MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1688, 29 March 1884, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— A Scotch nobleman, who is by no means overwhelmingly opulent, and has a large family, sent quite recently a cheque for £5000to the Chancellor of the British Exchequer, to be devoted to the reduction of the national, debt. —The statement that there is a deficit of about £6000 in the accounts of the recent Vienna Electrical Exhibition may act as a 'warning to those who are inclined to promote shows of the kind. The more solid firms of exhibitors are beginning to see that they gain nothing by these exhibitions, for the orders re> ceived barely pay for the outlay, Frenchmen yearly consume, it is estimated, about 40,000,000 francs worth of American pork, and it is only since its introduction into France that the masses of the people have been able to get meat to eat over three or four times a year. —Lager beer, which thirty years ago waspractically unknown in America, is now made at 2500 immense establishments, with over 150,000,000 of dollars invested. The value of this production each year is over 500,000,000 dollars. — Professor Huxley says that in his voyage around the world, and in all bis studies of savage life, he found no people so miserable, wretched,- and degraded as those who exist in the poorer quarters of London. £) r Strain, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Edinburgh and St. Andrews, died intestate, The inventory of his personal estate has now been returned, amounting to £211, from which are deducted debts and funeral expenses, amounting to £113, leaving £98 as the sum chargeable with duty. The late Archbishop was very generous to the poor of his church. —The American Presbyterian Church has in Persia 10 ordained, 3 medical, and 22 female missionaries, and 1717 communicants. The American Bible Society has an agency wit|j headquarters at Trabez. ,The London Society? for the Conversion of the Jews reports two missionaries and two assistants at Hamadan. The elephant is eaten in Abyssinia and other parts of Africa, also in Sumatra. Some steaks that were cut off Chunee, the elephant tbat was shot at Exeter 'Change, on being cooked, were declared to be " pleasant meat." — In Denmark the well-known Bishop Martensen recently examined and ordained two young Eskimos, who will engage in missionary j work in Greenland under the auspices of the I gftate Church of Denmark. They sailed from ' Copenhagen a short time ago for their field of , —Chile 38 making rapid political and educational progress. Her citizens are beginning to Relieve in a future of national power. Reliigious freedom is granted, and liberal legislators, ■even now, foresee the separation of Church and State. —The Buffalo Evening Republic says that thirty-four years ago a poor young man named ■"Pat " Milmo left Ireland to seek his fortune. To-day this same individual, who now rejoices in the name of Don Patricio Milmo, is one of ' the nabobs of Mexico, and computes his wealth at 15,000,000d01. — In Germany each town must now keep a record of all the hard drinkerg, and the city medical men are bound to report those who faabitu&Uy imbibe to excess, so that the authorities may subject them to a strict course of treatment

— The sand of the Desert of Sahara is of a yellow colour, «nd consists of about 90 per cent, of well-rounded quartz grains and 9 per cent of feldspar. — In Edinburgh a circle of Christian ladies go every; Sunday afternoon to the houses of the poor in the alleys and closes, and take care of the children while the wearied mothers go to fhurch.

— It having been found that the regulation sword of the mounted branches is all too heavy for the British cavalry soldier of the present day, it is in contemplation to issue soon a much lighter weapon. —It turns out that Barnum's white elephant is of a pale- ash colour, with livid markings on the face. There is no such thing as a white elephant to be found, and never was one. — At the recent meeting of the Massachusetts teachers one speaker advocated letter-writing as* a very good method of teaching English composition. ''Once a week," she eaid, "I have the children write letters among themselves and I provide a letter-box for the purpose. For correcting exercises I use a few of the signs used by proof-readers, since they are as easily learned as arbitrary ones."

—It is stated that the Pope is about to issue an Encyclical on the subject of Freemasonry, and it is looked for with much interest, as in some influential quarters it is anticipated that important distinctions will be made between some phases of Continental Freemasonry and JFreemasonry of a character auch as that which exists in England. —For the profession of a teacher .13 qualifications have been mentioned as necessary in the man or woman who would be most thoroughly equipped for the fulfilment of its onerous and important duties. These are purity jpohteness, personal neatness, peculiar fitness' .preparation, power to interest, power to govern punctuality, programme, promptness, prac' tfcicahty, personality, and pluck.

—A French engineer in Brazil has been selected to construct what will be the larerest dam in the world. The main dam will be 940 feet long by 58 feet high, and two smaller ones will close side depressions. This work will, it is calculated.tback the water over 1500 acres, and retain 14,000,000 cubic metres of water, sufficient to provide for all the cattle of the regions during throe years, and for the irrigation of 5000 acres of land.

—The supe.intendant of the Columbus, Ohio, schools says that the children " most difficult to control come from well-to-do and wealthy families. They are not vicious, disrespectful, or impolite, but are indolent, and averse to doing anything contrary to their own sweet wills."

