MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1900, 3 July 1890, Page 41

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The Key. B. F. Kepharfc, a missionary in Liberia, gives the following as a part of the cargo of the steamer that carried him: — 10,000 casks £of rum, 11 cases of gin, 460 tons of gunpowder, and 14 missionaries, all on their way to Africa. — America has 200,000 telephones more than the rest of the world combined. — In the United States there are 43 deaf and dumb institutions caring for 5743 inmates, 30 for the blind with 2178 pupils, and 11 caring for 1781 idiots. —The health of the Pope is pretty good, but the paleness of his transparently thin face and form make him look more like an ivory statue than a man. The resident physician to his Holiness follows him about almost like his shadow. —One of the best players in the Cornell University Base -ball Nine has been dropped on account of neglect of college work. The university has decided through the Supervising Athletic Committee of the faculty to take a decided stand against the notion that athletics aro the chief end of student life. — Over 64,000 people die in the British Islands every year from consumption alone. — Henry M. Stanley, in an interview with a New York Herald correspondent, said that the Arnwimi forest, which belongs to the Congo Free State, was enormously richer in everything, especially in rubber trees, than the Amazon forests. This section of Africa, he declared, would be the rubber reservoir of the world. — A curious fact i 3 noticed in connection with the formation of barnacles on ships' bottoms. In the majority of cases there is a much heavier growth of barnacles on one side than on the other, and in numerous instances one side will be almost free from marine growths while the other is as ioul as possible. — The Paris papers continue to reproduce articles from the Lisbon papers declaring that their king is iv the pay of " the English pirates." —When the Czar and Czarina lately visited the military prison in St. Petersburg, the Emperor ordered that each prisoner's term should be shortened by a month, and the day after this visit Gl prisoners were set at liberty. —The forest trees may be felled by a wire heated to a white heat by electricity, and drawn through it, and it may afterward be cut into boards by the same means, thus doing the work of a circular saw. The only drawback would be in the fact that the wood would necessarily be chaired by the passage of the hot wire. — The new German military rifle has a range of 3900 yds, and will shoot through the bodies of six men standing one behind the other at a distance of seven paces. — French toys have been rapidly making their way in the world since 1867. In that year only £240,000 worth of them was sent abroad, while last year the total was £2,800,000. England, the best customer, takes a seventh of the whole. —The Moslems of Delhi have opened a seminary in which preachers are taught all the objections of Western infidels against Christianity, that they may go forth to oppose the Christian preachers in town and country. —Fifteen hundred bakers at Pesth have struck work and camped on an island in the Danube with tents, cattle, and provisions. They have been joined by 700 girls employed in the jute works. Five hundred military bakers have been sent to Pesth from all parts of the kingdom. ! ' • —In Bulgaria only 7£ per cent, of the population can read and write. ■—One-seventh of the coal mined is lost from being broken up too fine to be burned with profit. —Japanese lacquer is the product of a tree'(Rhus vernicifera) which grows throughout'thejmain island of Japan. It attains a large size, and will live for 40 years, but only comparatively young trees are valued for the production of lacquer. —It is said that of the 5000 clubs and societies in New York nearly 4500 are distinctively German. The tendency of a German to form a society could not be more forcibly illustrated than by these figures. — Beetroot sugar in. England cos^s about 2d per lb ; in Germany, where it is made, it costs 5d per lb. — It is only one person among 1000 who becomes a centenarian, and hardly six among 1000 who attain 75 years of age. — The Hoe at Plymouth is being acorned with a memorial of the Spanish Armada, which is in the of a granite pedestal 84f b in height, and surmounted by a -figure of Britannia, with a shield and trident in one hand and a sword in the other. There are alsc panels on which aro appropriate emblems. — Odessa has just been preparing to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of its foundation. In 1704 the Duke de Richelieu, a Frenchman, laid out the plan of Odessa, now become one of the most flourishing cities in the world. Odessa has a Rue de Richelieu (rather wider than the famous street of the same name in Paris), and a reduced copy of the Palais Boyal. —The ancient Egyptians have never been equalled for their skill in the manufacture of perfumes. Some of their ointment preserved in an alabaster vase in the museum at Alnviek has been found to still retain a pungent odour, although its ago cannot bo much less than 3000 years. — Eev. S. R. Long, a Methodist missionary in Burmah, is in Pittsburg raising money to buy a printing press. He says " Bob " Ingersoll's works have been translated into Burmese, and the Brahmin priests are using them to show the people that Christianity is a fraud. Mr Long wants to print the Bible in Burmese as an antidote. — Few people realise the amount of railroad building that is going on throughout the United States. From January Ito May 1 1100 miles of main lines, in addition to sidings, &c, were added to the track mileage." —The rubber pavement invented by BusseHannover consists of 85 per cent, of ground etone and 15 per cent, of a rubber mass, and when applied to the street on top of a layer of concrete, looks like asphalt, and although pot as smooth, it produces no dust and is I noiseless.

