MULTUM IN PAEVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1602, 12 August 1882, Page 6

MULTUM IN PAEVO.

For several years Mr Labouchere has written that the use of German beei in London might aid in decreasing drunkenness in that_ city. He dedea any one to intoxicate himself with it. A young Chinaman has been admitted to practice at the French Bar. This implies that he has taken his degree of licence en droit (license by right), and that he is a naturalised Frenchman. , , Count yon Moltke, the great field marshal of Germany, represents a small borough in the Reichstag, and is so conscientious in his attention to his duties as a deputy that he never misses a sitting without a reason of the most urgent nature. l)r Thomas M. Maguire has become Professor of Moral Philosophy in the Dublin University. He is the first Roman Catholic to hold this post. Religious tests formerly barred positions in the University to all but Episcopalians. Frankfort on-the-Main, containing a population of about 100,000, is said to be the richest city of its size in the whole world. If its wealth were equally divided among its inhabitants every man, woman, and child would have, it is said, 20,000 marks, or some £800 apiece. Professor Henry Draper, the astronomer, considers the late aurora borealis the finest since the aurora of August, 1860. The science of aurora, in the opinion of the Professor, is not yet entirely clear. The manifestations occurred at from a 100 to 150 miles above the earth, where the air is very rare. Spain's indebtedness is over 400,000,000. It is estimated that the gipsy children of England number 30,000. Of 920,177 children born in France in 1880 68,227 were illegitimate. Spain is taking a warm interest in African affairs and is rapidly resuming her place as a i great power. She will look out for Morocco. Nearly forty-six per cent, of the whole surface of the kingdom of Spain is still uncultivated. - A Christian church has lately been built in India from the ruins of a heathen temple. Copenhagen, in Denmark, has a population of 235,000 all of whom but 6,000 are Lutherans. It js estimated that Russia will lose by the Jewish exodus the enormous sum of £22,000,000. The new great bell of St. Paul's is too heavy to go by rail to London, and a carrage is being constructed to carry it by road. Bull-fightm? has not yet ceased to be the national sport in Spain. On Easter Day and Easter Monday bull fights were m fall swuig. In one instance the spectators numbered 16,010 persons, who had obtained seats at fabulous TVTIC&S The deepest coal mine sfcait in England is at the Ashton Colliery, near Manchester, which has pierced the earth to the deptfo of 2,820 feet. In Kent, whence Djfikens took many odd names for his novels, is a man who,, fteing araufsted, gave his name as Judas Maccabeus jLJtve. We must not be surprised to hear of a paper ffurnifaare factory starting into existence before | long.' Papers can now be made of strong fibres j ;and compressed into a substance so hard that] ■only a diamond can scratch it. A foreign journal says that wood will be superseded by The longest span, of wire in the world is «sed ifor a telegraph in India, over the River Kistmak, between Bezorafc And Sectanagrum. It is -more then fi.OOOieet \w%, and is stotctad between two kills, each .of which is 1200 feet \ia Bishop of London has }»s£ admitted two 'ladies to the order of Deaconesses;© .the ChapeJ of the London Diocesan Deaconeßs Lifctitution at Wesfcbourne Park. They will -be, eng^ed in general parochial work. It is understood that there is a very increasing demand among the clergy for the services of these trained ladies. , . . Hindoo widows are beginning to rebel against the caste excommunication they sutler in the case of re-marriage. A certain number of them are about to memoralise the Queen on the subject, praying for relief against the decrees as tW now otftnd,

