MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

.—The Church Army, a' Church of England institution on the "Salvation Army "-model, has brought forward for confirmation over 3000 adults, mostly gathered at -the -street corners and from public houses, and has 4000 more adults converts waiting; for confirmation.

— Russia is very far behind most civilised nations in the "care of," children and. in the preservation of' life. 'Statistics 'show that GO per cent, of all the children die under the age of five years. The average duration of life in Russia is only 26 years, which is much below the; average in the western' countries of Europe and in the United States. ' . — The coldest day ever recorded in London was the Christmas Day of 1796, when the thermometer was 16deg below zero.

— In Russia, on the northern railways, the locomotives, hitherto burning wood or coal, are being adapted for peat burning, the saving being estimated at some, 50 per cent. — A monument to Galileo has been erected at Rome, and on its pedestal in Italian aie the words : " Erected in memory of Galileo Galilei, who was kept a prisoner in this palace for' having seen that the earth moves round the sun." The monument faces the old Medici palace. —Rev. Mr Hewitt of All Saints,' Babacornbe, England, has introduced a magic lantern into his church, by means of which he shows the Crucifixion.

—One of the oldest and most extensive breweries at Portsmouth has been sold for £120,000, being £20,000 more than it realised seven years ago. — It is said that a shop on any of the main thoroughfares of London can afford to cheat every customer, because the crowd of strangers passing the door will Continue to furnish new victims year after year.

—In 1852 Ireland produced 32,2200z of silver. Since 17i)G a total of about £60,000 worth of gold has been found in Wicklow, including 220z and 2-loz. nuggets — London had on March 19th, exclusive of lunatics in asylums, patients in small-pox and fever hospitals, and vagrants, 103,714paupers officially reported in her care. —The ancient building, 16 Fetter Lane, and Fleur-de-lis Court., London, is to be pulled down. On the front is a tablet with this inscription : " Here lived John Dryden, ye Poet Born 1(531. Died 1700. Glorious John."

— Advanced education in India is producing a curious effect on marriage in Bengal. The monetary demands of the bridegroom increase in proportion to the success he achieves at the university.

— A photographer's assistant in Carlisle climbed up the steeplejack's ladder to the top of Dixon's chimney, carrying his camera, and took a s ries of views of the city from that lofty elevation. — In China small-pox inoculation is still in vogue. For this purpose a rag is moistened with the variolous matter and placed, in the nostril. — The returns of pauperism in the United Kingdom show that the total number of persons receiving relief on the Ist of January of this year in England and Wales was 822,215,. 0r one out of every 34 of the population. —Mr Gladstone's courage, resources, and energy extort admiration, even from those who think that an old ago serene and bright is more becoming than one of cloud and storm. Mr Gladstone would not be the danger He is to the State if the confidence won and the enthusiasm inspired by his greater and finer qualities did not blind men to the darker sides of his character.— World. — Puring the last \0 years the gain in converts in India has been about 80 per cent. In China, in the same period, the increase has been 120 per cent. In Japan the growth has reached the astonishing figure of 385 per cent. — It is said that in every hotel and boarding house in Russia where foreigners are received, some person in the establishment is required, under penalty of a heavy fine, to act as spy over the guests and to report to the Government officials the results of such surveillance.

— One-fifth of the entire population of England and Wales is stated to be in Sunday schools, there being 600,000 teachers and 5,200,000 scholars. —The heaviest guns at Trafalgar were 32pounders of QOowts ; while }n 1860 we had only arrived at a 68-pounder of 95cwt. A rattlesnake farm is an Illinois novelty. The snakes, which are the only crop of a field of 40 acres, are sold to showmen and to a Philadelphia- firm which uses their oil for making a cure for rheumatism. The longest tunnel in the world, which has taken oyer a century to construpti, has been lately cqmpleted. It is at Schemnitz, in Hungary, and is 10-27 miles long. —Dublin statistics prove that the annual mortality amqng c^il^rQn under five years of age is five times as great among^ the working population as in the professional and independent classes. —It is stated that French surgeons have succeeded in replacing glass eyes with the front part of rabbits' eyes. The coat is stitched fast to the ball of a sightless human eye, and made to adhere so that it causes no further trouble, and looks as well as the natural eye. It is, of course, sightless, but is far less tvoublesome than a glass one. —According to I)r Carl Peterp, wh.Q heads the expedition abqut to star-t from Berlin, the possessions of the, Qerman East Afrioan Company inplude an area of 30,000 German, that is, rather more than QQO.OOO English square miles, equal to m aggregate of France and the two empires of Central Europe, —The Manchester express, leaving King's Cross at 2 p.m., runs at the rate ,52^ miles an hour, while the up Manchester express, due to reach King's Cross at 6. 15 p.m., attains the spee4 of QBfr wiles per hour between Grantham and London, The »• Flying Sootchman," which runs hetween London and Scotland, on the Great Northern line, is also one of the fastest trains, the spaed being 50 miles an hour. —There has been introduced into the Illinois Legislature a bill to lim;t the inheritance possible to any one person. As introduced, it places the amount at .50,000d0l in money or 1500 acres in land. If not sufficient number of heirs to take the whole estate in such limits, the remainder is to escheat tp the, State.

