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Otago Witness, Issue 1967, 5 November 1891, Page 44

MULTUM IN PARVO.

• —Sir M. Monier Williams, one of the most eminent authorities on Buddhism, Bays : — " True Buddhism is no real religion. It haß no God, no Supreme Being, no real prayer, no real clergy. It has no claim to any supernatural revelation." —The law courts show that the defendant wins his case in 47 out of every 100 caßes tried* , , . —A bed of rook salt baa been found in Oarriokfergus, Ireland. Already 40ft of the vein have been cut through, and it is believed that the supply is practically inexhaustible. —Official returns of Russian' trade show a great decline in the import of English coal. This is due to an increase of the import duty. —The average attendance at places of public worship in England and Wales is computed to be between 10 millions and 11 millions. There is a place of worship for every 500 individuals, taking the country all through, and a stated minister for every 700. About 80,000 senfions are preached every Sunday. —Mrs Alice Shaw, the famous whistler, has demonstrated the faot that whistling even is hereditary. She has four daughters, each of whom inherits her peculiar talent. —Glass windows in a room should ocoupy one-tenth of its floor area. —The value of the Norwegian salmon fisheries is estimated at about £28,000 per annum. J^— The last member of Parliament who received remuneration for his services is believed to have been Andrew Marvell, member for Hull in the reign of Charles 11. He was paid 6a 8d a day during the session, besides numerous presents from bis constituents. ' , —The highest' paid Congregational minister in New York is Dr Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, who gets a salary of 16,000(101 and, in addition, the cost of a heavy life insuranoe. ■ ■ —There are about 23,000 physicians and surgeons in the United Eindom, or 1 to every 1600 inhabitants. —It takes about 250 ;bushels of potatoes to" make one ton of starch. - i —The largest parish church in England is that of St. Nicholas, Yarmouth, whioh has 3000 sittings. —Out of a population of nearly 3,000,000 in Switzerland, 2,000,000 speak German, 600,000 French, 162,000 Italian, 38,000 Romanish. All religions are tolerated, but, oddly enough, clergyman are disenfranchised. — A carrier pigeon taken from the vicinity of, Berlin to London, having escaped, flew direct to its old home. '' —South Dakota boasts the possession pf the largeßt artesian well in the world. It shoots water 150 ft. above the surface. —It is related as a ouriouß faot that Paris, with a population of nearly 2,500,000 souls, has less than 100 negroes within its limits. Statisticians say that the whole of France cannot mutter a negro population exceeding 600. ■ \ —Nearly £250,000 worth of articles fere pawned in London every week. —Of 33,000 persons in German prißdns, 14.0C0 were arrested for crimes committed under the influence of intoxicating drinks. \ —The combined capital of the Rotbsohilds is estimated to amount to at least £200,000,(300. — The movement in favour of Roman instead of Gothio type is rapidly gaining ground' in Germany. Many medical and scientific periodicals are printed in Roman characters. : —There are 304 livings in the Church of England worth over £1000 a year. f —According to Major Condor, the number of Jews, in- Palestine has increased in 10 ydars from 8000 to over 100,000.' ? —The time taken to count 1,000,000 sovereigns at the rate of three a second, 12 hours, to the day, would be 7d Bhr 35min 33 1 38eo. — Ohili already boasts a native lady doctor ; the tramcars are all conducted by women, &nd it is, moreover, the only country in the world in whioh women are possessed of full politpoal rights. Every woman over 21 years of age^has a vote. < [ , —The Jews who are pouring in^o, Palestine just now talk so, many different languages that, in order to understand eaoh other, they! are forced to recur to their old Hebrew mothertongue, j | —Lake Urumiab, in Persia, 4100 ft above the sea, is,<acoording to British Consul general Stewart, at Tabriz, the saltest body of w tter on the earth, being salter than even the Ejead Sea. ;It is, 87, miles long -and 24 miles broad, and contains nearly 22 per cent! of salt. —Minute eleotrio lights are successfully t Bed in dentistry, making the presence of -\ cry small cavities visible when they would ot lerwise eaoape notice. —It was reoently stated in the German Reichatag that there are at present £11 000 persons in hospitals and insane asylums yjio are suffering from delirium tremens. — A.Bteeplejaok of Leeds once fell 73ft * ith out receiving the slightest injury, —.—•ln. one year 50,000,040 bushels of apbles "were gathered from American orobardß and fruit farms.- million acres are plai ited with apple trees alone. ' —The earnings of English railways are over £750.000 a week. - — The" Noyades " were a series of drownings by order of Carrier, Deputy of the Convention, at Nantes, during the French Revolution. Thin most infamous masaaore of men, women, and children was effeoted by packing them into flat-bottomed boats, which were scuttled in the middle of the Loire. \ > ' —Violin playing is dangerous, says an M.D., to people suffering from consumption. \ . —It is calculated that the London theatres issue something like 50,000 free passes every Fear. " —Sir Joseph Fayrer calculates that preventable diseases still kill in England yearly about 125,000 persons, and he cites a calculation as to oases of illness not ending fatally, that' 78£ millions ' of days of ' labour, or in ' money £7,750,000, are annually lost by reason of preventable diseases.— Speaker. j —Dartmoor is the largest tract of uncultivated land in England ; it occupies one fifth of the county of Devon, - ' —The editor of the Thuringia Volksblatt at Erfurt, Germany, has been sentenced to, two weeks' imprisonment for asserting that Luther committed suioide. The cburt held that 'such a statement prcfaned the religious creed of the State. - - ] —A bank manager writes in an English paper :— "A five pound Bank of England note, dated Ootober 13th, 1880, passed through our hands yesterday. It was perfectly clean and crisp, and must have been in one person's possession for nearly 11 years. Had it b*een put out at interest at 5 per cent., it would have earned as near as possible £5 4s 2d." ! —There are two bearing apple trees in Indian* County) Perm., that were planted in 1792, One of them is 10ft in circumference. —It is not surprising that the news; that Germany has officially deoided to exhibit at the World's Fair has been received with muoh enthusiasm in Chicago. - Out of the million people in that city, it ia computed, that at least 400,000 are Germans by birth or descent. There are more " Bier " saloons and " Sanger-' bunds " in .Chicago than there are lawppoßjp.

