MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 69

MULTUM IN PARVO

— Imitating tlun land ships now employed in sailing on the sands of the Calitornian and New Mcx.can de;crts, and successfully used for pleasure on the southern beaches and in many other parts of the United States, a builder lias made "sailing carriages" for use in the Egyptian deserts.

— The Scottish lilue Book just i=sued •shows that persons convicted of minor offences in Scotland prefer to go to prison rather than pay fines. Of 92.205 prisoners oiclered to pay fines in Scotland last year, 45,561 went to prison. Ireland's population is about the -anw as that of Scotland, yet in the latter country tho imprisonments are nearly double those in Ireland — There are in Belgium four schools for the instruction of fishermen. The pupils are taught how to road weather charts, how to make the best u&e of currents, what the bottom of the sea is like, how to make tht'ii own net=, how to manage a boat in a storm, how to use the- latest inventions in the lino of fishing- apparatus, etc.

— Machinery in motion, accordiug to some authorities, deteriorates less quickly than machinery at a standstill. — The 'quaint little \illage of St. Cyrus, in Kincardineshire, has a curious annual custom. Some years- ago a legacy was left to the village to be disbursed in five equal parts every year. One part was set aside for the purchase- of meals for the poor, while the remainder was to be equally divided among the oldest, the youngest, the tallest, and the sliort-est brides married during the year in the parish church. The occasion of "measuring" is made a general holiday. — A .shark's egg is one of the oddestlooking things imaginable. It is unprovided with shell : but the contents are protected by a thick, leathery covering almost as ela-sHc as lndiarufcJ^ei*. The average s'z-e is 2in by 2fin, and tho colour is almost pure black.

— When a Philippine lady of the better rlass gets married *he fometimes wears as her wedding dress a costume of native manufacture that is worth hundreds of pounds sterling. It takes months to make a handkerchief or a sleeve, so microscopic and delicate is the fabric.

— Fiom 800,000 to 1,000,000 persons go to tl c public baths cf Tokio daily, and there arc tens of thousands of private baths besides. That is a good showing for a 'city with a population of less than 2.000,000.

— Within the communion rails of the parish church of Newbiggin, Cumberland, may be seen a pump. It was placed there move than a century ago, the village squire having p T .ese*ited the parish with a cemetery on condition that when his body was laid to rest in the family vault a model pump (his own invention) should be erected to his memory in tho sacred building. Since then water has been laid on, and a hosepipe placed conveniently near, so that in case of fire the old squire's memorial should h~> of practical use.

— Hair may be transplanted, and, in fmourahle circumstance 0 , will prow ais well in its new as in its original situation.

— The first muffs were made for doctors, who wished to keep their fing-ers soft and warm in order that the-y might accurately feel Iheir patients' pulses.

— Beef is never seen at a Chinese table, oxen and cows capable of working tke plough being accounted too valuable to the farmer to lx; consigned to the butclvr. For this reason very severe penalties are attached to the .slaughter of those animals.

—In some of the mpst remote parts of Norway corn is still used as a substitute for coin.

— AJore women attain the age of 50 than men, but afterwards the men have the better of it. •

—It is said that the Turks were the. first to bury their dead in cemeteries adorned with ornamental- headstones.

—In 1700 the amount of sugar used in Great Britain was 10.000 ions, in I£CO it had risen to 150,000 tons, and in 1903 the total quantity used was a-boui 1.500,000 ton-, or 78.71b per head of population. — The Turkish language ij said Dy scholars to bo the softest and mo=t musical language of modern times, being better adapted to the purpose of musical notation and recitation than even the Italian.

— About 12,000 letters are received at tha I-Jou^s of Commons every day during the session, or 18 for every legislator if they were all there. But of these 18, only fhe, it is stated, get answered in the Hou=c, which posts in its own letter-box about 3700, on an average, every day.

— Since the beginning of the new century the outlay on the United States Navy has advanced by more than £10,000,000, and now comes the information that £23,860,000 is to be the naval expenditure in the coming financial year. Twenty years ago America spent on 'its navy less than £3,0C0,000.

— A bee that works only at night is found in the jungles of India. It is an unusually large insect, the combs being often 6ft long, 4ft wide, and from 4in to 6in thick.

