MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 2649, 21 December 1904, Page 70

MULTUM IN PARVO

— Italy and Spain have fewer houses in proportion to their population than any other country in the world. Tne Argentine Republic and Uruguay have the most.

— The Vienna police are about to experiment with a phonograph in taking a prisoner's answers to questions asked m the preliminary examination, so that when the actual trial takes place there may be no disputes as to what he said. — VV nile man has approached the North Pole within 238 miles, no one has yet stood within 772 miles of the South Polo.

— Among the Alvs there are several post offices at a height 6f 6000 ft or 7000fu Ore letter box, irom which the postman makes four collections daily, is nearly 10,000£t above the sea level.

— The members of the Lancashire County Police Force have presented to the various townships over which they have jurisdiction 46 handsome ambulance carriages, many of them costing over £100. The money for these has been raised by meais of football matches and sports.

— In Brtissels every school child is medically examined once every 10 days. Its eyes, teeth, ears, and general physical condition are overhauled. If it looks weak and puny they give it doses of eodliver oil or some suitable tonic. At midday it gets a substantial meal, thanks to private benevolence, assisted by communal funds, and the greatest care is taken to see that no child goes ill-shod, ill-clad, or ill-fed. — The memorial to the late Duke of Clarence in the Albert Chapel at Windsor Castle is now receiving its finishing touches. It is a striking piece of work of great delicacy, abounding m artistic detail. Small symbolical figures, one of them a knight in full armour worked in ivory and silver, stuo. the body of the monument, which is surmounted by a kneeling winged figure.

— The Hotel Savoy, in New York, plumes itself upon the possession of the largest mirror in the world. Only two steamships on the ocean — one of them the Friesland, in which it was carried — have room in their holds to stow ay/ay such a large package. It is a little more than 13ft square, and is nearly £in thick. To get this perfect plate five different glasses had to be cast. It was made at the St. Gabian Glassworks, in Paris, an dis so far its chef d'eeuvre in that direction.

— The parish of Montensthorp, three miles from Oakham, contains a single house, with four inhabitants. The house is part of a hall nearly all fallen into decay. Occasionally the church service Is read there. Llancourt, three miles from Chepstow, is another one-dwelling parish, with four inhabitants. It has a ruin of a church, where services are held at long intervals.

— In Scotland Gaelic is still the language of more than 200,000 persons. Indeed, 30,000 people can speak and understand no other tongue. In Lewis, for instance, out of a population of 29,000, no fewer than 10,000 speak Gaelic only. — A single unfurnished room in Johan-^ nesburg costs, with electric light, from £3 to £6 per month, while small houses of about four rooms are eagerly taken up at £15 per month. The cost of building brick houses in a substantial manner at the present time may .be estimated at lid per cubic foot, or, say, £200 per room for medium-sized houses, while stands 15ft by 100 ft range from £75 each in the lessfavoured suburbs, say two miles south cf the town, to £600 and mor in the nearer and more fashionable districts in the north

— Belfast may be looked upon as the "headquarters of handkerchiefs," as one of the most nourishing industries of that goahead city is that of handkerchief-making. Competent authorities estimate the number of hands employed in Belfast and the North of Ireland at this industry at about 30,000. Only about 1 per cent, of these belongs to the male sex. It is a light, remunerative industry, and at the same time one of the most pleasant in which women can engage.

— Although everybody uses the telegraph, few people have an idea of the extent of its use. About 1,000,000 messages are sent over the world's lines every 24 hours. According to some returns recently iss-aed, the number of telegrams despatched in all countries in 1903 reached the enormous total of 364,848,474. As a user of the telegraph, Great Britain heads the list with 92,471,000, despatches. The United States is second with 91,391.000, and France comes third with 48.114,151. Germany, Russia, Austria, Belgium, and Italy" follow in the order named.

— A curious gift has been made to the Natural History Museum of Soletta. This gift consists of a bird's nest constructed entirely of steel. There are a great many watchmakers at Soletta, and in the vicinity of the workshops there are always the remains of the old springs of ivatohes which have been cast asid^e. Last summer a watchmaker discovered this curious bird's nest, which had been built in a tree in his courtyard by a pair of water wagtails. It measures 10 centimetres in circumference, and is made solely of watch springs. When the birds had fledged their brood the watchmaker secured their unique net,t as an interesting proof of the intelligence of birds in adapting anything which comes within their reach.

—An interesting jase of curing a drunkard by suggestion during his natural sleep was related by M. Farez at the annual meeting of the French Society of Hypnology and Psychology. The man was an habitual drunkard, who spent his whole time in cafes consuming wine, beer, rum, absinthe, vermouth, etc. Although not usually a "rowdy" alcoholic, he occasionally became very violent, and; at times refused any kind of treatment. Finally, suggestion was employed during sleep without the man's knowledge, and after some weeks he had no outbursts of violence, and improved steadily. After a year and a-half of this treatment he was entirely cured, and only drank a little light beer at his meals. _ — Represa, a convict prison in California, is unique in the fact that it possesses no wall. The grounds are studded with 19 guard posts, which are built of stone and wood, and resemble a system of lighthouses. They are built on salient points of observation, and 1 are fitted with Gatling machine guns, Winchester rifles, and shot guns. These posts are from 40ft to 60ft high, and are placed various distances apart, averaging 300 yds. No convinct is allowed to pass between the posts unless he has permission, or is accompanied by an officer or guard. Each poat is manned Dy a clever marksman, and is only accessible by a draw-ladder, which is pulled up after the post is occupied*