MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 4049, 20 October 1931, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—Latest figures of German unemployment tdioiv an increase o f about 20,000 and a total of 3,976.000—18,000 increase m a fortnight. - 1 lie Spanish Alinister of War has ordered that in future no army general i or any other officer shall have a right to more than one horse. —New work will come to Vickers-Arm-strong factories in the north-east of England. Sheffield, and the south as the result of the signing in Lisbon of a contract with the Portuguese Government. —Tlie annual crime list of the United I States of America includes some 12,000 murders, 100,000 hold-ups, and 500.000 I burglaries. - Bakelite, which is already used for piany purposes, is made from tar, and it is considered possible that houses made of it are a practical possibility of the future.

-—Chemical fire extinguishers installed on the village greens are suggested as substitutes for tire engines in outlying villages under Bedford Rural District Council.

—A ladder of aluminium, weighing only four ounces, and tanks of aluminium alloy, only one-third the weight of a steel tank of similar size, were recently exhibited in London.

-—Oats which will stand up to heavy rain and wind have been grown experimentally at Cambridge, England, The popular varieties now most grown have stalks too weak for straw, so they cannot stand rain.

—A moment before a collision between a lorry and a motor ear a dog leaped to safety through an open window of the car, stated an eye-witness describing the clash.

—Mr Harry Barker, of Bowling Oldlane, Bradford. England, has made a wheelbarrow which will pass through the eye of a needle. The model is made from a pin, the wheel being made from the cross-section of the pin. —England's smallest county. Rutland, is losing ground in population, which this year is only 17.397. nearly one thousand less than at the last census. —AVandsworth. with 353.101 inhabitants. is easily the London borough with the largest population. