MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1810, 30 July 1886, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—The children of the French people are early taught to save. To promote economy the Government has established savings banks m connection with the public schools. There are no less than' 24,ooo of these banks, and the half million boys whose names are on the books have an average of about £1 each to their credit. — The forests of Alsace-Lorraine were the richest of all the French forests, and are now only excelled by the German forests of Baden. The Alsace-Lorraine timber district covers 1,109,660 acres, almost the whole territory. . — Archbishop Croke of Cashel has put a portrait of Mr Gladstone m the private gallery of the Archiepiscopal residence. The great Premier is the first Englishman to be so honoured. —In Paris m the fourteenth century, with a population of at least 300,000, twenty families had the sole right of selling meat. —It is reported that Queen Christina of Spain has overruled the objection of the Cabinet to to name Alfonso. The positiou of the Cabinet Ministers was taken on the ground of the traditions of ill-luck which attached to the number thirteen. The boy will therefore be Alfonso XIII. He will bear also tlie name Leo, which will be bestowed on him m gratitude to the Pope, who has been so steady a friend of the ruling house, and who, by the way, is himself a « XIII." -^From time out of mind the Roman civic authorities have always kept a wolf m an enclosure at the Capitol to commemorate the fostering of Romulus. Prosaic residents used to find the ungrateful howling- of this : favoured animal a nuisance, and complained so bitterly that now the Capitoline wolf has just died, it is not likely any successor will lie appointed to his privileges. — AtLeith, m Scotland, lately, the lower roofs of a vat containing 1200 gallons of port wine gave away and the liquor flowed out into the streets. The incident created quite a sensation. Some, passers-by stooped down and drank m the most primitive fashion. Others brought pitshers and cans and saved what they could. The excitement finally grew into an uproar, and the police were obliged to drive the people back, many of whom were sorrowful spectators of the continued flow of the precious liquor into the common sewer. —Statistics. show that out of 847 duels m France since 1870/ but one has resulted m death, and eight m serious injuries. — Several restaurants have been established m Paris ; at which each dish only costs a penny. — The baby oyster is not much larger than a fair-sized pin's head at the end of a fortnight,and at- three months only of the size of a split, pea, • At. the end of four years' growth he is fit for the market. ■ ■ . — During the twelve years following the death of Charles Dickens, no less than 4,239,000 volumes of. his works were sold m England alone. — At the Lord Mayor's banquet m London at Easier, which continued a custom five hundred years oldi the Lord Mayor said that there was still four, hospitals m London which were administered by similar governments to those prevailing m the time of Edward VI. The hospitals were , Christ's Hospital; St. Thomas', Bridewell and Bethlehem. —■The Chinese language is said to contain only about "three hundred and thirty words, yet it is by no means monotonous, for it has four accents — the even, the raised, the lessened, and the returning, which multiply every word into four. —The marsupial skin trade m New South Wales appears to offer even a better means of livelihood to those engaged m. it than the rabbit trade-does here. A Sydney stock agent states that. the. supply, though large, is still far short of the demand, fresh orders being continually received, and that shooters need not fear going too extensively into the trade, as beyond all doubt the market will remain m its present healthy state for 6ome considerable time. — A new motive power has just been discovered which bids fair to supplant steam m a good many cases. It is .now claimed that soda can be so manipulated 'that it may be converted into a powerful motor. A horse car is being run m Chicago, the motive power of -which is soda. It does not require any fire, is noiseless, emits no offensive rsmells.'has no exhaust stock or steam ■whistle to frighten horses, and makes fully as good times as the oldfashioned steam dummy. Ife tabes only 13 minutes to charge it, and it will run continuously for six hours after it is loaded. The Boston and Albany Railroad Company is now building a 40-ton soda fountain to haul its cars through Boston. A company m Minneapolis, Minnesota, is also