MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2801, 20 November 1907, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—It is not a proof of strength to break your word. —Be sure you are in. good company •whenyou are alone. — 'Those who sing their own praises don't get encored. — Those entitled to respect do not require to demand it. — Always put off till to-morrow the regretsyou have for yesterday. — The man with a grievance never seems to h*ve an impediment in his speech. — General Sir Frederick Stephenson, G. 0.8., Custodian of the Tower of London, has just celebrated his eighty-sixth birthday. —The police watched the operations of a number of bookmakers and gamblers at Nottingham races through telescopes, and then arrested 18 of them. # —Mr James Pollitt, a chorister at A'ewton Heath, England, has been singmg in church since he was eight years of age. lie is now 81. The largest serpent ever measured was an -anaconda, which Dr Gardner found dead in Mexico. It was 37ft long, and it took two horses to drag it along. . — The maximum weight which an eagle ©an carry with comfort is about 71b. — Persia is to-day almost entirely dependent upon lithography for its own production of books and journals. Naturally these are very rare. — Fifty-two guineas was paid for a champion nig at Lincoln show. From hi 3 snout to the end of his tail he measured 7ft sin, or 7ft, not counting the tail and his girth was 6ft Bin. — Oldham is to have a garden city of 600 houses on 50 acres at Hathershaw, -within a penny tram ride from the centra of the town. "Seven Rouen Indian runner ducks ana ono splendid drake for twenty shillings; everlasting layers," are advertised for sale in an East Ham paper. __ — A statue of Sir Henry Irvjng js to be placed in Charing Crow road, London, near the National Portrait Gallery. «t will be- 9ft in height, and with pedestal and ornamental base 21ft. _ —In Holland meat for export must ov Jaw bear an official stamp as a guarantee of quality. Any infraction of the law entails severe penalties. — The Congo River is the most wonderful waterway in the world. It is 25 miles across in parts, so that vessels may pa«a Tine' another and yet be out of sight. It "h«3 twice- the extent of the navigable waters of the Mississippi and its tributaries. — A woman was granted a uummorf at Willesden against her husband for "refined cruelty." It was stated that the nusband bad his wife rated instead of himself. He then refused to give her the money to pay the rates, and allowed her to go to Pt _!?Within the Antarctic Circle there has never been found a. flowering plant. In the Arctic reationß there are over 700 different apecfos of flowers. . -— Yellow is the royal- colour of China. AH the palaces belonging to the Emperor are built or painted that colour, and it is a catritai offence for uny private person to use it without leave. , —In every mile of rariway there is Ytt 4iix that is not covered by the -<-ails. This is accounted for by the small spaces left between the length of steel to allow of expansion. — The '.'burning 1 mountain of Monfcet, In southern France, which is often mistaken for an active volcano, because a piliar of cloud rises -from it by day and » pilUr of fire by night, is in reality a coal mine which, has been burning for several years. —It was stated in a police- prosecution at Yarmouth the other day that spent bullets weighiner four tons three hundredweights were dug out of tho mound on the local rifle range, and sold for £24 10a • ton. This was the accumulation of two years. —It has been found that there are many left-eyed shots in the British army, "rticularly in regiments stationed in Ireland. As these men are much slower in firing, orders have been given to prevent men shooting- from the lfeft shoulder. — A deaf mute who was sent to prison At Willesden for being intoxicated could not understand th<> deaf and dumb alphabet, and could neither read nor write. As ther was no means of ascertaining his name, the maeUtrate committed him under the name of "John Smith." -7 Munich is to have one of the most beautiful graveyards in Germany. The city has purchased about 300 acres of romantic -forest land about five miles from its borders, which will be used as a. cemetery. It will be the first forest graveyard in Germany, and it is to be so used that ita idyUio character will be preserved. — Immediately after celebrating the sixtyseventh anniversary of their wedding day a couple named Kingsbury, living near Blandford (Dorset), have been separated By the deajkh of the wife. For over 60 years they occupied the same house. A son, aged 62. visited them regularly. The London General Omnibus Company has 14,200 horses in its stables, ?700 more than it had 11 years ago, notwithjjtandm* the advent of the motor bus. Eleven horses are allowed to each bus. and an avoracrf of 25 die each week. — Mri Lead, who has been postmistress ©f Bovey Tracey. for a period extending_almost be>ond the memory of the oldest inhabitant, has received an annuity of £40, <he money for it having been subscribed by present and past residents in the parish and neighbourhood. —An excited debate took place recently at the Blackburn Guardians' meetiz-g- on a proposal to make able-bodied paupera break 30 hundredweight of stone daily. It was said that two well-fed guardians had failed to do the work set for two inmates, one of whom was one-eyed and the other looked simple. — Mrs Cox, of Forest Hill, was stung- on fhe neck by a wa3p while entertaining a number of friends in celebration of her 105 th birthday, and died the same night. Mrs Cox was able to read and sew without the aid of glasses, and had not known a day's bad health for the past 37 years. Her husband, who died la3t year, was 88. * —One of the side shows which attract great attention at the Exhibition in Dublin is a model of the saloon provided by one of the railway companies for his Majesty's comfort when travelling to various • aces in England. The model is perfect in all its details. A penny in the- slot arrangement lights it up, and the money ia given to oharifcic

