the Pere de la Croix ; and at a little distance from the temple the remains of a bathing establishment. Fragments of sculpture, pottery, pictures, and coins have been dug up. \ Cast iron, according to Van Nostrand's Magazine, ,though now so universally employed, was not in commercial use before the year 1700^ when Abraham Darby, an intelligent mechanic, who had brought som« Dutch workxneritp .'establish ,a brass foundry at Bristol, conceived the idea that iron might be subWtufcea for trass,

An interesting collection of relics from British Columbia has been added to the Geographical Museum at Ottawa. It consists of 400 objects, illustrating the history of the The railroad up Vesuvius post £72,000, and it takes £4000 a year to maintain it. Nevertheless, the Frenchmen who put the money into it expect to get it all back in fifteen years, and for the other fifteen covered by the lease of right of way there is to be a profit. At the uppor terminus of the road there is a good restaurant. , ,„„« It is stated that the Russian Budget for 1880 shows a deficit of 98,000,000 roubles, part of whichhas beencovered by the issue of 30,000,000 roubles in paper money. The expedition to Central Asia and the preparations for war against China figure for 267,000,000 roubles, and the fortifications in.tho military district of Warsaw for 700,000 roubles. „ . . Prince Victor Bonaparte will leave Pans m few months to make a one year's tour. The first three months he will pass with his mother, the Princess Clotilde. Afterward he will visit Germany for a like period, and divide the remainder of the time between England and the United States. The completion of the first line of railway through the United states to the frontier of Mexico is announced. The Missouri, Kansas, and Texas railway has been pushed forward and completed over a distance of 1300 miles, terminating for the present at Laredo, on the Rio Grande river. The work is described as one of remarkable engineering skill, while it has been completed within a comparatively short space of time. What a wonderful inventive country America is ! During the past year no less than 23,012 applications for patents were filed,, of which number only Gl7 were for the reissue of patents expired, the rest being for something that the inventor, at least considered new. The number of patents really issued was somewhat less than this, being only 13,947. The Admiralty has entered into another contract with Messrs Thornycrof t for supplying a large number of second-class torpedoboats. The first boat under the new contract has arrived at Portsmouth, and tho Admiralty have been informed that the trials now proceeding has so far proved satisfactory. # f At a recent meeting of the St. Louis Pedagogical Society a teacher said that often in his reading classes he gave the pupils newspaper and magazine articles to read silently at first, and afterward aloud, such parts as were peculiarly interesting to them, thus cultivating , instructing reading. He claimed that the best results and fairost tests in reading were ob-^ tamed in instructive rather than in voice culture reading. The Queen is said to have manifested great solicitude in the recent discussion in England respecting the safety of the theatres from fire, and has taken quite an active interest in the subject. Sir Henry Ponsonby ; at Her Majesty's request, has been engaged in correspondence with .the heads of the departments concerned.