MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2546, 31 December 1902, Page 55

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— r A smart uieco of .work has been performed at Halifax by the Corporation Electricity Department. The engines at a large factory brcflce down, and in three days 60yds of cable bad been laid and a large motor fixed and .'connected. By the following day another large motor was fixed, and the ■whole of the mill placed in full working order. Without the aid of electricity the mill would have had to stand idle for two or three weeks. A. person named Marius, well known in the Paris press world as having for many years acted as a messenger and in other capacities in various newspaper offices, was found dead in bed one morning recently. The doctors state that death wae due to natural causes, and that Marius was not a man but a woman. Marius was 62 years o!jd, and - had from childhood, masculine attire. — The Cardiff Town Council provid&s us with yet another example of the advantage ©f co-ordination between different municipal departments. As its tramcars get too old to stand the heavy demands made «>n t'j€m for* traffic, it proposes to tise them, witlv a little suitable decoration and fitting up, as park shelters. — r It has often beeo. urged, that man could not travel at a greater speed than 60 miles an hour, as no driver could stand the strain upon the nerves. An experienced engineer has, however, declared that when a man is running his engine at a mile a minUte he has reached the limit of mental strain, and an extra half-mile a minute could not add to his task. Further, the same authority gives the reassuring information that if a train going at the rate of 100 miles ah hour were wrecked, the consequences •would be no worse tban if the speed had -been 60 miles. — At a recent ploughing match, in Wiltshire, mingled excitement and amusement were aroused by the unexpected appearance in the field of a young lady, with plough and horses, who oxprecsod her intention^ of competing in the match. Wten her time came, she weit quietly to work, confining her attention strictly to the business in hand, and with, such excellent results fchat at the end of the .match it was found that the girl competitor had outdistanced all her rivals, having not only done the best worlc, but having finished 1+ minuses ahead of any of the other competitors. — The novel invention of Professor Artemieff gives security to workers in laboratories using high-tension electric ourrents. It is a safety dress of fine but closely -woven ■wire gauze, weighing 3.31b, and completely enclosing the wearer, including hands, feet, and "head. The cooling surface is so great that a powerful current passed for several eecdnds from one hand to the other without perceptible heating. Clad in this armour, the -inventor received discharges from currents of 75,000 to 150,000 volts, and handled live wires at pleasure all without aay aensation of electric shock.

— "Push-ball," V an American game which is,, said to have superseded football in the United States, bm& made its .appearance in England, and was first played publicly in the grounds of the Crystal Palao* recently. The game is played with a. ball 6ft in diameler, and eight men on either side endeavour to push the monster jver the goalline, which counts two points, or between thg goal posts, which counts three. The game is slower than football, but it has its exoiting moments, especially when the ponderous ball is raised aloft and there is a doubt in which direction it will be forced. — A pair of white tgfbves is proverbially associated in the region, of tho law with an absence of crime; it is a noveJty to record a similar presentation in connection with Poor Law administration. At Reading, however, tho chairman of the Board of Guardians has been the recipient of a pair of white kid gloves because there was no new' application for relief to be heard at the usual meeting of the guardians. In acknowledging the gift, the ohairman mentioned the significant fact that although the population of the Beitehire capital had more than doubled in the last 30 years, the weekly cost of out-relief was now £10 less.

— A curious industry, that of fox-farm-ing, is pursued in Alaska. It originated in the desire to preserve the valuable bhie fox from extermination. The experiment wa.3 begun by placing 20 foxes on An unoccupied island. In the course of a few years come 30 islands were thus turned into fox ranches. It was found that the animals soon became sufficiently domesticated io cease fearing their keepers, and to assemble at feedingplaces. Eight hundred or a thousand foxes arc included in » ranch. At the proper age a certain number are killed for their pelts. The business appears U> pay well, and it is suggested that other fur-bearing animals might be domesticated and propagated in a similar manner.

— Tho Admiralty have decided to call the new battleship to be built at Portsmouth the New Zealand. Another of the new battleships is to be named the Maori, and out' of complimont to the Federal Empire, there is Already an Australia in. the navy. It is understood that the practice of going to heathen mythology for names for our warships has been definitely abandoned, and that instead ships will be named after counties, countries, and towns of the- Empire. Famous old ships' names are, however, to be perpetuated, and as most of these are classical, it follows that we- phall have ehlps christened after heathen gods and goddesses in our navy for some years to come.

— White everyone knows .hat the piano is a popular instrument, few persons have any idea how many pianos are sold each year. Recently, however, statistics have been compiled in regard to the manufacture of European pianos, and they show that 127,065 were manufactured and sold in Leipzig alone during the last year. O£ theseinstruments 55,297 were bought by residents of England ; Australia came next, purchasing aibout half as many instruments as mere shipped to England : then in succession came Russia. Holland, Italy, Switzerland, the Argentine Republio, Austria, Denmark, Norway. Brazil. Mexico, and, finally, France. Russia bouglit 9362 pianos, Holland 6393, Italy. Switzerland, and the Argentine Republic, between-flflOOO and 3000 each, and Franca 594. —Dr Nagel. an eminent German oculist. has again been investigating the effects of wearing veils, and has examined the ca-cs of £8 women whose eyesight has been injured by this practice. He finds that the eize of the mesh, the distance of the veil from the eyes, and the colour of the veil are tho determining differences, aud that 75 per cent, of the women who habitually wear veils, by neglecting to take account of these matters, impair their sight, this result being brought about by the average defective veil in « D&rjcd. qi four years.