MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 47

MULTUM IN PARVO

—ln his pastoral letter Dr Phelan, Bishop of Sale, said that the three destroying ungels of the- day were race suicide, tho red plague, and the Divorce Court. "A good many comfortable berths have been found for men who were no nearer to tho front than Australia, and were never likely to bo nearer." —Victorian R.C. Archbishop. The native population within touch of civilisation in Western Australia, is 14,491, of whom 12,888 are full bloods. There are 1603 half-castes at 47 stations. The natives are decreasing in numbers. Sovereigns are composed of standard gold, being ten-elevenths pure gold and one-eleventh alloy. One troy ounce is worth, intrinsically, £3 17s 10£d, and loz of pure gold, on the same basis, is worth £4 4s Hid. Tho asbestos mines in Quebec Province, Canada, have been extremely active throughout the year, the shipments having amounted to 133,339 tons, valued at 5,182,905d01. The market could have absorbed much more asbestos than was offered, but, unfortunately, the output was limited by the shortage of labour. Among full-blood" blacks in "Western Australia the males exceed tho females by 1006, and children under 12 number only 1256. Of the half-castes 956 are adults and 647 children. The blacks entirely out of touch with white men are roughly estimated at 10,000. The Germans: are taking down the massive bronze doors of the Brussels Exchange to ship them to Germany. —Dr William Wilfrid Campbell, L.L.D., F.R.S., the Canadian poet, died at his home in Ottawa on New Year's Day. Mrs Annie Sherwood Hawks, author of many famous Gospel hymns, including "I need Thee every hour," died at Bennington, Vermont, aged 83 years. Switzerland's new President is Dr Felix Calonder. He succeeds M. Edmond Schulthess, who has carried out his delicate duties with much ability. The Swiss President holds office for one year. —ln a pastoral letter, Archbishop Kelly, of Sydney, says this is the reign of Antichrist, and its chief agencies are an evil press, secret societies, secular schools, immodest displays, and immoral literature. Other dangers to the faith were set down as socialism, secularism, materialism,, sensualism, tyranny, and unrest. The German papers point out that disgraceful scenes were witnessed in Berlin while Italian, British, French, and Belgian prisoners were ordered to clean the streets of snow. Crowds of Berliners surrounded the prisoners and insulted them, hissed them, and even tried to beat them. There was no police protection available. —ln a memorandum on the increased cost of living, tho British Workers' National Committee show that, according .to official figures, the purohaeing power of a sovereign spent on food is now only 9s lid as compared with July, 1914, and that the cost of one week's food for a workingclass family has risen from 22s 6d in 1904 and 25s in July, 1914, to 50s 6d on October 1 last Official returns show that there are in America 10 people with an income of more than £1,000,000 a year, nine with incomes over £BOO,OOO, 14 over £600,000, 34 over £400,000, 42 over £300,000, 97 over £200,000, and 376 of £IOO,OOO. To-day there are three times as many people in the United* States drawing incomes of £200,000 a year as there were a year ago. —ln Chicago 6400 men havo been registered as being available for enlistment in Canadian or British regiments. In Illinois there are 7583. In Michigan there are nearly 30.000. Colonel J. Dennis, head of tho British Recruiting Mission (Western Division), reports that these men are between 21 and 31 years of age. Already .13,000 men have been recruited in the United States for Canadian and British forces from among those who are still citizens either of Great Britain or Canada. —An Isle of Wight correspondent furnishes tho Daily Chronicle with_ a strange group of names of three Primitive Methodist ministers immediately following one another at Ventnor, 1.W., named respectively Ryder, Walker, and Standing. A curate at the Newport, 1.W., parish church named Nutt was succeeded by the Rev. Mr Nutter. It was a standing joke with the Newport people that the next man would be a Mr Nuttest. Lord d'Abernon has officially declared thai, so far from, any increase having occurred, the statistical and other evidence available indicates that insobriety among women, both 'n publio and in the home, in Great Britain, has, sinco the first year of the war, decreased to a level far below anything recorded in the past 50 years—that i 3 say, at a, time when they possess, to a unique degree the means of indulgence, they have attained an unparalleled level of sobriety. —Somo of the coal miners and tippers in Wales earn up to £l2 or £l4 per week. In some cases ship constructors and shipwrights engaged in Welsh ports on _ the Bri-stol Channel have received as much as £2B each per week. Despite the curtailment of racing and football, the gambling instinct still remains, and we are told by a shocked minister of betting even on the numbers of the hymns selected in churches and chapels in Wales! In tho |Rhondda the women, who never had so much money in their lives, have sweepstakes on Sunday mornings on tho number of the first tram car entering the valley! —ln 1880 more than 70 per cent, of the people of the United States belonged to tho rural class; were largely engaged in raising foodstuffs to feed the nation. Only 30 per cent, lived in towns- and cities. When the last census was taken in 1910 less than 54 per cent, of 'the population was rural; 46.3 per cent, was urban. This trend from the farm to the city has been evident since 1820. Thcro aro one or two restaurants, or tea shops, in Glasgow (says a writer in the Christian World) representing a type of which we Southerners know nothing. The patron enters and seats himself at a table, which ho finds already loaded with all kinds of cakes, each of which is priced. He consumes as much as he thinks he needs, ma4ces out his own bill, and pays to the cashier tho amount which ho himself has calculated.

selected for their youth, energy, and attractiveness—are learning the Russian language. Their tutors aro Russian prisoners, ■who are compelled to give them lessons. Theso students are intended to pursue, after the war, the occupation of travelling saleswomen to capture the R.upsian markets, and descriptive catalogues of German poods are already being prepared in tho Russian language- for-their use in that capacity.

A new industry in Liguria (says a writer -in tho Globe) is a substitute for bran, of which a factory is now turning out nearly 10 tons a day, from materials hitherto wasted. The fruit of a species of palm, otherwiso useless, from which about 40 per cent, of sugar is extracted, and added to dried figs, rico husks, dregs of pressed grapes, raisin stones, acorn husks, young twigs, and tomato parings, by disintegration, pulverisation, and kneading. Tho high percentage of sugar renders tho substitute a suitable food for horses.