MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 3869, 8 May 1928, Page 61

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—Last year was a record one for visitors to the London Zoo; 2,158,208 people passed the turnstiles. —Roof drying rooms for use on washing day are one of the novel features of flats now being built by the London County Council. —The Tower of Pisa leans 16£ft out of the perpendicular. — Northampton has passed a resolution calling for a law to prohibit greyhound betting. —Timber, _ worth something like £50,000,000, is imported into Britain every year. —Glow-worms are more brilliant just before an approaching storm than at any other time. —Hemp, said to be the oldest cultivated fibre in the world, was grown in China as early as 2800 B.c. —Agricultural courses lasting 10 days are to be instituted for farmers in the Province University of Alberta, Canada. —London spends more than £12,500,000 annually on education. On a wet day a wooden aeroplane frame soaks up as much as 1001 b of water. —Fuel oil weighing 500 tons is burnt on the Aquitania in one trip across the Atlantic. —Malaria still remains the most de- ' structive disease of mankind. It takes a yearly toll of 2,000,000 people. —ln 10 days, during recent gales, the British Lifeboat Institution saved 84 lives. Altogether it has now saved 60,000. ■—The London County Council has received a cheque for £445,000 for motor licenses from the London General Omnibus Company. —With a total capital of £1,716,915, no fewer than 115 companies to promote dog racing have already been registered in England. —Beforg England can put her forests into their pre-war state she will have to afforest at the rate of 30,000 acres every year for 16 years. —Two men fined at Gateshead for larceny were said to have stolen the stairs from an unoccupied house. —Last year had the heaviest death roll in accidents on British railways since 1915, 26 persons being killed. —Greyhound racing companies to the number of 131 were registered in Great Britain last year, one having a capital of £1,000,000. -Breathing air artificially dampened, as in weaving sheds of mills, has, it is claimed, no bad influence except in certain respiratory diseases. Tottenham (London) school children received 2213 swimming certificates last season. Of these 1301, or more than half, were secured by girls. —The British Safety First Association has presented copies of an admirable motorists’ pocket book to 2,500,000 holders of a driver’s license. —Of the 10,000.000 homes in Great f Britain 7,000,000 are situated in areas supplied with electricity, but only 1,500,000 houses are wired for the purpose. —Six advertisers in the world spend £1,000,000 a year in publicity; one of these is the British Government. Several London stores each spend £500,000 annually in this way. # —Lightships at present under construction for Trinity House have, it is said, a much better light, worked from huge dynamos, than those already in use, and will be fitted with wireless, so as to keep them in touch with the shore.

—Liners carrying first class passengers only, and in which there are private suites comprising a vestibule, sitting room, bedroom, and bathroom, are being built for use between London and South America. —The Polytechnic Institute of Zurich has a clock which does not need winding. Its power is provided by a mechanism set in motion by every change of 2deg in temperature.

—Flints are still cut, or “knapped,” at Brandon, in Norfolk. Near this town is Grimes Graves, where there are flint mines and the dwellings used by the miners who worked in them 3000 years ago. —The fashion for having no pockets in women’s dresses is hygenically bad, as it means that handkerchiefs are carried in the hand and left lying about, with a resulting spread of germs. —Described as the largest municipal housing scheme in the world, the London County Council’s estate at Becontree, will, when fully developed, contain about 26,000 houses and accommodate a population as large as that of Brighton. —The candle fish, found in the river mouths off the Northern Pacific coast of North America, is so named because of its extreme oiliness of flesh. The Indians convert them into candles by inserting a wick through the length of the body. —A light ray with a beam of 1,380,000,000 candle-power, which is visible for a distance of 250 miles, has been installed at Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A., 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 —Although 21 days’ prior residence in Scotland is now necessary before a marriage can be legally performed at Gretna Green, the Scottish Border village, about 100 marriages ■were celebrated over the anvil in the old blacksmith’s shop there last year. —ln addition to being vicar of a North Camberwell (London) parish, the Rev. J. M. F. Dumphreys holds about 40 other jobs, including bellringer, verger, vestry clerk, Sunday school superintendent, manager of four day schools, sports instructor, Bignwriter, billposter, lantern operator, and caterer—all connected with his church.