MITLTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2676, 28 June 1905, Page 59

MITLTUM IN PARVO.

—As an instance of tlia jealousy existing in the relations between Norway and Sweden, it may be noted that the boundary lino between the two countries is the most minutely exact in Europe- In every parish touched by the line there is deposited an elaborate plan, which is renewed every 10 years, the whole of the work of surveying, etc., being carefully repeated each time. — Durban has a large and growing export faade in coal and other colonial produce. Last year the output of coal from the colony was 860.080 tons, and in January of this year 84,500 t-ons were raised from the local collieries.

— A saf r> now being made for the Premier Diamond Mine Company is intended to hold £2,000,000 worth of diamonds. It will bs th© strongest safe ever constructed. Sevan feet high, 6ft wide, and weighing- 21 tons, it will cost between £1500 and £2000. The steel door alone will weigh five tons.

— Miss Elizabeth Miller, who is only 15 years of age, was married to Mr Frank Lapolla, aged 21, at Philadelphia. Both bride and bridegroom belong tt well-known prosperous Philadelphian families. The bride's mother was married at 16, her grandmother at 15, her aunt at 13, and her siste-r at 17. Her great-grandmother is only 62. All were present at the wedding. — A French medical man, in a single pound of dust taken from one of the bestkept streets in Paris, has found no fewer than 1,300,000 microbes, while in another street the sample produced as many as 2.100,000 specimens

— Chinese- newspapers, owing to the cheap quality of paper used ar.d to the iow price of labour, both literary and rreohanical, are issued at an extremely small figure. The price of the ordinary Shanghai journal is four cash, or aboxit oie-tenth of a penny. —The largest piet'ire ever painted has been completed by a French aa-tist after eight years' labour. The subject is the funeral of M. Garnot, and the canvas measures 150 square yards. — A shorthand writer in Berlin attends the funerals of prominent persons, anrl takes down verbatim the addresses of the officiating clergymen. He prepares highlyornamented copies of these, and sells them to the friends of the eulogised dead. He is doing a pi'ofitable trade. —An Indian shooting 1 record has been seb up by Stir Philip Grey-Egertoji, of Oulton Park, Cheshire, who, with a party of nine- guns, accounted for 2839 head of game ir. two days. Sir Philip brought down 307 birds, beating all previous individual x&cords.

— For tlie purpose of demonstrating the skill of British workmen, a Stockporb brickla jer has issued a challenge for the bricklaying championship of the world. He guarantees to lay 20CG bricks in eight hours.

—No fewer than 57 British peers have no heirs to succeed them. That number of titles is, therefore, likely to become extinct on the death of their present holders.

— Cheaper great-coats for soldiers meant a saving last year to the British nation of £19,139; shoulder-cords instead of straps saved £9375; abolition of rank badges on the left arm of full dress saved £6000. — The Japanese army is recruited by conscription., but only 25 of the strongest and healthiest are picked out of every 100 men called up for service; the remainder are sent in to the reserve. — The water is so dear in the> fiords of Norway that objects liin in diameter can be distinctly seen at a depth of 150 ft. — That drinking much water lessens weight instead of increasing it — causing one to grow thin instead of fat— is the surprising result of recent experiments of M. Maurel. . — All buildings owned by the Chinese Emperor are painted yellow, and it is a capital offence for any private person to use that colour. In Iceland men and women ar©_ in every respect political equals. The nation, which numbers over 70,000 people, is governed by representatives elected by both men and women.

— With plenty of water and without solid food a horse will live 25 days; with solid food- and without water he will live only — Among female Moors birthday celebrations are unknown. A Moorish woman considers it a. point of honour to be- absolutely ignorant of her age. — The receipts- of the railway companies of the United Kingdom from passenger traffic are not so large as their revenue from the carriage of goods, although the difference i 3 not very considerable. Roughly speaking, the annual income of our railway companies is £100,000,000, of which 53 per cent, conies from goods traffic and 1 M per cent, from passengers. — Portraiture of the feet is the latest fashion in American photography. Ladies are taken in the smartest stockings and 6hoes, with just a few ruffles of thg petticoat showing, or as Nature made them, without any covering, resting on a, velvet cushion, with a hint of lingerie above. Attending th© parish church Sunday school at Crowhurst is a widow named Mrs White. She was born in 1828, and is at the present moment upon the register as a scholar. Eight boys assembled m the cnurcnyard at Wootton, and with -the. forefingers of their right hands resting on a tombstone competed lor the charity of 40s, bequeathed by William Glanville to those boys who most correctly recited the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Seven of the boys were awarded £2 each.

—Of all forms of diet none are so curative as. fruits, and of these probably the ,-apple is king. A French physician has lately discovered that the bacillus of typhoid lives but a short time in apple juice. Of fruits generally, as remedial agents, it may be said that sloes contain phosphates, which are of benefit for bloodlessness and brain fag ; mulberries, cherries, and strawberries relieve gout and rheumatism; gooseberries correct the ill-effects of too rich I foods, and red and white currants purify the blood. Baked bananas are among the most easily-digested foods. — It is said that the phrase "The glorious uncertaintj of the law" originated with a London lawyer named Wilbraham, at a ! dinner of judges and counsel held at SserI jeants Hall, London, in 1756, shortly after 1 the elevation of William Murray— Lord Mansfield— to the Lord Chief Justiceship and a barony. The toast of "The Glorious MemoTy of King William" having been honoured according to the then prevailing manner, Ml- Wilbraham proposed, amid great laughter. "The Glorious Uncertainty of the Law," in sarcastic allusion to Lord Mansfield's frequent reversals of former decisions. , , I —MM. Vasehide and Toulouse have shown by experiments that women have a finer sense of smell than men. This ; « true not only for the sensation itself, but the recognition of odours. Their results were originally communicated to the Society ot Biology, F^nce. M. Vaschide has now his research* to 1 1» sense « For sweet and acid men and women have an almost equal sensibility, both in sensation and perception. —An extraordinary hobby is that ot a gentleman living in one of London s suburbs It fakes the form of boot-dean-insr Every member of his household is stibiecl to his whim; even the servants axe not exempt. Nor does his eccentricity stop with the wieldrig of the blacking-brush, since for polishing each pair of boots he exacts a peany payment. These pence are, however, put aside, to be returned, largely augmentedi to the givers at Christmas.

— Society ladies in the town of Hapa* randa. in Sweden, have just arrived at an interesting decision on a point of street etiquette. They have decided to relieve men of the necessity of doffing their hats to Iddies m tho streets as long as the cold weather lasts. It has gone forth that during the winter all that will be expected from men will he a military salute. The ladies took this step as the result of studying medical statistics, which established the fact that in winter there are thi - ee times more men than women suffering from cold, neuralgia, toothache, and influenza.