MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 1916, 6 November 1890, Page 41

MULTUM IN PARVO

— Last year the income of the Corporation of London totalled up to the enormous sum of £472,000, and, strange to say, the expenditure was just about the same amount. — The Census reports of religious bodies in the United States show that there are 134 sects, with 25,000,000 members. The Methodists number 5,000,000, the Baptists 4,000.000, the Roman Catholics 4.000.C00, the Prebbyterians 3,000,000, and the Episcopalians 2.000,000.

— When Christianity became the established church of the Roman Empire, Britain, like the rest of the empire, grew nominally Christian — the legions, in fact, were missionary centres, in Koman times there wero three archbishoprics in England — London, York, and Caerleon — and these lasted till the English Conquest. When the pagan Saxons came the Christian Romano-Britons were driven to the fastnesses of the west, and the country was pagan again for 150 years. — Under the Mexican law foreigners are prohibited from acquiring real estate within 20 leagues of the boundary line of Mexico, without previous permission of the Mexican Government and the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico.

— Five hundred years ago the Thames was full of salmon, and a hundred years ago the Yorkshire rivers swarmed with them. Today all these waters are left desolate, chiefly, no doubt, because of their pollution, but to some extent from over-slaughter and want of protection during the spawning time. — It is being pointed out that the great heat waves to which Chicago is liable — 20,000 people were suffering from the effects of the heat lately, and there were 22 cases of sunstroke on one day alone— will make it especially dangerous for Europeans to visit the World's Fair during the summer months. Even at Philadelphia in 1876 many French and English visitors to the Exhibition were placed Iwrs de combat by the excessive heat, but it is well known that Chicago can beat the Quaker City in this respect.

— A magnificent hotel, on the Thames Embankment, is in course of construction ; it is situated between the Charing Cross Station and the Savoy Hotel. Some idea of its size may be formed from the fact that it will make up 1800 beds 1

— The Thames on Sunday is the most " un-English " sight in England. People are actually enjoying themselves without pretending to conceal their pleasure. One Sunday the Thames was almost bidden under a mass of boats filled with gaily-coloured blazers, dresses, and parasols. The Bench of Bishops has cursed them solemnly, one and all, with bell and book ; but no one seemed a penny the worse. Before 10 years are over we shall see a steam launch full of bishops among the Sabbath throng.

— The stored-up energy of all the coal in all the coalfields of all the world represents, in billions of foot tons, a mere fraction of the energy of the rivers of Europe, nay of England ; and while the richest coal mines are soon worked out, and coal demands immense labour for its transference from the bowels of the earth to the centres of industry, there is just as much energy in the tides and rivers to-day as there was a thousand years ago.

— The largest steam derrick in the world is used by a shipping company at Hamburg. It is kept at the docks, and is used ia lifting immense weights on and off shipboard. It can pick up a ten-wheeled locomotive with perfect ease. —The silver mines of Nevada are beginning to pick up recently, and buyeis are not so scarce as they were six months ago. This ia all due to the good influence of the silver legislation, which, in advancing the price of bullion, has enabled the owners of low-grade properties to work their ores at a profit. The old cry that nothing but goli would go abroad has died out, and the formerly despised metal now leads the market. Turn about is fair play.

— The new coal discoveries in the vicinity of Tacoma are now in a fair way of attracting the attention of capitalists, and during the past week an English syndicate has been found to purchase the French Brothers' mine at that place. An expert has arrived from New York af the property, and it is expected that a sale will be made immediately for £300.000.

— The old placers in the Ortiz Mountains, near Cerrilloes, New Mexico, bad a reputation for great riches in in the sixteenth century, as shown by the old Church and Government archives that have been dug up in Mexico and Spain. They are still rich, and arrangements are now being made to work them on scientific principles.

— The romance of war runs through nearly the whole history of Scotland. It begins with the distant conflicts of Roman and Caledonian, P.ct and Scot ; is continued in the campaigns of the English sovereigns so often on the point, of subjugating Scotland, yet in the end baffled : and is diversified by the hairbreadth e&capes of Wallace, Bruce, Douglas, Randolph, and the defeats of Falkirk, Klodden, Solway Moss, as signal as the victories of Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn ; yet, throughout the whole history, the indomitable c«urage is conspicuous which never acknowledged defeat as final.

— Who were the Aryans ? The advanced Teuton is at great pains to prove that it was the German who gave the Gauls of France an Aryan tongue. The scientific Frenchman, on the other hand, is persuaded that it was the Gaul to whom the Germans owe their language and civilisation. Is this not a real reva?iehel I» not the disgrace of Sedan entirely wiped out. by this theory? On whichever side the truth, one thing, at least, is certain. Whether Celt or Scandinavian, the' Aryan was a largo red man. The Imperial pahice in Berlin is threatened with a strike s 'J he Emperor's household servants begin to find their pay insufficient, and they are in hopes that after the somuch-talked-of solicitude which the Kaiser lias for his subjects, that he will not refuse to begin in his own household the reform which te meditates for the remainder of the empire. The wages of the Imperial servants on an average do not reach £4 a month 1 The servants aek for an increase, and have petitioned the Grand Marshal of the Court to lay their claims before the Emperor. It remains to be seen if William the Great will grant their request.