— A tramp who picked up a cheque for £5, payable to bearer, near Dorchester, promptly paid a visit to the bank and cashed it. Then feeling some qualms of conscience, he confided to the cahsier that he was certainly never intended to be the "bearer." Ascertaining the address of the person by whom the cheque was drawn, he walked to his residence, a neighbouring farmhouse, restored the money, and received as a reward for his. honesty a sovereign, supplemented by a iibcral supply of refreshment.

—Mr George Cadbury, speaking at the International Housing Congress recently, declared that garden cities such as Port Sunlight and Bouraville were doing much to improve the race physically. He declared that the boys of Bournville were four inches taller "and measured three inches more round the chest than the boy 3of the same age in Birmincham, while the death rate for the last six years in Bournville had baen 7.5 per 1000. compared with 17.9 in Birmingham. The infant mortality of Birmingham, he declared, was twice that of Bournville.

The Black Sea differs from all other seas and oceans. A surface current flows continuously from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, and an undercurrent 'rom the Mediterranean into the Black Sea. -the latter current is salt, and, being heavier than the fresh water above, remains stagnant at the bottom. Being saturated with sulphuretted hydrogen, this water wll not maintain life, and so the Black Sea contains no living inhabitants below about 100 fathoms. — When the Coast Erosion Comnussioner:J visiterj Walton-on-the Naze recently th<*y were shown a spot north of the pier and about a mile from the shore which was formerly a churchyard. A quarter of a century ago the tombstones could be seen under the water at ebb tide, but the sea has further encroached, and e^cn when tho tide is extraordinarily low and thg^ sea clear the old buryin is ■scarcely discernible now from the sealevel. , , . . — The Tokio Puck is the latest thing in Japanese journalism. It is a fcort of J*P Punch, with coloured pictures and -artoons hitting off the events of the day. The humour is served up both in English and Japanese. Instead of starting to real the Tokio Puck at the beginning of th« paper you commence at the end and read backwards. The witty paragraphs which arc printed in Japanese characters aro not printed to be read from left to right as we do. They are given in perpendicular sines : and are read from top to bottom. — A public ovation was accorded at St. Heliers, Jersey, to a London visitor, Mr Cecil Douglas, who had been imprisoned for knocking off a policeman's n*imet with an empty flower basket during the recent battle- of flowers. The visitor promptly expressed regret, but he was taken iii charge and sentenced to 24 hours imprisonment, the magistrate remarking that "the police must be protected. It was stated that the policeman had himself been throwing flowers. Much local indignation was aroused, and when Mr Douglas was liberated a large crowd welcomed him, and he was driven through the town in state.