— A little boy while flying a kite at Maidstone, stepped backwards and fell into a quarry 40ft deep, to the horror of some persons walking, near. The' string of the kite, however, being fastened round his wrist, the boy was lowered gently into the pit, the kite acting as a paraohute, and instead of being dashed to pieces he escaped unhurt. :—ln: — In Russia it is said suicides are increasing in number every year. The proportion to, the population is now greater in.St. Petersburg than in any other European capital. Of late years even boys and girls from eight to 16 take their own lives, generally on .the idea* of the cruel treatment of their parents. The causes assigned for this state of things are the wretched social conditions of modern Russian life and the pessimist views and Anarchist tendencies embraced by many in early years.

— The United States and Russia are now rival petroleum powers. Within 10 years the ' Paris > Rothschilds have invested lO.OOO.OOOdoI'ih the Baku oil fields, and the engineering skill of Ludwig Nobel has made the Caspian district the centre of a gigantic commercial enterprise. The annual production of lamp oil in that quarter now exceeds 125;000,000gal ; a great fleet of tanksteamers has been built ; thousands or tankcars are running on Russian railways ; 100 miles of pipe line have been laid ; the export of liquid fuel reaches 115,000,000 gal yearly; and the petroleum trade on the Continent has been revolutionised.

— Prince Alexander, son of the Duke and Duchess of Teck, was one of the performers at' a conceit given at Petersham, near Richmond, recently. He sang the popular comic song entitled " The Speaker's Hye," to the intense satisfaction and amusement of his audience. The whistling passages were much admired.

— The American Grower makes a curious calculation as to what it costs to smoke. Basing its calculation on revenue returns, it shows that the United States pays every year for cigars and cigarettes 186,500,000d01, and 20,000, 000d0l for tobacco smoked in pipes. To this it adds the cost of chewing tobacco, 50,000,000d01, bringing the entire tobacco bill for the year up to 256,500,000d01. The total loss from fires in the United States last year was 120,000,000d01, so that tobacco costs more than twice as much as all the fires, great conflagrations included.

— Industrial towns on the plan of Pullman, near Chicago, seem to be getting popular. A few weeks ago the announcement was made that Jay Gould proposes to found such a town near St. Louis. Now it is said that the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad Company will build another Pullman about 11 miles west of Kansas city. Large manufacturing establishments will be located there, surrounding which will be a miniature city with all the conveniences and advantages of modern life. Another scheme of the same sort; is reported to be under way near Lincoln, Neb., promoted by the Chicago, Burlington, and Northern Railway Company. — The tide of emigration of the Russian peasantry into Siberia is largely on the increase. If they succeed it is only after enduring unheard-of hardships, which might have been spared them if there existed a department charged with the regulation of

this great national migration. The instances of failure are, it is to be feared, the rule, 'and when the disaster happens beyond the reach of railways nnd steamers, the world, even of Russia, never hears of them. The State itself is beginning to suffer directly in its finances from this disorganised shifting of population, as many of the emigrants leave arrears of taxes behind them. — According to an American medical journal, a number of tonics and bitters which are sold as non-intoxicating drihks, and are as such brought under the notice of total abstainers, contain a quantity of alcohol,

ranging from 6 per cent, to 47 per cent. It is not inferred that the alcohol is purposely introduced ; but that it is naturally gene-

rated in the bottles from certain ingredients, there is no doubt whatever. Home-made ginger beer, which is generally regarded as being as free from spirit as pure water, often contains a very perceptible proportion of alcohol. — The hat worn by Napoleon at the battle of Eylau was sold in Paris in 1835 for 1920fr. It was put up for sale at 500fr, and there were 33 bidders. In 1822 Sterne's wig was s.p,ld at a public auction in London for 20Q guineas. " — a letter from St. Petersburg contains the following significant passage : "It is reported that a decree will shortly be issued forbidding the use of tall hats. It is stated aa a. reason for this measure that the police have ascertained that the Nihilists in future intend to conceal their instruments of murder, bombs, 65c, in their- ' ohimney pots,' I wb,icb a.re to be provided with a mechanical contrivance enabling them, by pressing a spring ooncealed under the hat-band, to hurl the projectile in a particular direction when taking off their hats by way of salutation." — The Electrical Review gives the following as an etching liquid for steel ; Mix loz sulphate of copper, Aoz slum and half teaspoonful salt reducecTta powder, with 1 gill of vinegar an.d 2Q drops of nitric acid. This Uquid may be vised for either eating deeply into the metal or for imparting a beautiful, frosted appearance to the surface, according to the time it is allowed to aot, Cover the parts you wish to prateot from its influence with beeswax or tallow, — The population of the 10 largest cities of the world, aocording to the latest estimates, is as follows :— London (with its Buburbs) ... 4,784.312 Paris ... ... »• 2,269,023 Oaafenn „. ... ••• 1,500,000 New York I'4^-°9S1 ' 4^-°9S Aitchi (Japan) ... ... 1,322.000 Berlin ... ... ••- 1,122,330 Tokio (Japan) 987,887 Philadelphia ... ... 875,000 Calcutta ... ... ... 766,298 Vienna „. ... ». 726,101 Total ... ... ... 15,782,001