— Dr Crenreich on his journey up the Purus (South America) discovered spotted men, and he describes one of the tribes — the Pammarys — as " pure watermen. They live only on the river banks or in floating settlements in the lagoons. Almost their whole life is spent in their canoes, and they are conspiDuous by their peculiar skin, which is covered with black and white spots, and causes many individuals to look just as if they had been dappled." So that the spotted man need not alway i be a thing of paint and patches. — The London Corporation is a liberal paymaster, and the cost of governing the city must be enormous. The following are some of the principal offices, with their respective emoluments : — T-iwu Clerk ... ... ...£3OOO Ctmoibfrlaiu ... ... ... y.500 llemfmbrancer ... ... ... j»o 0 S. 'licit <r ... ... ... 2000 Recorder ... ... ... .TOO Common Sprgeanh ... ... a.'sO J»d«e of Cltv of London Court ... 2700 Assistant judge ... ... ... 1200 Onmptrollt-r ... ... ... 1500 Principal Olerk to Chamberlain ... J2OO Architect and Surveyor ... ... 1500 Coroner ... ... ... 9 5 — A curious group of rocks near Milan has recently been described by a member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. It is known as Moutpellier-le-Vieux. An iiregular mass of rocks, some 200 ft high, resembles the towers of a citadel in a striking manner. The citadel is surrounded by five depressions 300 ft or 400 ft deep, of which one appears like an amphitheatre, a second a necropolis, a third a parade, and the fourth a regularly laid-out city quaiter, with public monuments, gates, straight streets, and intersections, suggesting at once such places as Pompeii, Carnac, and Persepolis. The whole " city," covering an extent of some 200 acres, is surrounded by a natural wall 300 ft to 400 ft high. It is a most wonderful freak of Nature.

— A scheme is on foot at Chicago to build a playhouse, modelled upon the plans of the famous Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on-Avon, including the Memorial Hall, the latter to contain a collection of relics, curiosities, souvenirs, books, and engravings commemorative of the poet and his works. The new theatre would be the home of a high-class stock company.

— An exciting scene has been witnessed at a menagerie on Ashton-under-Lyne fair ground. A lion tamer, named Lorenzo, was going through a performance with a pack of six wolves when one of them sprang upon him and proceeded to wony him. Attendants outside the cage beat back the other five, and Lorenzo had a desperate battle with this foe. Although badly bitten about the hands, he succeeded in beating the wolf off, and finished the performance.

— Before any great advance will be made in the Christian propaganda in Africa a total revolution in the methods of work must be accomplished. Surely the time has come when professorships for the preparation of missionaries should be founded, so that men might be sent out properly armed for the conflict, initead of leaving them, as at present, to enter the mission field not knowing what they have to face, imbued with the unworkable traditions of bygone times, and hampered by the unsuitable theological training for the ministry which they have received among a civilised people, and which in Africa is worse than useless.

— Even in council the presence of old men is dangerous. The authority claimed by old age, and the respect naturally paid to it, by the younger generation, must interfere with the easy and natural transaction of business. If it is difficult for an old man to bear opposition and to brook rebuke from a younger man, it is equally difficult forayoungpolitician to bow to authority or to believe the infallibility of old age. What is the result? The old statesman gradually finds himself deserted by his honest and independent friends, while opportunists and flatterers surround the old chief and help to extinguish in him the last remnants of humility and of mistrust in his own judgment. — Max Muller, in the New Review.

— A successful boring for honey has been made in North Tennessee. For many years swarms of bees have been noticed by boatmen on Kox Bluff, on the Cumberland river, near Franklin, Xt ntucky. The bluff is 170 ft high, and the river's channel runs directly under it. The bees have been observed about a big fissure near the centre of the bluff, and the opening could not be reached from above or below without great danger of being stung to death, so a 3in hole was bored from the top of the bluff. At a depth of 85ft the drill struck the honey.

— The largest and heaviest building stone ever quarried in England was taken from the Pinkington quarry, near Norwich, in February 1889. It was in one piece, without crack or flaw, and weighed over 35 tons. It was 15ft long, 6ft high, and sft wide.

— There is nothing new under the sun. The Chinese invented the phonograph 20C0 years ago ; the Athenian laiies wore bustles ; and there is not a bottle or a pot on my lady's dressing table that the Roman dames did not know all about-. And now Mr Swinburne is pointing out that the idea of a bridge aoro. s the Channel, if not as old as Mie hills, is at least as ancient as James Shirley, the dramati&t, who in 1695 produced a play in which one of the characters sa.y3, " I'll build , a bridge from Dover Cliff to Calais!" What a snub for Sir Edward Watkin 1

—An extraordinary note has been addressed by Li Shu Chang, the Chinese Minister, to the Chinese consuls in Yokohama, Kobe, and Nagasaki. Li Shu Chang draws the attention of the consuls to the fact that many Celestials residing in Japan have taken to wearing shoes and vests made in Japan and to smoking cigars of European and American manufacture. This he reminds them is prejudicial to the customs of the Chinese Empire, and he calls upon the consuls to give their strict attention to the matter, and to put a stop to such unpatriotic and un-Celestial proceedings.