—A young oak tree has been planted at Minster, in the Isle of Thanet, in a field belonging to Earl Granville, to mark the spot where St, Augustine met King Ethelbert, and preached his first sermon. The roots of the tree were soaked in water brought trom St. Augustine's well, which is close by.

— A writer on the subject of the management of children says : " If, in instructing a child, you are vexed with it for want of adroitness, try, if you have never tried before, to write with your left hand, and then remember that a child is all left hand."

— The secretary of the Howard Prisoners' Aid Association criticises the American prison system, which he maintains is a great cause of the increase of crime. He says prisoners are overfed and there is great laxity of discipline. He alleges that diets should be moderate, especially for those whose work is sedentary ; that to overfeed, side by side with solitary life, has a most demoralising tendency, defeating the object of prison discipline altogether. — Indiana University has dropped Greek and Latin.

— A London physician recommends as a cure for a cold in the head a huge pinch of strong snuff. Then let the sufferer wrap his coat about him and sneeze, the oftener and harder the better. This, he says, is Nature's own remedy for a chill.

— Dr Weod, professor of chemistry in Bishop's College, Montreal, report? forty-seven cases of acute articular rheumatism cured by fasting; time required, from four to eight days. He regards rheumatism as a phase of indigestion.

— A German who has been a teacher in England has published a striking book in which he says that English private schools are the most inefficient educational institutions in Europe. What with holidays and the time spent in examinations, and lost at the beginning and end of the terms, he reckons that the actual working days in a year are reduced in most middle class schools to 135. The teaching and discipline are bad ; the masters are frequently changed, and are so badly treated and ill-paid that they become the merest drudges and can take no personal interest in their work.

— Mr Edward Whymper, the mountaineer, intends to ascend Kilimand Jaro, the snow crowned mountain of equatorial Africa, supposed to be from 16,000 ft to 20,000 ft above the level of the sea. « — Some 30,000 children are living on canal boats in England. — An English writer says that if the Chinese ports are shut by a war with France a supply of tea can be drawn from India. He says the India plant is, to begin with, superior to the Chinese ; it is prepared by machinery instead of by natives who adulterate it, and it is stronger. — According to statistics recently published there are 300 towns in the German Empire possessing orchestras and choral societies that give concerts in the season.

— In the last two years the Irish population of the United States has been increased by 140,000. — Since the year 1850 sixteen baronetcies and thirty-four knighthoods have been conferred upon the physicians and surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.

— Nearly all London is built on leasehold land, and at the end of a certain term the land on which the buildings are erected, as also the buildings themselves, becomes the property of the ground landlord. — Dr Annie Clark, of Birmingnam, has been elected an acting physician of the Children's Hospital there, in preference to eight of the most eminent physicians in the town. — The latest piece of fashionable slang in London is "slumming." To "slum" is to visit poor people in poor parts of a city on missions of mercy and charity.

— There are 27,000 blind persons in France who live in pauperism and mendicity, in consequence of the scarcity of charitable institution for the blind.

—In Europe the states which have most women are Portugal and Germany. Greece has a few more men than women.

— It is proposed to erect a " People's palace " in the east end of London, at a cost of £50,000.

— The Archbishop of Canterbury, preaching at the consecration of a church at Croydon, said that it was the want of sympathy between the upper and lower classes which made ub tremble to think of the mine of ill-will which lay buried for the present. —The French issue of " John Bull and His Island "is reported to be in its twenty- eighth edition.

— The German Empire has 7,719,382 women who have been married, and of these 1,909,382 are now widows.

A report of the Mormon missions in the Sandwich Islands shows a membership of 3600.

— Dr Edward BngeJ has just published in Berlin a pamphlet under £.he title, "Did Francis Bacon write the plays of William Shakespeare?" wherein he very ably refutes and ridicules the writings of Delia Bacon and Miss Pott on the subject. He places them on a line with the recent American discovery that Hamlet was really a woman in disguise.

— From fi, balance- sheet submitted to the final meeting of the Parnell Tribute Committee in Dublin, it appears that the total amount of subscriptions waa £37,701. The advertising and other expenses" wero £1106 ; a cheque for £35,000 was handed to Mr Parnell at the recent dinner; and there remains in the National Bank a balance of £1594.

— The eight companiea y/h,ose reservoirs and mains convey the liquid without which London would die of thirst, have spent altogether a o#m of £12,000,000 in arranging for the conveyance of water from the sources of supply to the housos of their customers. From these customers they levied in 1879 a gross income of close upon £I,SOOyGQO. Expenses and interest on bornwed money swallowed up only one-half of this sum, leaving a net profit of more than £760,000 available for dividend.

— Th& jnterest aroused by the pampnlet on " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London " has induced Mr Williaajt Westgarth to request the Society of Arts, of wnich he is a member, to arrange for the distribution of £1200, which he has presented, in prizes for essays upon <tilO building of dwellings for the poor cf the metropolis, and for plans for the reconstruction of Ceiltra] London. The award for the former will amount to £2.50, and for the latter there will be ope .of JSOO and three of £150 each.