MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Volume 1851, Issue 3809, 15 March 1927, Page 66

MULTUM IN PARVO.

■ —England spends approximately £8,000,000 a year on apples from abroad. — Although he has two artificial legs, Mr Austin, of Chelsea, has driven 30,000 miles in one car, won several racing prizes, and travelled from London to Newcastle in one stretch. — Handling bulbs has been known to set up skin disease in certain cases. In the same way people employed in cutting the stems of narcissi and similar blooms may develop a rash. * — Every child ought to be encouraged to get out of breath regularly once a day," said a well-known doctor, who advocates blowing hard as one of the best exercises for children, as it broadens the chest. ' The boom in house-selling in England resulted in solicitors collecting in fees £4,000,000, house agents £6,000,000 in commission, while the Governmept benefited by £2,000,000 in stamp duty last year. — Apart from last year, 1919 was the worst of the post-war period for days lost through strikes. In that year the loss was 35,000,000 days. In January to October last year more than four times that number was lost. — Maltese dogs, the little white-haired animals so popular as pets in Victorian days, are no longer to be found on their native island. They were all exported for breeding. — The usual height at which swallows, wild ducks, geese, and other birds fly when travelling long distances is from 1000 ft to 2500 ft. Cranes have been known to fly five miles above the earth. — For the first time in many years salmon have been observed leaping below Wilne Weir Pool, in the River Derwent, England. —At a competition among Berlin children in the construction of homemade aeroplane models, the winning model flew about 500 ft. — Recently someone discovered an old Roman money-box at Viviers, England—a hollow stone in which a large number of Roman coins had been buried. — When the Church of All Saints, Derby, England, becomes the cathedral of the new diocese its bishop’s throne will be a very beautiful one, saved from a pillaged church in Turkey. — Golders Green Tube Station, London, is used by' more than 40,000 passengers every' day. When the station was opened, less than 20 years ago, the daily passengers numbered 1000. * —At the beginning of the nineteenth century the population of the world was estimated at 700,000,000. Now it is about 1,600,000,000, having more than doubled Itself in 120 years. —“The fair-haired have enormous advantages over dark-hairOd,” said Sir W. Arbuthnot Lane, the famous surgeon. “They seem to be able to fight against disease very much better.” —No rain fell for' two years in the Prieska district, in the north-west of the Cape Province of South Africa. ■ Water was obtained from boreholes, but there was very little milk for the lambs. — Love powders, made from the eyes of sheep, were said to be sold b.v a woman who ran a "love school” in a Pennsylvanian town. — Hot bottles are now recommended for winter use by some doctors, who declare they’ are much better than cold feet in bed. , ' s - —Eggs preserved for 14 weeks by a patent process have afterwards been hatched out into healthy' chicks in the usual period of three weeks. — Weighing 8001 b, a giant sunfish was recently stranded on the rail of an Atlantic liner after a great wave had washed over the vessel during a gale. — Ladies’-maids who will go out by the lay to look after the wardrobes, etc., of 'bachelor women” engaged in business are a new suggestion. — “London is the biggest city in the world and the most restful,” says an American, who adds that his fellowcountry seem to enjoy' lots of noise. In London streets, with much heavier V'affic. it is infinitely quieter than in few York. — A dolls' house recently discovered in in old country house in Essex, England. Is believed to date back to the time of Queen Anne. If so, it is probably the oldest toy’ of this kind in the country. — Although his hands are Iroth “dead,” is the result of war wounds, an artist has recently shown some of his pictures in London. His work has also appeared in the Royal Academy. — Vanity-bags date back to 1881, when the German manufacturers of leather goods first began to cater for the British trade. The commonest pattern of bag up to that date was square, made of black morocco, and large enough to take a half-quartern loaf. The Germans introduced a much smaller style which they called the “Vanity.” — Thousands of trees are being planted in Great Britain, both by' the Forestry’ Commission and private people. Among the latter is Lord Woolavington, who is planting more than 109,000 young trees on his Sussex estate. — For 40 years Mr J. D. Sherman collected water-beetles in New York at the average rate of 500 a year, and he has presented the collection to the Smithsonian Institution, which now possesses 113,000 species of insects and 2,500,000 specimens. ■* —Attempts are being made to grow the Douglas pine to its full height in England. In the Canadian Rockies and elsewhere this tree reaches 250 ft, more than s twice as high as Britain’s tallest forest trees.

— The oldest vintage of wine in the world is on exhibition in a wine museum on the Rhine. It is believed to have been 1000 years old, and was recently dug up in an old Roman flask. Part of it has solidified. — Dogs are often inseparable from their masters when they take their walks abroad, but the sight of two goats walking by the side of their owner, accompanying him on his walks every day, is to be seen at Derby, England, — St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, the famous church in Trafalgar square, London, is now 200 years old. It stands on the site of an older church built by Henry VIII, who disliked seeing funerals pass the Palace of Whitehall on their way to St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Buckingham Palace comes within its parish.