MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3034, 8 May 1912, Page 59

MULTUM IN PARVO.

Fo- 1911-1912 the total estimated number of men in the German navy exceeds speed of 99 miles an hour has been attained in an aeroplane. Hm-h,* —ln the reign of Charles II th e . burning of coal was accounted a public nuisance supplies Great Britain withthe greater proportion of her poultry and eggs. Shipping casualties of all nationalities last year totalled 108 vessels, with a tonnage of 114,231. . . Five thousand pounds a year is the salary of the Speaker of the House of Commons. . .■• . Army statistics for last year show that there were only four foreigners in tne British army. , , —Coal mines cannot be worked to a greater depth than 4000 ft, because of the high temperature that prevails. —ln the Argentine Republic a law has been recently passed making it compulsory for all citizens to vote. The shortest recruit in France is Alain Guegan, of Brest, who measures 3ft 4-bin Sixty vears ago there were only 150,000 children at school m India. INow there are 4,000,000. . . Twenty minutes of rain in a year is eometimes all that southern Egypt gets, and there is no dew in that country. —An interesting experiment was made at the Pau aerodrome, when a typewriter taken up together with his machine, wrote his impressions in the air at a height of I \_?O n e hundred thousand bales of cotton would in 1800, have lasted' the Lancashire mills 'for a year; now the same «™>unt only feeds their spindles for a day and. a "^!*ln e China, opium is often used as a medium of exchange, instead of money It is much less cumbersome to carry than the clumsy money called cash ot the country, and travellers are sure of always being able to dispose of the drug again without difficulty. , . , of Baroda is stored a carpet which cost £200,000. It is only 10ft by 6ft in m«s, but it is woven from strings of pure pearls, with a centre and corner circles of diamonds. It took three years to make. —ln Bazil the "giboia," a species ot snake, is largely sold for the P«!P°» °J keeping down rats and other vermin They a.re quite harmless, very beautiful and graceful in appearance and sleep in the daytime, doing their hunting at night. Smoker? in the United Kingdom last year consumed over 3,000,0001 b of tobacco more than in 1910. involving an increased expenditure of £967,622, whilst the years smole bill amounted to £29,164,867 which works out roughly at about 21b of tobacco per head of the whole population. —ln France there has long existed a custom on New Year's Day of leaving visiting cards with the prefect of the department in which the caller resides Last year on e prefect, however, publicly announced that he did not wish to be so favoured, as he had not sufficient clerks to reply to the 1200 cards that he re- — A cat-lover, Walter Scott, has started a free hotel for cats at Cheshire, Connecticut. Himself an innkeeper, he has fatted up a large room in the basement of ins hostelrv, and there homeless cats can take refu"e"and get three square meals a day. There are now over 100 cats in the free hotel. Mr Scott is so satisfied with his experiment that he is taking steps to establish a chain of hotels for cats. The highlv original will of a bachelor, Emil von Brizonv, is published in the Hungarian papers. M. von Brizony, the brother of a. well-known Hungarian deputy, •was 65. detested women, and was on bad terms with all his relatives. Although the owner of a great deal of land, he lived so frugallv that he did not spend the tenth part of his income. In his will he bequeathed all his real and personal property to his 12 draught horses. The Lyons Society of the " Loan of Honour," which lends money to clerks, operatives, and others in pecuniary distress, has had a striking success. The sole obligation of the borrowers is to promise on their word of honour to return within a certain time the amount lent. During the last fiscal year sums ranging from 25s to £l2 were lent to 384 persons, of whom 68 were women. Most of the loans have been paid back either fully or in part, and the society has not had to put down more than £4O to the "profit and loss" account. Looking-glasses ar e banned among the members of some sects in Holland. In a letter from "Vosbergen, written by Lecky in August, 1893, he describes a. visit to "two old-world villages on the banks of the Zuvder Zee. where a very beautiful distinctive costume is universally worn; and the people have quite a distinct type a sinsrularly beautiful one, with thin, delicate lips, and a curious air of refinement. They are very prosperous, and their houses, with their china and silver ornaments and great Bibles with silver clasps, and perfecly preternatural neatness, are very interesting to see. They seem well educated, are extremely religious—some, I am told, considering the use of a lookingglass wrong—and have three_ distinct churches, representing different inflections of Calvinism." The word "university" was applied nearly 1000 vears ago to groups of learned mi>n who had come together in the great cities of that time, and were selected and honoured by the King, and incorporated under Roval charter in order to promote study and learning. The King or his great Ministers xrave them lands and privileges, and especially, with a view to proclaiming their authority and to induce students to follow their teaching, accorded to them the exclusive right of "conferring decrees" —that is to say. titles of honour indicating that the recipient was an approved pupil, or. in the cane of the higher degrees, n valued associate pnd equal of the members of the learned corporntion. In the course of time "colleges." specially endowed societies having their own common residence and hall, were established by pious benefactors of the old universities.