about to close a contract that u will supply all its cars with two-horse | power.soda fountains. —Some notion of the extent of the influx to the United States last year, can be formed when it is reflected that it would be sufficient to populate a State entitled to two members of Congress, and that it represented more than •fcwice the population of Delaware, a State founded 'originally by the Swedes as far back as 1627. Four other States of the Union, one of them Rhode Island, going back to the Colonial days, are not equal m numbers to the immigra- < tion of the past year. Arithmetically speaking, a whole New Hampshire crossed the seas to the United States m 1885. The population of the last-mentioned State at the last census was 346,991. — The average amount per annum paid as pensions by the United States Government for the past five years is 57,789,708d01. The aggregate amount -amount paid from 1862 to 1885 inclusive is 765,092,640d01. These sums include the cost of disbursement. —A Home paper mentions that it just over a hundred years since our great grandfathers were marvelling at the new and wonderful development of quick travelling which had originated m the West of England. The mail coach which started from Bristol m August 1784, was regarded at the time as the very last possible step which could be taken m quickening travel. Horseflesh, good wheels, level roads could do no more. — In Parliament the Quakers differ very little m appearance to other members. The late Mr Forster might have been taken for a city merchant, and the brothers John and Jacob Bright have not an inch o£ the quaker about their outsides. — The word salary comes from the Latin solarium, literally salt -money, from sal, salt. The ancient Romans allowed their soldiery so much salt a day, and when this was commuted to a money payment the old name was retained. — The value of ostrich feathers has steadily ■declined, until prime whites have fallen m value •from £50 to £10 per lb. — It was given to Egbert of Wessex to unite the heptarchy of England into one kingdom. This was m 827. Dating from this period, and including Egbert, England has seen fifty-eight monrachs on the throne. Only three out of this long list have had reigns extending into •what is understood as tlie jubilee year, the three being Henry 111., Edward 111., and George

- — The annual average of suicides for every million of people is 17 m. Spain, 30 m Russia, 37 m Italy, 52 m Hungary, 70 m England and Norway, 92 iv Sweden, 122 m Austria, 127 m Bavaria, 150 m France, 164 m Wurtemburg, 167 m Mecklenburg, 174 m Prussia, 290 m Denmark, 305 m Thuringia, and 377 m Saxony. Suicides are becoming more frequent every year m highly civilised countries, but especially among the poor German races. — A blue-book shows the annual return of the Volunteer Corps of Great Britain for last year. There was at the close of 1868 a maximum establishment of 244,966, and the figures remained at this, with slight variations, until 1874, when thoy were 236,685. From that year the total increased until m 1885 it reached 250,967. — Unless blind children are judiciously encouraged they are naturally afraid to put one foot before the other. Bnt with proper training they are inspired by a daring scarcely one whit less than that possessed by their seeing brothers and sisters. At Norwood they are to be found playing m a perfectly incredible manner. Gymnastics, swimming, rowing, skating, are all taught m their due turn with beneficent results. — An artesian well, 839 feet m depth, at Green Bay, Wis., recently threw up an eyeless snake about fifteen inches m length. It was of a greenish colour, with a red ring round the body two inches behind the head. It resembled perfectly the common reptile, except that instead of scales it had skin like an eel, and no eyes. — The visitors at the London Zoo during the year 1885 were only 659,896, against 745,460 m 1884, a falling off due, it is supposed, to financial distress among the working people. — It appears from a recent book on sea legends there are many ways to raise the wind. You may suspend a he-goat skin at the. mast head, you may flog a boy at the mast, you may burn a broom and let the haudle turn toward the desired quarter, you may blow out to sea the dust from the chapel floor, you may stick a knife m the mizzenmast, or scratch the fore-, mast with a nail, and so on. — It is now thought that Mrs Grant will receive about 50,000d0l from the sale of the General's book. There has not been as great a demand for the second volume as there was for the first. — Anton Jacobs of Chiago is a blacksmith, but, as he his a convivial soul, most