mULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3853, 17 January 1928, Page 62

mULTUM IN PARVO.

— There are 2,300,000 payers of income tax in Britain.

— The greater part of English wageearners earn about 50s a week. — Bootlaces thrcad-d through o'-elet-holes and finished off in a bow are a fashion notion for decorating smart j.aanoon frocks.

— Street cleaning costs England ten million pounds every year, the local cost varying from £1 4s lOd per ton of refuse removed at Halifax to 4s 6d per ton at Dudley. — Tapestries dating back to the middle of the sixteenth century and among the finest specimens of this art are to be seen in the Jerusalem Chamber at Abbey. —A tribe known as the Balia tribe, who knock out their front teeth and dress their hair with brass-headed nails, has been discovered in a little-known district in Northern Rhodesia. — Material which cost only 3d was - converted by a model engineer of Weston-super-Mare, England into a model of a pumping engine, valued at £lOO, and which was recently awarded a silver championship cup. — Telephone messages are replacing telegrams in popularity in England. The latter fell from 78,000,000 in 1911 to 49,000,000 in 1925. while ’phone calls increased from 797,000,000 to 1,016,000,000 in the same period- — the Church of England has a shortage of 4000 clergymen in the United Kingdom at the moment, many parishes of up to 12,000 people being without a curate to help the vicar or rector. Museum, South Kensington London. Sweetening money biU OBeB oi St^ e m handed by a bridegroom to the ™S lst had tTSS'y her when gl'.’afit trade not hurt themrelves if thev collide with a new signpost — To commemorate Sir U ran cis Dra association with tie river W nf has bierhung in the Dockyard Srch “ Chatham. g This ship was the first English vessel to sail round the W °j!ln inmate of Runcorn workhouse, W ho possesses £2OOO, has been given permission to stay as guest for 25s a week. The man has no relatives, ana says he is glad of the company in the labourers are the best ratepayers” said the chief rating officer during’ a recent case at Witham (Essex) Police Court. “How they do it I dont know, but I have never had a penny arrears with regard to farm labourers. — Marriages without fees ar® e 1"" offered to young miners in the Notts and Derbyshire coalfield by the Yicar of Heanor. His condition is that the young collier should be an athlete, and win a prize in the annual miners road run in the district. . , . - A lin-ht ray with a beam pt 1 380*000,000 candle-power, which is visible for a distance of 250 miles, , has been installed at Charlottesville, Virginia to guide pilots of air mails. If the light were shining towards a man at a distance of 50 miles he could read a newspaper by —Returning to Middlesbrough for the •first time since he went to Australia 50 years ago, Mr Bennett H. Altson, now the wealthy owner of a Melbourne building, known as Altson’s Corner, took back the still uncashed cheque for £2O given to him by his father when he left home. — A hen belonging to Mr Thomas Ghorley, Edstaston, Shropshire, England, has laid an egg bearing almost a perfect clock face. It appears as though embossed on the shell. Where the hours 10, 11, and 12 should appear there are the -letters a, m. and y. Curiously, one \»£ Mr Chorley’s daughters is named Amy. — A scheme is under consideration for heating the whole of Reykiavik, the capital of Iceland, by water derived from subterranean hot springs. There are said to be 29 volcanoes on the island, seven of them still active, including the famous Geyser, the water issuing from which has a temperature of 127 deg Centigrade at an accessible depth. — Students of the manual training department of a Detroit (U.S.A.) high school have organised their own marketing association to sell their products. They have their own sales manager, and articles made during the summer months are introduced to commercial firms, the profits going to the makers, some of whom have started funds for their college courses. Among things already made by the students is a shopping bag on rollers. With it a woman can easily carry her purchases home with one hand and manage the baby carriage with the other. A speedy egg beater has also been devised. It is placed inside a quart jar, and the eggs are beaten simply by shaking. — Smokers in the Irish Free State and the hundreds of thousands of others who consume sweetmeats, chocolates, cheese, and other commodities seldom realise the immense waste that is daily committed in consigning to the waste-paper basket the tinfoil, lead, and aluminium wrappers in which these luxuries or necessities are sent out by the manufacturers. This “ silver paper " generally consists of pure tin, to-day’s market price, of which is £270 a ton. It is computed that every day in the year almost a ton of this valuable metal is thrown on the waste heaps of the Free State. Only 12 months ago a way was found in Dublin to turn this tin into money—for the relief of the nick and suffering—and in that short time Jhe hag heen a *lOO to the x Meath Hospital.