MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 6

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— Eev. Bartholomew Edwards,, rector of> Ashill, Norfolk, is the oldest • clergyman in England. He has just ' completed his 100 th year. He has been rector at Ashill just 75 years. 99 — The hardest known wood is cocuswopd;. it turns the edge of any axe, however well 1 tempered. ■ . —The apes on the Bock of Gibraltar have increased in such numbers that^they', are to be partially suppressed. j — A London company now supplies oxygen gas at the rate of 3s per 1000 cubic feet. The gas is used for limelight and lantern :. purposes, and also for blowpipe and other chemical operations, such as reviving the' oxide of iron used to purify coal gas. — Louisa, the mother of the dead Kaiser, wrote in 1808 : " Onr son William will turn, out, if I am not much mistaken, like his ! father — simple, honest, and intelligent." I — Lord Salisbury receives his salary not as Prime Minister— which is really, not "an office j to which any pay is attached — but as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. — The Roman Catholic Church in the United States 'has 11 ardhbishops, including a cardinal, 68 bishops, 7596 priests, 6829, •churches, 3058 chapels and oratories, 29 clerical seminaries, 91 colleges for the education of males and 588 for the female sex, 2606 parochial schools, with 511,063 pupils, and 472 charitable institutions. — Alexander Watt, the author of several valuable works on metallurgy, thinks that cobalt should take its place as a substitute for nickel for coating various articles. The advantages claimed for it are its superior whiteness and the readiness with which it may be deposited by electricity. — In the international skating contest at Amsterdam James Smart and George Lee* British, beat all the Dutchmen. Two miles in 6min 56sec. ' * — The channel of the Congo can be traced for 100 miles out to sea as a remarkable submarine valley having a depth of 1432 ft just at the river's mouth. — The French capital contains a small army of about 15,000 cabmen, who, strange to relate, are mostly well educated men who . have seen better days. — The amount of coal raised every year in Great Britain wonld, according to Mr Preecej form a wall 30ft high and 12ft broad all round England. , — The Presbyterian Church was organised in America in 1788, with 16 presbyteries, 177 ministers, 419, churches, and 10,000 mem; bers. It has to-day in its different branched 389 presbyteries, 8323 ministers, 11,212 churches or parishes, and 750,000 members.^ —Many years ago, before the Civil War, Emerson fairly predicted the telephone. "By new arts," he wrote, " the earth is subduecl and we^are on the brink of new wonder^. The sun*paints ; presently we shall organise the echo, as we do now the shadow." — Another English industry — asparagus beds— are being laid down in Kent in great area. — A gentleman who, arriving in England from abroad some 18 or 20 years ago, invested about £250,000 in land, has recently died, and the heir has been actually meditating whether, considering the charges on it, it is worth while taking it oper. — Experiments in the use of pigeons as letter-carriers on the Congo have been qui|e successful for short distances, but there are so many eagles, vultures, and sparrow-hawks, who regard these pigeons as the daintiest sort of tit-bits, that this system of mail service is not very trustworthy. ij — A Leeds merchant, out of mere bravado, entered the cage of four lions in a travelling menagerie at. Leeds. The female tameir entered first, and was followed by the merchant, the latter coolly smoking a cigar. The lions did not relish the new comer, biit did not attack him. — The jewels of the woman who was murdered in Paris by Pranzini have ju§t been sold by action and fetched extraordinary prices. A basin in which ttie murderer washed his hands sold for £6: a cheffoniere bearing on it the marks of Pranzini's fingers realised £17. \ —The choirs of the Church of Englarid include 154,000 voluntary and 19,000 paid male singers, and 57,000 voluntary and 2100 paid female singers. — Friends are a mistake ; they die, they cease to care for vs — in fact, they are but human — whereas acquaintances are simply units in a large conglomeration of utility. One goes, another comes, and the heart is left intact. Keep acquaintances, and throw away friends— no, not throw away, it has an ugly sound — but do not make them. — Spectator. , > — Prince Henry of Battenberg, after dislocating both arms and the shoulder blade in hunting, has been absolutely forbidden by his mamma-in-lavv, the 'Queen, to hunt ally more. — It is stated that solid ice 2in thick will bear men on foot ; 4in thick, men on horseback,; 6in thick, cattle and teams with iight loads; Bin thick, teams with heavy loads; lOin thick, a pressure, of 10001b to the square foot, , t — At the' Kidderminster Town Council a proposition to adopt an address to the Prince of Wales on tlie occasion of' his^silver wqdding was opposed by Councilman Harvey on the ground that jihe Prince was " hand 1 in glove with one of' the greatest blackguards from America " — John L. Sullivan. , — In Berlin, the Court Journal says, the late words of Prince Bismarck in the, Reichstag, " We Germans only fear God \ " are being engraved on brooches, scarf-pins, medals, pipes, mugs, and everything that will bear an inscription, and the articles thus decorated sell readily. —Mr and Mrs W. K. Yanderbilt are said to have been frightened out of their Bavarian castle by ghosts. They had leased the royal house for several months, but only remained in it two nights. Their rest was disturbed by peculiar noises that could not be accounted for ; the lease was given up and the disturbed couple returned to Paris^ — Christianity, chivalry, common sense, and the pagan but still powerful dread] of ■ are four things which do Hot |n. variably, or perhaps often, agree in their dictates'; but they all counsel abstentioriirom exulting in the misfortunes of others.— Saturday Beview.