of the work m the shop is done by Mrs Jacobs, who, it is said can shoe ahorse with neatness and celerity. She is described as having a tremendous neck and shoulders, mighty arms and hands, and genuine Chicago feet. . — The Hungarian townof'Buda is about to celebrate its recapture from the Turks m 1686, after being m their possession for 145 years. — As regards the Saxon race m America, there is at work some climatic cause which does really tend to turn John Bull into a new form. Give Jonathan his cigarette, his rocking-chair, and his straw to suck, and undoubtedly he will . " notch the razor " of the world. But he is j John Bull no longer. He may be a rarer, a a more ethereal creature than John, but these bovine qualities of momentum, weight, hardihood, stubborn energy of resistance, that "John Bullishness," m short (to use the American phrase about the Canadians), which John found so useful at Agincourt, Inkermann, and Waterloo, seem to have vanished from American soil. —The State. — In twenty-five years the number of Pro- j testant missionaries m China has grown from 150 j to 500, and of churches from 50 to 400. A i quarter of a century ago there were no theological schools for students, and only 4 of the 18 provinces were occupied with missionary posts. Now 260 students are found m 20 schools, and missionary labours are carried on m all the provinces but one. ! — The inferiority of the pictures exhibited this year at the Royal Academy, as compared with previous exhibitions of the same body, and with the contemporary specimens of pictorial art to be seen at the Grosvenor Gallery, is not questioned m any quarter, and has naturally called forth expressions of surprise and disappointment. — Standard. — When Mrs Baker arrived m Travancore, Southern India, as a missionary of the Church of England, m 1818, there was no church m that State. New there are thirty-nine churches, with 20,000 Christians, and 104 school houses and places of prayer. — Lady Anne Blunt, the granddaughter of Byron, is considered one of the cleverest women m all England. She is an author, accomplished m music and painting, a student of Oriental politics, a scholar capable of writing to her Ceylon friends m their own language, the capable manager of her beautiful home, Crabbet Park, and the teacher of her only daughter. '— A missionary who has written a careful review of the progress of missions m Bengal m 1884, notes prominently the fact that the Moslems have assumed a more favourable attitude towards Christianity than ever before. ! — Borneo, or Brunei, as it is termed by the natives, is the largest island m the world next to Australia, for it is 750 miles m length and GOO miles across at its greatest breadth. Although the Portuguese discovered it as early as 1526, and it contains large navigable rivers, its progress m cultivation has been remarkably slow, like most countries not possessing the bays or inland seas that have everywhere proved the nurseries of commerce, and it still ranks lowest m development of all the East Indian islands. Its reigning dynasty of sovereigns is believed to be very ancient, and the present Sultan, an able old man, bears a strong personal resemblance to the late Pope Pius IX. — A correspondent of the Missionary Herald (American Board) writes from Japan that Buddism is " breaking down much faster than Christianity can take possession of the wrecks." — " To get the sack " is construed to be discharged by one's employer. It is thought to have originated from the mode of dismissal used by the Sultan when he ties some unfortunate victim into a sack and throws him into the Bosphorus. — The Austrian Count Breuner imported three pair of wild turkeys from America m 1880, and had them set free on his estate on the Danube, not far from Vienna. The game-keepers report this year that birds have increased to the number of nearly or quite 500, and turkeyhunting on the Danube promises soon to be counted among the Viennese sports. — Johann Strauss, who has as many friends and admirers m London as he has m Vienna, intends to become a Protestant. His conversion, however, is 'scarcely of a character to bring joy to Exeter Hall, He explains that his reason for leaving the Roman Catholic Church is not so much doctrinal as social. The authorities of that church declare that his remarriage would be uncanonical, and the Archbishop wjll not allow his ciergy to celebrate ii As the composer is anxious that the ceremony should not be merely civil but religious,' he thinks that there is no other solution open to him, but that he and his bride should register themselves members of the Protestant, Ghuroh,