MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3806, 22 February 1927, Page 62

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— The Thames pours about 1,000,000,000 cubic feet of water into the sea in the course of every 24 hours. —Of Loudon’s bridges, slow-moving horse traffic is heaviest on the Tower Bridge, with Waterloo Bridge next. — It is the female mosquito that bites; the male is a vegetarian, subsisting on plant juices and other liquid foods. — A hundred thousand more people are now employed in the British road transport industry than on the railways. — Cloves, used so much in flavouring food, are the dried flower buds of an evergreen tree which glows in tropical countries. — Emeralds arc so popular that £l2OO a carat is being paid for the best specimens. The choicest diamonds fetch £5OO a carat. — Tape measures, held aloft by fellowemployees in a drapery establishment, formed a novel archway for a bride at Ifersham, Surrey, England. — Dust is now being blamed as the carrier of the germs of infection,of various diseases and ailments, including asthma, diphtheria, and tonsilitis. — Family photographic groups, even on the occasions of weddings, are dying out. Photographs must be artistic ’ pictures nowadays, and few groups fulfil that demand. . —“Land of Promise”’is the curiously inapt name given to a small thoroughfare in London, which has no houses and leads only to the poorhouse of the Shoreditch guardians. — Rate collector, clerk to the parish council, and assistant overseer are among tile posts held by Mrs Rosa Gotts, of Bacton, Norfolk, England. This lady also carries on a builder’s business. — New books and pamphlets arriving at the British Museum Library number about 40,000 a year. The library has to preserve copies of all books published in the United Kingdom. — Jumpers as .worn by naval sailors will in future have their V-shaped openings altered in depth according to the total length of the garment. At present every juniper has an Ilin opening. a barrage were thrown across the Bristol Channel near the mouth of the River Severn, it would produce nearly twice as much electrical power as is obtained from the Niagara Falls. —1“ motor-cycle making Britain leads the way, one single firm turning out more machines than are made by all the American producers. English export trade was worth more than £6,000,000 last year.

— Among the 25.000 language pupils in the London County Council's evening classes I* rench, Germany, and Spanish are the most popular subjects, but many requests are also made ior courses in Russian and Esperanto. . — Men who served with the Sth Division during the war will be delighted to hear that the official history of that great division is shortly to be published at 6s 6d (post free 7s 6d), instead of the 21s or 2os usually charged for such records. This will bring it within the purchasing power of most ex-service men ■who want a copy. Spick and span ’ originates from the custom of laying out newly-made cloth on spikes and spannans to stretch it all over equally.

—At the present time there are approximately 1.430,000 telephones in Bi itain, and the number of effective calls last year was over 1,000,000,000. — Londoners are eating more meat, the consumption for the first eight months ot last year bein'* 12,000 tons more than for the same period of 1925. . — J lle smallest tree in the world is the Greenland birch. Its height is less than 3in, .yet it covers a radius of between 2ft and 3ft. — Sunday Island in the Pacific, is really the tallest mountain* in the world It rises 2000 ft out of five miles of water’ and is thus nearly 30.000 ft from base to summit. Under the Aliens Act, 5349 persons who held written promises of employment were allowed to enter Great Britain in 1925. Of these 1540 were nurses and domestic servants. . —Amber, -which contains electricity is stated by an expert to have a curative effect on certain diseases, and also to make the skin of anyone wearin" it whiter and more transparent. I'be largest cableshin in the world the Dominia, is at present laving the longest cable, in the world. This will co meet Bamfield. British Columbia with Fanning Island, 3060 miles away, in the 1 acific Ocean. — The Chinese are shown by statistics ."V '-j-’.S-i’ lived than any other nation, wiiici -.-i. is attributable to their abstemious habits and their remarkable licedom .from phthisis or pulmonary consumption. - Scotland. Ireland, and Wales have respectively 160, 134, and 296 persons to the square mile In England there are /Ot people to the square mile. According to statistics, England is the most crowded country in the world. , -A. bab.y boy weighing 3-Jlb has been born, after -0 years of married life, to Count and Countess” Nichol, two midgets who after a stage career, now live in Montreal. The father is 40in in height and the mother 38in. — Lemurs are enjoying popularity as pets among women, who take the little' I ’ry creatures out for an airing curled round their necks like fur ties. Lemurs cost about £4 10s each, and recently the <lon P y laS " Ot met tllC <lemand in Lon-

— The Turkish authorities have issued an order that girls and young women wearing white dresses must on no account > wear with them ribbons of blue or orange colours Hie reason is that the combition of these colours is to be found in the national flags of Armenia and Greece. ■ Seeing a man clad only in his nightshirt wa king in Uxbridge High street, a constable approached him and asked ior an explanation, but received no reply. He took the man to the police station, •where it was found that he was sleepwalking, and had come from Chalfont, a distance of seven miles. —.The world’s shortest love story, containing in 11 words a complete romance, from the first meeting to the honeymoon, appeared in a recent “Agony” column. It reads: “Canoe, Couple, Cupid Congratulations, Car, Church. Choral, Cake, Champagne, Confetti, Continent.”