MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1838, 11 February 1887, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—A huge iron reservoir.. is beiu'g built at a remote spot in the outer harbour of Arnbtern'ara for the btoragri of petroleum. It will he nearly 33ft iv diamuter aud of the same depth, and id calculated to hold 7,800,000 litres of oil. or nearly I,74o,ooo'gallons „ The petroleum will be brought direct from Russia iv vessels specially constructed, which, will be pumped out at Amsterdam into the tank, thus saving the expense of filling aud emptying casks aud diminishing the risk of accidents.

—A Nova Scotia farmer, hunting for his cows at dusk, came upon a big bUck be&c that at once showed fight. The farmer was about to seek eafer.y in flight, when bis three cows, bellowing loudly, with tails erect, aud fire in their usually placid eyes, charged the bear 60 fiercly that he turned tail and fled.

— One of the greatest seenrities for permanent fame is to mingle the darker with the brighter tints, to combine, as Lord Macaulay sai<l of Bacon, "co much glory with so much shame.' " Both Byron and Bacon secured their fame rartly by mingling dark shades of evil with their greatest qualities.— Spectator. — Henri Germain says that out of .ths 12,000,000 French voters, not more than 10 persons know the exact btate of the nuances. The Freuch deficit during tin present year will be about 156,000.000d01. Tho French National debt has increabe<l. since the Germans left the couutry at the rate of about 150,000,00 ' 1- 1 a year, and it is claimed that the Frencr. .Republican regime has cost the' country more tuau it did to buy peace from Germany. —A" writer in- Popular Science, supporting the view that a higher civilisation tends to baldness or a lessened growth of hair, cites the fact that 48 per cent, of men at a Patti concert were balii, while only 12 ptr cent, of those who'atterided a Sullivan prize fight were without a full bead of hair.

— lucent inquiries show that among the 20,000 carpenters in London the <<xp°rt workers average ouly 9.1 an hour, while t'u« inexpert g*:t oulyßil. Carpenters in Parw earn only 6^ol for 10 hours' work ; in Berlin they work eight hours a day for 4s 61 per day, aud are out; of work on the average three months in thfi year.

— A young wnnan named Margaret Borgenval is .-aid to have Liin iv a trancts in thoFreuch villagHof Thenellts sii.ire Ist June 1833 — Twenty years ago thero were but 12 women dootors iv the Uuited States, uovv there are over 800.

—The strppfs ami squares of Berlin contain Tipward of 45,000 trees, and the number is constantly increasing.

— The ra»e for collecting postage stamps is said to be on the increase in Franco. Paris reports 150 firms in the business. —It isbtated that Paris consumes 2,000,000 larks every year. — The passage of tbe Suez canal is ordinarily made in 36 to 40 hours, but vessels fitted with tbe £lectriQ light apparatus can go through in 16 hours.

— The most expensive portion of a trip round the world, it is asserted, is that from San Francisco to Yokohama — £50.

— Father Beckx, the General of the Jesuits, ■who is now in his ninety-second year, is still able to go out. — News comes from Smyrna that the Turkish Government has withdrawn all permission given to Englishmen and other foreigners to excavate the ancient sites within fche iS-ilfcau's dominions, and also that la^ge quantities of finely sculptured pillars, walls ami stones are bei"»g sold and utilised for modern building purposes. — A United States Treasury decision has settled

long <li»pnte.<l question of art in its own way Dy fixing ihe'jear 1700 as the dividing line between ancient and modern canvases. Hpreafter any picture painted before the year 1700 may enter mi American port duty free. Since that date, by order of the Secretary of the Treasury, every piece of canvas painted has been sjodeitt,.\ - -

—•As a result tjjf-the -railways not being owned bythe State at Home American beef-is carried from Glasgow to London for 45* a ton while for Scotch beef the charge is 77s 6*l. — For a day of 10 hour* a woman in Germany working in the fi< Ms gets 8d to Is 3 ', a man 10<l to 2<, seamstresses lOd to 2-., machinists and aud carpenters 2-. 6<i to4s, and masons 4s. — Though the French climate in conxMcred superior to that ot England." the average of life in England exceeds that of France by 11 years. —It has been shown that the strength of the lion in the fore limbs is only- 69 9 per cent, of that of the tiger, and. the gtreugtb o| ; hi^hiadf limbs only 55*9 per y cent. * Five raenj cka easily hold down a liou t but niue^menfare required to control a tig^r. ;.■ <--, "f~ r — Coloured men- can rent houses . in? -Philadelphia itfcertain"diatriots-oifly/ Estate agents say that they cannot obtain white tenants for dwellings which have been occupied by coloured people, and white tenants will not have a coloured family in one of a block of.hous<:B. — It has been shown by French chemists that water passed through 200 yards of galvanized iron pipe takes up 4*29 grains zinc carbonate per gallon. It is on this account the government has forbidden the use of galvanised water tanks on French/ men-of-war. Tanks of this kind", should also be abandoned in all 'cases where ' water is' used from tanks for drinking and culinary purposes. —A Brabraan is said to have written to a mibsionary j "We are finding you out. You are not as good as your book. If your people were only as good as, your bouk you would oouquer India for Christ in -five years." ~ ■-' __ — One of the curiosities of light and heat is the fact that raj s of the sun should p%ss through a cake of ice without melting itatiilKasjsthe ca?e when the thermometer stauds a little abuve zero. That the rays of heat sictually penetrate the ice is shown by the fact that a l^ns of ie*» may be used for setting fire to inflammable substances. - ; •