— A young lady well known in Berlin society haa had her left leg amputated, blood poisoning having been caused by wearing red Bilk , stockinßß. — The latest American invention is a cradle whioh rooks by clockwork mechanism, and at the same time plays baby tunes. The cost is —Among the many innovations in building operations is the use of steel ohimneys for large mercantile establishments. One to be used in Chicago will have a height of 250 ft, and the steel will vary in thiokness from threeeights of an inch at the bottom to five-thirty hundredtha at the top. —In the reign of William 111 all ohild-sfcealera apprehended were branded with a red-hot R for 1 rogue on the Bhoalders ; M for manslaughter on the right hand; and T for thief on the left one. —Illuminated walking sticks are among the latest applications of electricity. A small incandescent lamp is concealed in the head of a cane and dan be ignited by a spring. ' - \ — LinnsnUß has calculated that if an annual fclant produced only two seeds— and there ie no plant so unproductive »b this— and their seedings next year produced two, and so on, then in 20 years-there would be 1,000.000 plants, —There are more than 20 times jas many Germans in England as there are Englishmen in Germany, ■ -^Phe largest congregation that ever assembled to hear the words of a preaoher was the concourse of 23,000 persons to whom the Rev. O. B. Spurgeon preached at the Crystal Palace on Ootober? 1 , 1867, the day appointed aaa fast at the time of the Indian Mutiny. c —French Guiana h said to have the moat violent thunderstorms in the world. . The thunder is almost deafening and the peals come in quick succession. —In the reoently-issued first volume of the "Shetland Pony Stui Book," Mr Brydon says that, although a pit pony — Shetland ponies are much used in ooal mines— will travel on ari'average 3000 miles in a year, and "shift" 8000 tons of coal, and this while working in a seam very little higher than itself, ha yet enjoys singularly good health. ' —The old monarohial families of France are gradually drifting into the receptions of Madame Carnot, which means the acceptance of the Republic." —Animals can endure hunger better than man. Thus dogs "deprived of foqd will sometimes live for »s long as four weeks. Birds, on the other hand, die after being deprived of food for a few day's. 1 " * A ' — One result of the American census is to show that the density of the population of the United States is roughly proportional to the. annual rainfall. The regions enjoying » fall of 30in to 50in in the year are found to contain tome three-fourths of the entire population." The drier area's, in which the rainfall is below 20in per annum^only oont&in' Borne 3 per cent. ' . •■■>■ —Edison is now at work on an eleotrio motor to replaoe the ordinal y locomotive. It is designed to take up electricity from a central rail and to develop at least dOOO horse power. . . ■ ' r •{ -• ;,.ffc