— A British clergyman of note estimates that the Protestants have increased the last 100 years nearly fourfold, the Roman 1 Catholics and the Greek Church each twofold. —It is a noteworthy fact that it was the grandfather of Lord Sydney who died only the other day, the first Viscount Sydney, who was Secretary of State when the earliest settlement was made in New South Wales ; and Sydney town and harbour are called by his name. —New York has quite a largo and important Japanese colony, with clubs and other institutions for mutual benefit. There is not a single Japanese pauper in the city, and every Japanese resident possesses at least moderate means. —A stone coffin in a tomb in Canterbury Cathedral on being opened was found to contain the body of an ancient archbishop fully vested. It is thought to be that of Cardinal Stephen Langton, who sided with the barons in extorting Magna Charter from King John. Although buried six centuries ago the features were still perfect and the vestments quite sound. —In 1841 there were 8000 Jews in all Palestine. In 1883 there were 20,000, but so great has been the increase of late that in 1888 the number reached 70,000, about the number that came up from Babylon. — The managers of the leading railways in Holland are now discussing the feasibility of introducing the " zone " system on their lines. — Victor Meyer in a recent address declares that we may reasonably hope that chemistry will teach us to make the fibre of wood a source of human food. — The Photographic Society of Geneva took the photographs of 78 couples to see to what extent facial resemblance prevails. The result was that in 24 cases the resemblance in the personal appearance of the husband and wife was greater than that of. brother and sister ; in 30 cases it was equally great, and in only 24 was there a total absence of resemblance. —The Grand Canon of the Colorado is simply the channel of the river worn by the action of running water to a depth of 5000 ft or 6000 ft. The sides are perpendicular cliffs, 15 miles apart. The current hai a tremendous velocity over cascades and rapids. — The inventive .American, or that part of him which keeps retail tobacco shops or other stores subject to the competition of automatic machines, determines that he will go one better than his automatic competitors. ' So he gives away to his customers with each cigar or packet of tobacco a little metal disc. —In England, out of 12,000 certificated masters in elementary schools last year, 9000 received more than £100 a year, 1500 between £200 and £400. Many have residences provided. Of 16,000 certificated ladies 4000 received £100. Still there are many receiving very small suras ; 28,000 leceive less than £100 a year; 18,000 less than £70 a year, and 13,000 about £50 a year. —Of 60,000 female clerks in London, 5,000 are believed to be type-writers. —It is confidently predicted that three years hence there will not be a horse-car in active service in any city in the United States. —More than 200,000 people are confirmed in the English Church every year. —Bismarck has fallen from too great a height ever to hope for anything in the shape of a restoration. There is no power on earth— not even the Emperor's will— which can make the shattered fabric of his prestige whole again.~-The Speaker. —In France, when a young man's extravagant follies reach a certain limit, he is pronounced to be incapable of managing himself or his affairs, is put in charge of a guardian, and treated as a moral lunatic. —The Buddhist Cloister of Hanie, Thibet, where 21 priests li7e, and the post-house of Ancomarca, in the Andes of Peru, are both situated at au altitude of 16,000rt, and are believed to be the highest spots on the earth's surface inhabited by human beings. —The "cramming" process in schools must be carried to a greater extreme in Germany than with us, for it has been found necessary to issue a Government circular to the directors of the German schools, urging them to be more lenient with backward pupils, on account of the numerous cases of suicide among them. —The first Earls, or Jarls, were Norsemen, whose daily prayer was that they should nob die in their beds, and who were real viceroys of Earldom, ruling by the sword which they wore at their belts. One of these Earls, Harold by name, eventually became King of England; and another, his brother Tosti, disputed the kingdom with him by the sword. — A colossal scheme has been projected for conveying petroleum in pipes from the port of Baku, on the Caspian, to Batoum, on the Black Sea. It has been shelved for a time as being too costly ; but all the specifications have been drawn out in detail. The length of the line of piping is 407 miles ; the castiron pipes are to be Bin in diameter ; and there are to be 64 intermediate pumping stations. And the pipes must be buried at a considerable depth to guard against cracking in the intense frost. — The fund which George Pcabody gave for the building of improved dwellings for working people in London has turned out to be a remarkably successful investment. It has in about 20 years increased from £500,000 to £1,000,000, and on that greater sum it is now earning 3 per cent, interest. — There are nine kilted battalions altogether in the British army. — An American physician declares that he is now resorting to hypnotism as a substitute for chloroform. He puts the patient to sleep in one minute. — The most northerly railway is one being constructed between Sweden and Norway. It runs from Lulea, a little town at the top of the Gulf of Bothnia, to Elvegaard, a fort on the Atlantic in the fiord of Ofoten. It is a British enterprise, owned and constructed by British capitalists. It passes through the rich iron district around Gellivard, where a raosb valuable ore abounds. While crossing the Arctic Circle the engine blows its whistle,