—The Emperor William's.case should give encouragement to parents with sickly children. He was not a strong child, and in his youth was considered too delicate for exposure of any kind. Twice he was, in fact, dangerously sick, but he lived to die of old age,, at 91. 'He disputed every inch of ground as Death advanced toward him, and repeatedly vanquished the grim monster before he finally surrendered to him. — While Earl Spencer was riding a cob to a meet of the hounds, the animal was seized with the staggers, and plunged about as though mad. The Earl managed to slip off its' back, after which" the" horse dashed itself several times' against a wall and was badly injured. ' —There is current among the peasants of Bavaria a legend that the long life of Kaiser Wilhelm was due to a mysterious philter, of which Ms Imperial Majesty alone possessed the secret. How the Emperor obtained the magic beverage is not known. 'It was said to be a kirid of spirit. : —Count Tolstoi, the distinguished Russian author, has founded a Russian teetotal association which has novel points. He divides h,is, followers into three classes, one being permitted to drink beer, another that renounces spirits, but not wine, a third thoroughly total. If is against theabominable.,vodkie that he principally tries to band his fellow-countrymen. He prohibits the use of any sign to distinguish Russian teetotalers from others who are sinners ; they are not to" be permitted to wear the blue ribbon under any circumstances. —The recently signed American-Chinese Treaty provides that no Chinese immigration is to be permitted for 20 years. Any Chinaman who leaves the States for ( China and wishes to return must prove that he has a family in the former country, or is the owner of property in it to the value of £200. — Burns' cottage has narrowly escaped destruction. A boiler at a smithy close by exploded, and a portion of the ironwork was projected a distance of 70yds and fell on the thatched roof, penetrating through the rafters into the room beneath. Fortunately the room in which the poet was borne escaped injury. —The Pope not only reads half a dozen of the leading French and Italian journals every day, but insists upon being provided with a selection of American and English papers, from' which he directs one of his secretaries to make copious notes oh leading topics. — Potato flour is extensively manufactured in Germany. It is used by sausage makers, bakers, confectioners,' and cooks for powdering purposes. Weaving establishments use it to give their goods a glossy appearance and to size the threads in the woof. It is also used in the manufacture of starch, potato sugar, and white syrup, — A candle has recently been brought out which extinguishes itself after it has burned for an hour. This it does by means of a tiny extinguisher of tin which is fastened in the wax by wires, and which effectually performs its task. It is only necessary to remove this diminutive extinguisher when its work is done, and the candle is again ready to burn another hour. The use of such a candle, in schools and nurseries particularly, could hardly fail to prove beneficial. — Last year the Church of England raised half a million sterling for church extension, restoration, endowment of benefices, provision of burial grounds, and erection of parsonages. ' The annual average of confirmations for the nine years ending with 1883 was 106,000, while that for the succeeding three years was nearly 204,000— a growth of over 22 per cent. The confirmations for 1886 reached 213,638. ' —A great decadence in Irish humour has set in of late years. The Land League, as it was said lately, has knocked all the fun out of Paddy, There never was a movement so vulnerable through ridioule as the Home Rule agitation ; but it has been reserved for the stolid Saxon to realise this fact, and profit accordingly. The controversy has struck sparks out of dull men, and, in the case of converts to Home Rule, turned wit to weariness. — Spectator. — Scotch whisky requires at least four years, and Irish whisky six years, before the fusel oil in them becomes disintegrated and loses its mischievous properties. Yet the total quantity of jvhisky now in stock in this country does not exceed three years' consumption. The fieriness of young whisky may be softened with a dose of syrup, but the iniquity of the unsubdued fusel oil remains in it still. — Saturday Review. — Wombwell's menagerie has been sold to JBarnuin, the prince of showmen. For more than 70, years it has been the chief attraction at country fairs. The late proprietor died not long since, his personal property- amounting to more than £50,000. The founder of the menagerie was a certain Jeremiah Wombwell, wbo having purchased two large boa constrictors for £75, they being the first ever brought to this country, recouped his outlay in less that a fortnight. These shakes formed the nucleus of his large fortune. The extent qf his menagerie may be guessed from the, fact .that 120 horsey were required to draw the vans, and the expenses were not less than £500 a week. • — The Cordillera of the Andes has for some time been exhibiting a. curious phenomenon. It results from observations made upon the altitudes of the most important points, that their height is gradually diminishing. Quito, which in 1745 was 9596 ft above the level of the sea, was only 9570 ft in 1803, 95G7in 1831, and scarcely 9520 in -1867. . The .altitude of Quito has therefore diminished by* 76ft in the space of 122 years. r Another peak, the. Pichincha, has diminished by 218rt during the same period, and its crater has descended 425 ft in the last 25 years. That of Antisana has sunk 165 ft in 64 years.

The Colonial a«d Indian Exhibition.— Nq Colony was better represented than New Zealand, and it was satisfactory to learn when viuiting this interesting Colonial Court, that Freeman's Original Chlorodyne was equally well hnpwn for it s curative properties, to the sportsmen, the sheep farmer, and the manufacturer, and was obtainable at Wellington, Chriatchurch, Dunedin, Canterbury, and. Auckland. In the*e towns, and many others, Freeman's Original Chlnrodyne fa Invariably prescribed for the incidental „to the climate, and ifc has acquired a great reputation in the Colony on account of the .certainty of at ot\qs checking $he progress of 'Such diseases as Fever,' .* larrhcpa, Dysentery, Colic, • Spasm, and all kinds of pain, if prescribed according to the directions, the moment the fir«C symptoms of such diseases manifest themselves. Insist upon Slaving "Freeman's" duly. Trade mark, an Ble-phant.-Sold everywhere. Obtainable from all chemlits atuUtorekeepers.