MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 75

MULTUM IN PARVO.

Tho Society for the Protection of Birds in England has over 6000 associate©. Nineteen cases of murdter were reported to Scotland Yard in 1908. —ln tho United Kingdom- last year 2,907,400,000 letters were delivered. The United Kingdom’s total output of coal last year was 261,528,785 tons. To maintain a child in a truant Echool costs on an. average £2B 4s a year. Last year 84,825,000 telegrams passed over the.wires of the United Kingdom. Tho value of postage stamps affixed to postal orders in Great Britain, is about £250,000 a year. —At the dissolution, in January, 1906, the Unionists had a majority in Parliament of 72. —ln three months 7,925,150 old-age pension orders were cashed in the United Kingdom. We are all reformer© when hard luck knocks at the door. —New York American. The world finds no room for pessimists in its literature' or life.—Dr Horton. The lazy man, whether at the top- or the bottom of society, is a sick man. —Rev. M. O. Hodson. This world is a hospital of incurables, At least, I never knew anyone to go out. of it alive. —Father Bernard Vaughan. —lf there were no struggle iu. life, nothing to overcome, it would be extremely dull and bad for everybody. —Sir Oliver Lodge. There is no satisfaction in idleness. The woman who makes no practical use of her leisure hours is almost invariably discontented.—“'World and His Wife.” So far, greater attention has been paid to the lirnprovement of the physical qualities of domestic animals than of human beings.—Mr F. W. Eastman, in Harper’s Magazine. Among simpler people nowadays selfimprovement is the fashion. They read., and reason, and 1 make rules, and form societies with this object. They talk of it, and write of it, and’ arc not ashamed. — Spectator. Probably the oldest working miner in England is Mr William Talbitt, aged 68, who for the hist 57 years has worked at Scaham Colliery, Durham. Steaming with the wind and the tide, tho unarmoured cruiser Bcllona, over a measured mile, attained a speed of 28.2 knots. —At Willesden it was stated that a policeman had been stabbed in the chest .with a hatpin by a woman. His notebook saved him from injury. • Through a large rat running into the spokes of his bicycle, Mr H. J. Gibson, a Dover photographer, was thrown from his machine whilst riding to Folkestone. He sustained a fractured arm. After an old-age pensioner who had lived on charity for many yeans had died at Marlborough, 'Wiltshire, nearly £2OO was found hidden in her bedroom, and it was ascertained that she had £4OO in a bank. Marine Service at the end of 1908 were 6SO boys who had been in industrial schools. Only 2082 summonses brought by the London Metropolitan Police in 1908 were dismissed, against 24,366 convections. 'While the House of Commons is sitting visitors are not permitted on the terrace, even though accompanied by a member. . —Worn bronze coin to the value of over £SOOO was withdrawn from circulation in 1908, through the various post offices at the request of the "Royal Mint. Mon in the army who are pipe smokers are found to be more alert and neater than cigarette smokers. “Defective eyesight, nerve trouble, heart affection, and bad teeth” are a few of the ailments which tho army authorities attribute to excessive smoking by young soldiers, especially of cigarettes. —lt ivas reported to the Rocbford (Essex) Board of Guardians'that an inmate of the workhouse who had died had been found to possess securities of the face value of over £IOOO. When decorating a dinner table (says Hearth and Home) the idea should be so as to arrange the flowers that they will appear to grow from the table cloth, and net give that artificial appearance flowers in a vase always have. Mr Thomas Ashford, a. rural messenger who covers a daily round of 20 miles in the ! Whit wick district of Leicestershire, is the only postman in tho British Isles who has the right to wear the Victoria Cross. Canon Horsley, the newly-appointed mayor of Southwark, is about to open the crypt of his church, St. Peter’s, Walworth, as a restaurant, where free and cheap meals will be served to the poor children of the district. According to its newly-elected mayor, Councillor H. J. Clarke, Islington, with its 124 miles of streets, area of five- miles, ratable value of £2.000.000. and annual expenditure of £200,000, is the largest parish in the world. The oldest wooden building in the world is a .church at Borgund, in. Norway, built in .the eleventh century. The oldest university in the world is at Cairo, dating from 975. To make a modern English gentleman, wash a large ted stockjobber; brush and trim ; baste all over with money : arrange in a luxurious West End house; surround with “ puff” paste; then serve up hot; will keep for months. —The Maxims of Mar* maduke. The inn known as the “Same Yet” at Preswieh. England, has a curious history, which Mr Hack wood relates: —“The house originally bore, the ‘ Seven Stars,’ but many years ago it became necessary to. have its faded sign repainted. When the painter asked the landlord what was to be put on tho board he received the answer; ‘ The tame yet.’ And the men took him at his word.” . A scheme, the ingenuity of which is almost startling, was put forward at a. recent meeting of the Paris Municipal Council. As is well known, the depopulation of France is a constant preoccupation of French statesmen. But on the other hand, Paris landlords often refuse their fiats to families with many children because the other tenants object to them upon the score of noise. The' proposition laid before the council is that paterfamilias shall pay smaller rates in the ratio of the number of IMs. children. The more children a manjEas the lower would be his rates. the scheme might be. expanded. llmP* town, of Paris offered a bonus to landmrds for every child in their .houses, lau-i'lorfls would soon welcome large