MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3331, 16 January 1918, Page 47

MULTUM IN PARVO

Three-tenths of a second is the time required for a signal to pass through the Atlantic cable, 2700 miles long. The Berlin law courts have jue'fc decided that a landlord is not entitled in any circumstances to evict tho wife of a soldier on active service for non-payment of rent. A large British airplane flew from England to a British base hi the Mediterranean in a series of eight flights, and bombed Constantinople. The " torpedoplano " is the newest invention to fight submarines. The inventor, Rear-admiral Bradley A. Fieke, of the American navy, hopes it may prove to be the effective answer to the German submarine menace.

A not fully-qualified dental practitioner in Berlin has been fined for extracting two teeth on a mistaken diagnosis. In addition to the fine he had to pay the patient £25 damages. Charged with failing to report, a mail aged 33 told the North London magistrate that he had lived on the dust shoots at Hackney Marshes for seven years, and did not know that there was a war on. The Argentine Government, in casting about for revenue to reduce the deficit in revenue, has hit upon the rather novel one of saddling every bet made on a race meeting with 50 cents for every 2dol risked. Here is a hint for Sir Joseph Ward to get at the bookmakers who flourish in the Dominion. The Governor-general of Belgium has requisitioned all dogs over a certain height for military use. lor refusal to hand over dogs five years' imprisonment and a fine up to £IOOO is to, be imposed. —lt is estimated that during a year 25 cubic yards of the granite pavement of London bridge is reduced to powder by the enormous traffic. Twenty thousand vehicles cross daily and 200,000 foot passengers. What is described as "the largest sailing vessel in tho world," the Hamburg five-masted Potosi, now in dock at Valparaiso (Chile), has just been sold by its owners to the Bremen shipping firm of F. A. Binnen and Co. A peculiar accident terminated fatally in the case of Mrs Willis, an old resident in the Falkland Islands, whose husband, Cantain Willis, was drowned some time ago. She was seen outside her residence, and waved her hand to ' a neighbour. _ A few minutes later her son found her lying on the floor gasping for breath. He summoned a neighbour, who found Mrs Willis had swallowed her false teeth. The plate was extracted from 'the throat with difficulty and a doctor summoned, but on his arrival he found the. woman dead. Deceased was 78 years of age. There is not much evidence of economy among the ladies of the Old Country afforded by tho balance sheets of wholesale drapery firms in London. As compared with 1913 one firm made £63,000-last year, as against £25,292, and another firm increased its profits by £24,000, excess profits tax having been provided for in both instances. Another firm made nearly three and a-half times the profits of 19.13, and another quadrupled theirs; still another increased its profits five times, and another made six 'times the 1913 profit. A Manchester manufacturing and wholesale house shows an increase of just on £200,000, and a London firm converted a loss of £6400 in 1913 into a profit of £11,156. Shortage of farthings was alleged as an excuse by a grocer who, at Bootlo (England), was fined £5 for charging 6>kl instead of 6id for a quarter-pound of butter. Another grocer who charged s|d per lb above wholesale price, instead of the allowed by the Food Regulations, was fined £ls, it being stated that Danish butter must be sold at the control price. For hoarding 58lb of sugar and 261 b of tea Frank Tucker, army canteen waiter, was fined £25 at Plymouth. The man who holds the record for having refused a bigger salary than any other individual is Herr Ballin, the German shipbuilder, who recently fell into disgrace with the " All Highest," Some 10 years ago Mr Piernont Morgan offered Ballin a salary of £300,000 a year if ho would assume control of the newly-formed Shipping Trust.. Tho Kaiser forbade him to accept the post, so tho matter fell through. Tho ex-Empress Marie was the possessor of the most luxurious Royal train in the world. It was estimated to have cost the Russian Government something like £350.000, and during her Imperial Majesty's ' visits to England, this palatial train used to wait for her at Boulogne at a cost of about 1000 francs a day, ready at a few hours' notice to convey her across tho Continent when her visit to England was ended.

Joseph Hall, a market gardener, who was summoned in London on 37 counts for selling potatoes above the maximum price, was fined £IOO in each case—£37oo in all, —ordered to pa.v £2OO costs, and sentenced to two months' imprisonment in the second division in each case, the sentences to run concurrently. Notice of appeal was given, but the Bench refused bail, and Hall was allowed seven days in which to pay the fines.