'Che authorities of Munich have opened to the public, at 2s per head, the four grand palaces Iff* by King Ludwig. Already a sum eq'ml to £20,000 ha*i b<-en secured,-and it is believed that by treating the .palaces-ail museums enough money will be obtained in time to liquidate tii->

late Majes'y's deb's. ■—England controls the price of copper in the markets of the world, alt-hough her own mines in Cornwall do not produce nmoh over 100 tons of this metal a mouth. The statistics prove that she does an immense trade in c -pper. For the first nine months of this year England imported 84,593 tous of copper (metal), and exp0rM.44,488 tons. Tbe British production is only 900 tons. — r'aniilie.s living in the country have 8 per o°nt more children than in towns. Old families have a marked tendency to die out in England Italy, and Prussia, probably because of intermarriage with conpinsi Among Jews there, are 116 males born for 100 females; their ratio of illegitimacy is the lowest in the world, barely 2 per cent. After a destructive war the births of males predominate in a surprising manner. —A sandwich factory has boeti started in New York on" the east bide. ' Factories, offices, business houses and restaurant's "are supplied. The bread is cut *»y machinery and there is continuous slicing of beef and poultry and tongues. Sandwiches are turned out by the thousand, and solo so cheap that the retailer may sell them for a nickle apiece and make a fair profit;. A sandwich factory ha« been running in Chicago for a year with a profit of 30,000d01.— -Washington Star. , — By far the vastest and most influential temperance society in the worM is the Methodist ' Epscopal Church of the United States. The law aud discipline of the Methodist' Episcopal Church with nearly 13.000 orda'ned ministers, nearly 2,000,000 of communicants, and many millions of adherents, are positively and unequivocally directed against the moderate use of intoxicating drink. — Cape diamonds are of inferior value; one of the largest, the Srewart, found in November, 1872, sold for £11,000, weighing 288 carats, uncut. The Kimberley field, cove-ring nine acres has produced diamonds to the value of 15 millions sterling pince 1871, the diggings be ; ng from 100 to 170 feet deep. The annual exnorb of diamonds from the Cape is about 14001b. worth over four million* sterling, and the fields employ 2000 white and 22,000 coloured diggers. — At the recent session of the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Kentucky, which was attended by 500 representatives, the following resolution was adopted : — " Whereas^ the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage is the greatest detriment, to the growth and prosperity of the f rater* nity, therefore be it resolved, that'tbe business of saloon keeping, or selling whisky by. the drink, be declared a Masonic offence, punish' able as other offences against Masonry. <

— The number of deaths every year: in the United Kingdom which are traceable todrunkennees is 1592. It is calculated that the annual result of intenrpfirancH in the kingdom is as follows :— D-a*hs 1592; insane. 3350; crime*, 6140; sifk, 84,^00; loss of work, £7,400,000; extra taxes, £1,700.000. — Ir, las lonu been a question of doubt as ,to how far beneath the surface, the roll of the ocean could be felt; but it has generally been supposed that the action of the waves does not

extend more than o'Oft or 80ft below the pur-

f<ica. The fact, however, has recently been discovered that thu wave motion extends to a very much greater depth. A diver at wrk on the. steamer Oregon, recently sunk near New York harbour, at a depth of 120 ft, found the nvl of the sea so h"avy .that he could not keep his position while making fast to a trunk which was to be hoisted up. —In the "Camera" magazine, a very curious phenomenon in connection with photography ?s recorded by the person who observed it. He took the portrait of a child apparently in full health and with a clear skin. The npga'ive ri'cturu showed the face to be thickly covered with an eruption. Three days afterwards the child was covered with spots due to prickly heat. " The camera had seen and photographed the eruption three days before it was 'visible | to the eye." - Another case of a' somewhat ] simil r kind is also recorded where a child i showed spots on his porfcraifc'whieh were invisible on his face a fortnight previous to an attack of smallpox. It is suggested that these cases might point to a new method of medical diagnosis. • \ — The feelings which are to produce ,the nest war are national feelings, many nf them inojir-" able except bj' the operation of periods of time almost geological in thrir extent. Nothing but battle will remove the fiercn distrust between Russia and Austria, for nothi"gelse_can prpfcent, their permanent interests from perpetually clashing in the most irrigating w»y, or thwr peoples from being fiercely jenlons of' one another The permanent femj between German and Slav, a feud based on a mixture of fear and dista.ste arising from the d-p'hsof 1 heir .characters, -will not be extinguished by the death of Prince Bismarok or any other poHtjoai evspt.— • Spectator,