The totalpopulation of is now 2f2252 f 2 25 900, against 1,988,800 in 1876 and 1,851,792 m 1872. Tie increase is greatest m the out-lymg industrial quarters. . In spite of all that has been said about the satisfactory ventilation of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, it is reported that the locomotive engineers have to wear mouth-pieces attached to resorvoirs of fresh air while traversing it. # Four Hebrew papers are published weekly m Jerusalem. Two are printed in the Hebrew language, one in the Armenian, and one in French, German, and English. _ A queer temperance pledge was once circulated in Russia. It bound the signers to abstain from brandy till brandy should be better and tolerably cheap ! Papers signed by 300 persons, including the Earl of Aberdeen, Canon Farrar, and Rev. Charles H. Spurgeon have been forwarded to Moody and Sankey, asking them to spend a year in London in evangelical work. The corporation of London received last year nearly £600,000 for the duty it is entitled to levy on coal. This duty dates from 1666, when it was permitted to rebuild London after the fire. It is now threatened with extinction. One of the Chinese official journals publishes an article urging the growth of native opium. This is considered significant in view of the pretended solicitude of China about the imported article. London workmen were busy a few weeks ago levelling one of the last fragments of the Roman wall that now remains in that city. The mortar was found to be so hard and strong that the men with difficulty broke it up. This wall was built long before the Norman conquest. A gold chain of the value of 500 guineas was presented on June 15th to the corporation of Margate. It was the gift of Mr George Lansell, of Victoria, Australia, a native of the town. _ , __„..,. One of the features in the Turin Exhibition in 1884 will be a number of boats propelled by electrical energy. >ignor Ivaldi, Dr Gasca, and Signors Marchi, and Nigra have asked a concession from the Municipal Council to establish between tho Rocca Windmills and the new bridge on the Po a service of boats with electrical propulsion. A patent has been taken out in America for the combination of an electro-magnetic locomotive running upon rails with paper wheels, and provided with a metallic conducting tire and springs for conducting electricity from the track to the engine, whilst at the same time the current is insulated from the main frame of the locomotive. Forty young men, sons of English gentlemen, have gone to America under charge of the Rev. G. Pridham, vicar of West Carptree, to be placed as pupils with well-known farmers in Minnesota. An inquest was recently held by the coroner for Southwark upon about half a ton of human remains, consisting chiefly of broken skulls, which were found by some men engaged in laying down gas-pipes. Evidence was called to show that the bones had been buried at least 200 years, and the spot in which they were found must have been a burial ground. An order was made for their interment. Cases of desertion and fraudulent enlistment in the British army are said to be on the decrease. This is, no doubt, in some measure attributable to the fact that the majority of the recruits who have of late years joined the service have been of a more intelligent class than formerly. A waterspout has broken over the village of Vershetz, in Hungary, and 44 persons were swept away and lost their lives in the rushing waters. 23 houses were destroyed and. a stone bridge was carried away by the flood. 25 persons who were on the bridge were all drowned, moat of them being children. On the 9th June, being the Mahomedan Sabbath, Mr Charles F. Miaole, a German, was converted to Islamism at the Jumma Musjid, Bombay, and assumed the name of Abdulla. The ceremony was performed by Abdool Hamid Saheb, the high priest. Large crowds of Mahomedans were present. The Mahomedan papers consider this a great event.

A movement is on foot in Scotland to place a bust of Burns in Westminster Abbey. A subscription, limited to sums not exceeding one shilling, was started in Glasgow sorre time ago, and the response has been ao hearty that the committee in charge of the undertaking hope to be able to get a really high-class work of art, worthy of the poet and of the Abbey. The body of Jesuits who, soon after the expulsion of the order from France, opened a collegiate school at Hales-place, just outside Canterbury, have purchased another estate on the banks of the Stour. When their new college is finished the Canterbury Jesuits will have the largest scholastic establishment of their order in England. The Forth Bridge Railway Bill has beenpassed by a committee of the House of Commons. The bridge is to be built across the Forth at Queen's Ferry at a cost of £1,750,000. The announcement has been made by the English judges that in future they will not only hear the prisoner's counsel speak, but will afterwards listen to the prisoner himself.

L'Opinione makes a few amusing extracts from thft accounts of public expenditure in Italy. It seems that over £50 was charged for ice to cool 'drinks' for the clerks iin the War Office, and £G for ' toilette requisites and cosmetics ' for the Ministry of Grace and Justice. The sum of £18 was paid for a sapphire ring presented to a clerk by the Minister of Public Works, and the same clerk received also a present of £30 in money. The French Government is making preparations to send out an Antarctic expedition to Cape Horn. M. Mascart, the head of the Bureau Central, has been communicated with for the appointment of meteorological and magnetical observers. The expedition will be fitted out for a period of 18 months. It is reported that the result of O'Donovan Rossa's recont performances has been that the bank has refused to continue his account, and the Monarch Steamship Company have withdrawn his ticket agency. He has also received an anonymous warning to leave the country on fche peril of being lynched if he does not. He r^eives numbers of insulting letters. 100 subfjcrijbags have stopped taking his paper. King KajLafciua, of the Sandwich Islands, has sent to !'?'# Brasaey a handsome threehandled silver ( 6up, ]to be shot for by the Hastings yplun^Wjin ( c i9 mm e inoratlon o{ ms visit to th^t pl^ce lasc'jrear. Ajj important 'industry jha^ sprung up within ibfte last ,few years ,in ,the French Departments La,n4es. K.consiste ;in the extraction and applications ,pf oils frpni pjne. These oils are of two' .sorts— the heavy ,(p,inoleum), obtained bydistilifog^he^esinpus wood at a low temperature, and ajsea for parting and wood-preserving ; and the light oil for illumination, got by distilling in special .appa- ' r#tus, and purified with chemical agents. The Montreal Witness of the 16th May says :-^-Mrs Margaret Fraser, aged 9G, died last week ya. Ottawa. Deceased was granddaughter ,of Jthe last chief of the Macgregor clan of Scotland. Sir Edward M'Nab was her grand uncle. Mrs Fraser was the relict of Major Donald Eraser, who fought in Queens, town 70 years pgo,