MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3183, 17 March 1915, Page 64

MULTUM IN PARVO.

The albatross is the largest of sea wirds.

Our Grenadier Guards were first organised m 1660. Cats wore domesticated in Egypt as early as 1600 b.c. Two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water. Alsace-Lorraine has a population of nearly 2,00U,(XX). The Franco Prussian war lasted from July, 1870, to May, 1871. There are five persons to each house on an -average in Ireland. London hospitals have nearly 7 10,000 beds in daily c; upation. —Groats, or lourponny pieces, were last coined m Great Br.tam in i 856. ‘‘Etfeudi ’ in Turkish has its equivalent in the British ’'Esquire.” Umbrellas weie lirst used in London by a person named Hanway in 1786. Canals in the United Kingdom, if put end to end, would reach 4000 miles. for the first time th.s year. Founts, or sots, of typo in China contain about 7000 individual characters.

—At Oxford, in 1873, a cricket ball was thrown 127 yards, a record that still stands. Exactly 20 years ago Professor W. C. Rontgen discovered the X-rays. Battle cruisers are Dreadnoughts in which a part of the armament has been dispensed with for the sake of high speed. —No fewer than 402 naval and m.litary books dealing with warfare have been published in the past few months. During 19i4 the London Fire Brigade received 5860 calls, of which 5410 were for actual fires and 450 false alarms. Button-makers of Birmingham undertook orders for 72 millions of brass buttons for the British aimy recently. The Salvation Army has 9415 corps and outposts and 15,983 officers and cadets, whilst connected with it are 1142 social institutions. Excluding warships, 462 vessels of 1,627,316 tons gross were under construction in the United Kingdom at the end of the year 1914. Groat Britain exports every year fish-ing-tackle to the value of half a million sterling, about half of it going to British overseas possessions. Throughout the year 1914, 213,862,180 coins were struck at the Royal Mint, an increase of 28,425.419 on the total of the previous 12 months. Farthings and halfpennies were instituted by Edward I more than 600 years ugo. Seals to the number of 250,000 to 550,000 are killed each year off the coasts of Newfoundland.

One-quarter of Holland’s exports -to Great Britain consists of agricultural and dairy produce. London's Post Office Directory for 1915 ■weighs 141 b 14oz, and the name “Smith” occupies no fewer than 21 columns. Strasburg, the capital of Alsace, was annexed by Germany in 870, taken by Prance in 1631, and recaptured by Germany in 1870.

All our Victoria Crosses are manufactured from cannon taken from the Russians at Sebastopol. The total enlisted strength of the army of the United States of America is limited by law to 100,000. King George V is related-to nearly all the reigning houses of Europe, one exception being Austria -Hungary. Bank of England notes are issued for sums of £5, £lO, £2O, £SO; also for £IOO, £2OO, £SOO, and £IOOO. The London Salvage Corps, maintained by the various insurance companies, consists of ex-navy men. Under an Act of King Charles II gamblers losing more than £IOO at one time were not compelled to pay. Railway companies Ai the United Kingdom must take out an annual license costing £1 for each restaurant car they run. More than three-quarters of a million season tickets are issued every year by railway companies in the United Kingdom. Floating mines, under various names, bave figured in naval warfare for nearly 350 years; but they were first used with really deadly effect in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904-5.

The Channel Islands, which have belonged to England since 1066, are the only portions we now hold of the estates brought •"io the country by William the Conqueror. Defence, 24 out of 121 members of the South African Union Parliament are on active service.

Guns with a bore of 12in or more can fire only 90 full charges. They are then considered to be worn out, and have to be sent to the foundry to have a new core inserted.

Russian railways represent a mileage of 46,000, just twice that of the railways in the United Kingdom. A “foot pound” is the force exerted to raise. 11b a perpendicular distance of Ift from the earth.

The North Sea, covering an area of 221,000 square miles, has its greatest depth pf 2000 ft near the Sager-Rack. —At the begirmmg of last year France had 1400 certificated airmen, and Great 'Britain and Germany 700 each. British cavalry swords have blades 52in in length, and, with their hand-guards, weigh 21b.

New York is the world’s greatest seaport, judged by tons of shipping entered and cleared. Antwerp comes second on the list.

Though it conducts the whole banking [business of the British Government, the Bank of England is not a State department.

Spanning a distance of two miles and 73yds, the Tay bridge, in Scotland, is the longest bridge in the world.

A number of French cities, owing to the scarcity of coin, have, with the sanction of the Government, issued bank-notes for a franc (lOd) and half a franc. Now the town of Epernay, in the Champagne district, has issued a note for 25 centimes, or 24d.

The Russian Government has decided to abolish all the restrictions which were placed on the egg trade at the beginning of the war, and the export business will soon bo in full swing again. Over 11,000 London and North-western railway-men, or nearly 13 per cent, of the total number employed by the company, have joined the colours. Altogether there are 60.000 raihvaymen in our new armies.

The oldest regiment in the British army is the Royal Scots,- whose origin dates back almost throe centuries. Possibly they are the oldest regiment in the world. In an old Scottish pamphlet it is asserted that at one time the regiment was largely armed with bows and arrows.

The first successful street tramway system in Britain was established in Liverpool in 186?, followed in London in 1869, and afterwards in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dublin. These were all worked by horse traction. This proving too slow and expensive, many other methods of street traction were suggested—steam, gas, compressed air, and cable, the latter system being ultinv»,t'ly ad “red. According to Mr Edward Wo-oler, E.S.A., the well-known tramway ttuinority, tno nrst practical adoption of the cable tramway system was made in 1873 at San Francisco, and American engineers wore concerned in laying the first cable line in the United Kingdom—that on Highgate Hill, opened in 1884. Lines on this system were afterwards constructed in Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Bristol.