MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2401, 8 March 1900, Page 52

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The signalling on the whole of the Pennsylvania railroad system is now operated electrically. When a train passes a signal bridge it closes an electric circuit which moves a signal semaphore to the "danger" position. i,When the train passes beyond the next bridge a circuit is opened, and the signal indicates •that the block from which the train haA just passed is clear. Finally, when the train passes beyond the third bridge, another signal firm on the same post drops, showing the driver of an approaching train that there is nothing on the next two blocks ahead.

— Till the Reformation there had been practically no schism and no difficulty in this country: the State religion was the religion of the Church of Rome. After the Reformation a most perplexing problem presented itself. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism in a long and terrible controversy struggled for the mastery. At the accession of Elizabeth the victory had been won, so far as England was concerned, by Protestantism, and Protestantism was the accepted religion of the nation. As such it was the duty of every loyal citizen to uphold it; it became with the throne one of the two pillars on which the fabric of the State rested. Roman Catholicism became identified with the political and mercantile rivals and enemies of England; Protestantism became identified with her lovers and upholders. Thus the church and the throne became indissoluble, at oiice the symbols, centres, and securities of political harmony and union. This accounts for the attitude of Hooker, Spenser, Shakespeare, and Bacon towards Episcopalian Protestantism on the one hand, and Roman Catholicism and Puritans on the other. — Saturday Review.

— A New York hotel is said to use a machine that washes and dries 1000 dishes in an hour. Two persons attend it.

— Almost 58 per cent, of the steam tonnage of the merchant navies of the world sails under the British flag.

—It is estimated that 18,000,000 .tons of coal are imported into London every year, of which amount 7,288,000 tons come by sea.

— That the Japanese consider salted whale-mea-t a delicacy would appear by the quantities purchased. The whales are caught off the coast of Korea, the flesh and blubber cut up, salted, -and sent to Japan for sale as iood. . Over 2,000,0001b of the whale-meat was imported into Nagasaki alone last year.

— The British Army is now"- stronger in point of numbers than it has been at any time in the last 20 years, for it comprises some 230,000 men. . —It is said that the skin of an elephant usually takes about five years to tan. —In small hotels in Russia each guest is expected to find his own bed-clothing. —In 10 years the descendants of two rabbits will number 70,000,000. •—It is estimated that there are 1,000,000 .blind people in the world, or one to every ■1500 inhabitants. Reports show 23,000 blind .persons in England, -or 870 for each million inhabitants. Blind, infants of less than five years, 166 for each million ; between five and 15, 288; between 20 and 25, 4-22; between 45 and 60, 1625 ; and above 65 years, 7000 for each million. . Russia and Egypt are the countries wKere the blind constitute the ■largest proportionate number to total population.

— Tree and shrub planting along the Suez Canal to protect -it from drifting sand is in progress. Reeds have been placed along about nine miles of waterline of the canal proper and along the whole length of the •Sweetwater Canal. These reeds are at first protected against &he violence of the bank eddies caused by passing ships by fascines, ■while on the slopes and top of the banks of the canal plantations of shrubbery have been set out. A system of irrigation has been organised for these plantations, the water coming from the Nile by the canals excavated when the Ship Canal was being built. The results so far have been very promising. — The largest stone ever quarried has been extracted from a granite ledge near Vinalliaven, Maine, U.S.A., to serve as one of the eight columns destined to support the great dome of the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, in New York. In the rough the stone measures 64ft In length, and is B£ft thick and 7ft wide, its weight being 310 tons. To turn it into cylindrical form, a lathe that will cosl more than 15,000d0l muFt be specially built. — The Island of Luzon, in the Philippines, contains one of the recognised races of dwarf men, the Aetas, whose average height is only 4ft Bin or 4ft 9in. They dwell among the mountains in ,the interior of the island, and are allied to the Andainanese, inhabiting islands in the Bay of Bengal. It is remarked by a recent writer that all of the dwarf races survive only in the most inaccessible parts of the continents or islands to which they belong. ; __ The Czarina has a shawl which she values very highly. It Mas sent her by the ladies of Orenburg, a town in South-eastern Russia. It reached her in a wooden box with silver liooks and hinges, the outside being embellished with designs of spears, turbans, whips, etc., on a ground of blue enamel, that being the colour of the CossacTc uniform. The shawl is about 10yds square, but it is so exquisitely fine that it can be passed through a-ringr, and when folded makes a small parcel of a few inches only.

—It is a remarkable fact that, whereas in 1830 the market price of a Great Auk's egg ■was no more than ss, Lord Garvagh's specimen was bought from Dr Troughton in 1869 for £64- ; Sir Vauncey Or ewe, in 1894-, paid £315 for one; in 1897 another was knocked down in London for £294-, and a slightly cracked specimen went about the same time for £168 ; whilst not so very long ago a couple of these eggs, the appearance^ of which in the market is very lare, were" purchased at a country sale for 365, ancl re-sold for £456 15s — The tiniest married couple in the world are Fatma and Smaun, two midgets who hail from the East Indies. Smaun is 20in "in his sandals," and Fatma 2in shorter than her lord. — Hungarian peasants like to have a good time when somebody dies. A wealthy farmer nt Szabadka recently left 1500 acres of land and a large sum to his nephews. In his pockets were found £1000 in cash. This sum, it was decided, he had set aside for a sumptuous funeral, so the bells were kept ringing two days, and everybody was royally entertained.

— The most easily digested meats are mutton chops, venison, sirloin of beef, lamb chops, rabbit, and chicken.

— The number of Buddhists is computed to be 455,000,000.

—It is estimated that at the beginning of 1901 England will have 82,000,000,000 tons of coal still unused and available.

■ —In France gloves were known as far -back as tlie eighth century, for in the year 790 Charlemagne granted an unlimited right to abbots and monks of Sithin to make gloves and girdles from the skins of the deer they