—If a delicate piece of lace be placed between an iron plate and a disc of gunpowder, and the latter exploded, the lace will be annihilated, but its impression will bo clearly stamped on the iron. — The United Kingdom spends during the current financial year £35,500,000 on ships, men, and stores, and £7,989.337 on naval works, making a total expenditure h\ one year of £43,4C9,387. As a contribution to this expenditure, India, with a total public expenditure of £74,000,000. and an annual trade value, of nearly £170,000,000, gives £100,000. TTie .=elf-governing colonies — Canada. Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa — with an expenditure of £62,000,000 and an annual trade value of £234,000,000, contribute £284.604-.

— The Persian army strikes a person seeing it for the first time with wonder, and he ie apt to imagine that he is gazing upon a gathering of oomic opera characters. To every three soldiers a donkey is assigned, foj 1 there is neither baggage train, nor commissariat. On this donkey is placed t'h<« worldly wealth of its three masters ard their musket«. Occasionally, as well, t]ie veiled wife of ori6 of the soldiers belirides th 6 beasf/.

- There are 115 widowers to every sfwidow & in England. In liAy the relat:\e lumbers ate 136 and 60; in France, 139 a"d 73 ; in Germany, 135 and 50 ; in Austria, 121 and 44.

— Llama-* are tlio chief Least* of lmi.i-'ii in Central Peru. The u-ual load for «ii' ar.mal is about ICOlb. If more i^ put upon iN back than it can oa-ih carry, the llama quietly kiice!-. and will not budge unul Xh ■ luad i» reduced.

— Tliorc wa- bcon no change in Hindoo VLme-n's. circus for 4COO \oars. All weai th"

""-an, ' a c ingle piece of stuff a j ard and a-quartcr wide. 10. 20, 30 jard* long. Ifc is arranged on the body, and form's <.kiir. gfiiiicnt, and \eil. b Mug fi/-t plcatr ! by hand m accordion fold- in froi't Vienna round and lound. and the r'clie-t end ir en broidcred cr woicn with gold. Anally brought o\i.r the head. It <uay be of simple cotton cloth; of -ilk. plain in design, vvoaoi. with golc'/jn thread?; solid with en broidery . strung with pearl-; oi of Kmcob, the royal cloth of golf.

- 2so bird, beist, or creeping t^iii^ will touch a castor-oil plant, ll , [ ecrib to be iank poison to all anirnaß K\en a goat will star\e before biting off a leat. and a hoiac wiil sn.ff at it and turn up im uppei li/ as though it had the mo=t ck-tr -table odour on the face of the cartli. Locusts will pafs it by. though thej may cat c\ery c-ther green thing m sight, and there no way to drive moles away from n •awn than to plant a few ca^ior beau- here ••'ml there. There is hardly another instance in natural history of a plant be.ng so mm er»aily' detested by the animal world.

—It is in tho hugo fot-c-ts of Canada where the biggc ->t motors in tho world are seen. They ha\e i-pcn specially deigned f"- haulms? log-* over mow and iou%ti roads. One of these machines h c->pab'j of dragging a tnin of 200 ton- weight < ' kv; - at a -reed of 12 miles an hour. .' is the only inacirne in exi-tence that- wi ciaw a hea-\y load through 3ft of &no' an I over riunips and log* Ift- in heigh It js of 25 ton- \v eight and 200 horse-p _>\i el it trivels on four runners, with a iracno. whe 5 ! in the centre weighing- se\ en tons I'.o machinery i- enclosed in a box-lib affair, giving tho motoi a somewhat ?tiang< appearance as it makes its v.ay nlon^ th< fcreM; read*.

—.In j.om> c-ou'i village* imoi;g tht r,r.icc=. Norwegians and Finn- v. omen are employed as sailors, and pro\e theinselve? t : Le cxperr mariners. In the smaller sailing ships, wheic the-re i> a woman or> board, vil^her she be tho wife of the skipper cr the stewardess, she is -expected to lai-e i'er turn at the ordinary work of ihc =aik>r, noi even excluding the duties of the man a<. the whfvl or of the night vatch. Denmr.ik employs several women ps =;tafc offi-c^'-lo at sea. Experienced caniru.is assert tluu the women make -excellent sadois. and are equal to most seamen in dexterity and y.cvrer of endurance.