MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1936, 2 April 1891, Page 38

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—The Bell telephone patent monoply in England has expired. The patent was granted for 14 years. Cheap telephones will now prevail in England tbe same as in Germany, where Bell failed to obtain a patent.

— " Geneial " Booth is indignant at bis critics because they put the prefix General in inverted commas, as if the title " did not belong to me." I once knew an American Minister (says Mr Labouchere in Truth). He was a general. I BBked him one day bow bo became one. He replied tbat he had been engaged in the flour trade, and had been a general miller. — In stipends, salaries, and wages to their numerous offioers, clerks, and staff, the Corporation of London spend upwards of £100,000 yearly. —The annual death rate of children from violence and neglect in England' jb over 10,000 . —The German census shows an increase of nearly 3 000 000 in the population of the empire since 1855. - —Messrs E. Barnett and Co , kosher butchers and poulterers, sent by gracious command of the Queen a sirloin of beef from the prza ox bred on her Majesty's estate, Ballater, and purchased by Messrs Barnett at the recent cattle show. The sirloin was sent to Oaborne with tbe eeal of the Shochet attaohed. This is probably the first instance of kosher meat being j iupplied to her Majosty.^ —A Garman ptatistioian tells us that , American women pay enough annually for cosmetics to paint 87,000 houses at a cost of £15 —In the House of Lords the Roman Oatholio peers, taking into account the Soottish and Iriab as. well as the English peerage, are 41. There are 53 baronets who are Roman Oatholias. Nine nvmbers of her Majesty's Privy Oounoil are Roman Catholics, and so are 76 members of the House of Ommon?, of whom only five sit for English constituencies. —Canon Scott Robertson has figured up the money given and bequeathed to foreign missions in the British Islands during the year 1889, and finds the mm to be £1.302,106. Of thia amount the Church of England gave through its societies £523,203, the Nonconformists and Presbyterians gave £550,298, the joint societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists £219.963, and the Roman Catholio societies £9519 . At a recent meeting of the itoyal .botanic Society in London the attention of the chair man was called to a fruiting branch of similax aspera, the wild saraapa-rilla of the Mediterranean coasts, a notable plant on account of its brilliant red berries, heartehaped leaves, and 'shacp clinging thorns, covering not only the stems but also the backs of the leaves, and has given rica to the belief that it furnished the crown of thorns of Scripture. ]?oriy millions of humming birds, Bun birda, oriolss, gulls Bea birds, wax wings, birds of paradise, and fly catchers are annually used in decorating women's bats. —According to Mr Giffen, tbe statistician, nn3killed labourers earned in 1836. at Manefaester, an average of 12a a week. Now they rf coivQ 22i. ' The official Russian bulletins now being issued aEßert that the number of German colonists within the empire have become dangerous. In one prOviPQO they form lb per cent, of the population. —Cremation is becoming more popular", aob body of Mr Lloyd, the proprietor of the London Daily Chronicle, waa recently cremated^ as were Baron Hnddleston's remains. Mr Kinglake, the historian, waa cremated a few weeks —One of the employes of the postal telegraph office in St. Petersburg has invented a watch whioh willrun 45 day a on asingle winding. The Meobanical Technical Association, to which tbe inventor submitted it, wound the watch, placed it in a vault, and fonnd that it ran the full time claimed for it. —About £3,000,000 is invested in eleotno lighting enterprises in London, thare being in all nine companies '—Land was cold last year in London to the value of £4,287,111, as compared with £4 304,954 for tbe year 1889. There ia a falling off in ' tbe amoont realised for both freehold houses and ground rents, but an in or ease iB shown on the Hale of leasehold properties. Modern Jerusalem it seems is a carious city. It nas no public square, no puWc garden, and no place of entertamtrent. It boasts of bo newspapers, no booksbops, and no ea3 companies. _It is proposed in Paris to do away, as far as possible, with lunatic asykmis and place insane perrons who are not prone to violence, m the homes of coantr^ people, who will be suitably remunerated by the State. The Corporation of London have decided to place a brass commemorative tablet on the nra.il* of the new Council Chamber at Guildhall, as nearly aa may be on the site of a former chamber, in which, on January 5, 1641, King Charles I went to demand the surrender of the ! five members of Parliament, Hollis,| Haselrig, ■ P/m. Hampden, and Strode. : , The yearly allowance granted to the Jate King William 111 of the Netherlands amounted to 600,000 guilders (£50,000). This sum, sb transpired "after his Majesty's decease, was anonymously spent in charities, the whole or tbe vast amount bsin^ distributed, year after year amongafc various philanthropic institutions, which will no doubt deeply deplore his loss. Surely fcuch splendid generosity : s without precedent. . The Mayor of Liverpool receives £2700 a year. The Mayors of Manohoßtsr to the preeont time have received nothing. tbe present financial year succession duty will ro far be increased by tho deatte of thrco duke?, onn marquis, five earls, and five barons. Four millionaires have also dli«d and loft personalty in the aggregate to £5,300,000. Tho four nt>xfc highest fortunes represent a total of £2,862,000. Tho committoa appointed by the Italian Governmont to investigate ana report a plan to oonneot tbo city of Romo by a ship caral with tho aoa has reported that the project would cost 'Bo,ooo.ooo lire. —Mrs Emily Kemplin, LL D., ii nrfl^in? a Buccees of the law echool for women attached to the University of New York. Sbe baa 12 pupils in her class, and describes them as earnest and interested. There are 20 en dowel scholarships. — A very curious tonst, the appareat irrevarencQ of which disappears upon reflect n, used to be common SO years ngo at commeraif 1 tables on Sundays. It was " Rusty swords and dirty Bibles." —In Germany they tyre us : ne liaaead meal au Bub«' f «te for ccffsr— thM v a^ontr'ower classes. Of course the wea'tby still find that the Java and Mela borriei are good out ugh |or them. . . _ , —American eewing girls in New York are gradually being driven from their plicoj • f c clothing shops ty Russian, PoUab, anefl^lutparlan wom>n, who gladly work seven rou-s n every week, and 10 houra a day, for 16*. —India raises one btnbel of wheat per bead of her population, the United States over seven busbala p» head, aid South Australia 19 bushelß.