MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3033, 1 May 1912, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—lt is estimated that there are 46,000 foreigners in China. Dresden has opened a bathing establishment for dogs. Shepherd girls in French Switzerland wear men’s clothes. A railway tunnel will soon undermine the great wall of China. Half the silk used throughout the world comes from China and Japan. Sixty thousand elephants are slaughtered every year to supply the world with ivory. About 327,000 tons of coal are burned pvery week in London. Women take the place of newsboys in many of the streets of Spanish towns. —ln ono year the United States of America has yielded 41,000,000 tons of coal. Germany possesses 1500 moving-picture thews, of which there are 360 in Berlin. A needle-manufacturing machine is capable of producing 1,500,000 needles a week Over 50 tons of railway tickets are issued in a year by one English railway company. The population of India is over seven times as large as that of the United dom. Ninety-nine miles is the total length of the Suez Canal and the width is just over 121 ft. For over 1400 years no woman has ever entered the monastery of Saint Catherine, on Mount Sinai. —So ancient is the City of Damascus in Syria that there is no record of its origin in any written histories. The doll is probably the most antique of toys. It has been found inside the graves of the children of Ancient Rome. Careful investigation has shown that the English measure, rod, pole, or perch, owes its origin to the pole, or goad, which was used to direct oxen. When opals are first taken from the mine they are so soft that they can be picked to pieces with the finger-nail. Whistling, according to some physicians, will do much towards the development of a robust physical frame. Talent, according to a scientist, is more frequently handed down to a child from the father than from the mother. Though seldom used, there is a service of desecration in the Church of England when consecrated buildings cease to be employed for sacred purposes. Australians and New Zealanders arc the greatest meat-eaters in the world. The former eat 2621 b of meat a year each, and the latter 2121 b, while the British only eat 1051 b and Americans 1851 b. —ln Santa Clara, California, there is a church constructed from the wood of a single oak tree. The building is 30ft wide and 70ft deep, yet when it was completed there still remained a considerable quantity of the tree unused. ,A.t the Prison of St. Paul’s, at Lyons, there is a curious collection of pons. They are the pens with which the executioners have signed the regulation receipts for the prisoners handed over to them to bo guillotined. At each execution a fresh pen Is used for the purpose, and the ink is left to dry upon it. The 20 large diamonds in the British Crown are worth £ISOO each, and the cent re diamonds £2OOO each. The value of all the gems in the Crown is at least £IOO 000. Railway stations in Sweden at which meals arc served arc indicated by the simple but suggestive picture of a crossed knife and fork opposite the name of the station in the time-table. A doctor declares that if only 20 minutes a day were spent in physical exercise as an adjunct to mental education, most people might live to 70 without a day’s illness, and perhaps prolong their lives to 100 years. A Socialistic Paris boot manufacturer who has just retired from business after making a comfortable fortune, has presented his factory, stock, machinery, plant, and goodwill to his employees, to be carried on by the workers as a co-partnership concern. Hindoo children are remarkable for their precocity. Many of them are skilful workmen at an age when European children are learning the alphabet. A-boy of seven may bo a skilful wccd-carver, while some of the handr'omes*; rugs are woven by children not yet in their teens. sorbs dampness, by extracting moisture from the air as well as from the brick or stone on which it grows. It is the dampness of these which helps to give life to the plant, so that the interior of the house is rendered drier than it otherwise would be. The world’s largest book is being manufactured for a Chinese medical firm, and it will contain all the testimonials "C----garding their goods. The book will weigh 12001 b, bo 3ft thick when closed, and -ts dimensions when open will be 3J.ft by 7ft. There will bo a specially-constructed table for the huge volume. Thirteen sons, all under the ago ot six, is the unique family record of Mr Frank Scott, of Kansas. The six oldest arc triplet sets. The first three are five and a-half years old. the others a year younger. The next two are three, the next pair two. while the three babies are two months old. All if their names begin with “A.” Another star has been placed in the United States flag on the admission of New Mexico to the Union as the forty-se/ertli State. The flag of the United States will now consist of 13 stripes on the one side (representing the original 13 States of the Union and 47 stars on the other (the num her of States now existing). Contrary to general opinion, the mosquito is most common within and about the Arctic Circle. On coasting trips to the North Cape vessels are sometimes invaded by maddening swarms at every stoppingplace. In Alaska they arc said to form clouds so dense that it is impossible for sportsmen to aim at objects beyond, while native dogi are sometimes killed bv them.

Planned to throw a projectile weighing 20001 b with armour-piercing velocity a distance of 15 miles, a new record-breaking 16in gun has been designed by the United States Navy Department. The gun will be 67ft long, and a new type of supcr-Drcad-nought will be necessary for its use. No battleship now in commission in any of the world’s navies cou'd withstand without injury the firing of the new weapon. At present tho largest rifle on any warship is a Win gun, firing a projectile of 14001 b 11 miles. History gives 68 sentimental names io Emperors and Kings whom it chronicles says Current Literature. For instance, Charles VIII of France had the alias appellation of “the affable”; Philippe I of France, that of “ the amorous ”; Alphonsus XI of Loon and Castile, “ the avenger " ; Victor Emanuel, “ re galantuomo.” etc.

Many potentates are ranked by history under the same alias. Eight are “ good,’’ 41 are “ great,” seven are “ conquerors,” two “cruel,” two “fair,’ and four “fat.” But none is suraamed “the happy.” ■ —The Provincial Government of Manitoba is making arrangements for the policing of the new territory, equal to two-thirds the size of the German Empire, which is to bo included within the new boundary if that province. This new territory, which bes to the north and east, and which will extend the limits of the province to the sixtieth parallel north latitude and to the Hudson Lay, has hitherto been under the control of the North-west Mounted Police. The new scheme will probably embrace the appointment of a commissioner who will, in tne added capacity of provincial coroner, have the policing of the new territory. It is stated that tiiis Tatter question will involve the appointment of patrols, the work of which will he similar to that of the Norh-west Mounted Police