MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 3590, 2 January 1923, Page 51

MULTUM IN PARVO

—TTie Chinese stand change of climate better than any other race. Horseflesh is said to be more wholesome than either beef or mutton. —lf a human being were covered with a coat of paint he would die within five hours. —The average Frenchman marries at the age of 30. Bees can fly faster than pigeons. John is the most common Christian name in England. Malta is the most thickly-populated island in the world. More crimes are committed in Naples every year than in any other city in comparison with its size. The horse has no eyebrows. Jews live longer than people of other races. —At one time sneezing was regarded as a sign of good luck. The Rhine flows three times as fast as the Thames. Fish are always sold ahve in Japan. People increase in weight from April to November, and decrease irom November to March. Four out of five hailstorms take place in the daytime. Mexicans eat salt with oranges. The ordinary steam engine puffs 96,000 times in 100 miles. The average depth of the English Channel is 180 ft. Canada possesses nearly half the waterpower of the world. The roar of a waterfall is caused by the bursting of millions of air bubbles. The average duration of life in Britain is now 57 years. The current of the R -, er Amazon is felt 150 miles out at sea. Colour-blindness is mote than twice as common in men as in women. A 1900-acre bird sanctuary has been established in Alberta by the Canadian Government. —ln proportion to its r Jze Switzerland has more inns than any other country in the world. The entertainment or tourists nao become one of the chief industries of the land. —The juice of the ‘‘ink P ant ” which grows in New Granada, an be used for writing without any preparation. At first the writing is red, but in a few hours it becomes black —lf it were possible to travel through space to the planets, it would take, moving at the rate of 60 miles an hour. il7 years to the sun, 110 years to Mercury, i. 470 years to Saturn, and 40 million years to the nearest star. A good many years ago, at Dunkeld, some curious tree-planting was carried out by means of guns. On the estate of the Duke of Atholl there was a rocky crag, called Craigybarns, which was absolutely destitue of vegetation. It was desired to some trees planted on this great rock, but it is so precipitous on all sides that it was impossible for any man to ciimb up and do the planting. It was suggested that the seeds of suitable trees might be planted there by means of gunfire. Accordingly, two old muzzle-loading cannon were called into use. A number of canisters were filled with the seeds of various kinds of trees and plants. The guns were loaded with powder (says Everyday Science), and the canisters put into them and fired. The canisters burst against the face of the rock, and the seeds which they contained were scattered in all directions. A great many of the seeds fell to the ground, but quite a number lodged in the crevices of the rock, and now the rock is covered with vegetation as the result of this curious manner of seed-planting. A new colonisation scheme has regard to the Canton of Langis, in the Matapedia Valley, in the Gasne Peninsula, just north of the territory of New Brunswick (says Agricultural and Industrial Progress in Canada). The Valley of the Matapedia, a river which flows from a lake of the same name near the St. Lawrence, into the Baie des Chaleurs, is one of surpassing beauty and fertility, which has already become famous among fishermen of the Eastern United States, who come there each year and have established club-houses there. Now an attempt is to be made to develop it agriculturally. The Matapedia may be classed as one of the greatest of valleys, according to authorities —a region of smiling meadows and high mountains, past which the river winds its way. Here, in the Canton of Langis, a certain number of colonisation lots have been surveyed and mapped out. Men are at work this summer clearing 10 acres on each lot, and erecting on each potential farm a house costing about 600dol and a barn at a somewhat lower figure. As it is not intended to place any settlers on these lands until the spring of 1923, and the work is merely in process, it has not been determined what the exact cost to the settler will be; but on the authority of the provincial Minister of Colonisation the settler will receive a farm at actual cost, and the payments expected of him will be extended over 30 years. The province will safeguard itself against possible loss, and achieve the greatest amount of benefit for the province, by carefully selecting its colonists and placing them, on the lan3 with the best possible assurance of success. , , , , Although Britain has long been famed for bells and bell-ringers, we have not hitherto succeeded in producing from our belfries such harmonies as meet the ear in old-world Dutch and Flemish cities. The deficiency is to be remedied by the National School of Carilloneurs, which has rast been started at Loughborough. A carillon is an extended scale of bells, consisting of two or more octaves. It is played from what is known as the clavier, or keyboard the player controlling the notes by striking them with the side of the hand. Besides being the centre of the bell-founding industry, Loughborough is bringing further distinction to the country by erecting a belfry containing the most perfect carillon in the world Forty-seven bells, the biggest weighing five tons, are being hung m a tower 150 ft high, at a cost of At present there are not more than half a dozen of these aerial orchestras in Britain. Queenstown Cathedral boasts the finest, while others are to be heard at South at the Bournville Schools, Birmingham, and at Oattistock, in Dorset. Many whose acquaintance with bells is limited to those of the parish church imagine, quite wrongly, that the amount vf music capable of being played on a carillon is very small. The visitor to Bruges, Rotterdam, Brussels, and other Continental cities may hear almost, any day a large volume of music, classical as well as new, played by the city carilloneur. It is not unlikely that in a few years the carillon will be as familiar a feature of many of our cities and towns as it t* of those of Holland and Belgium.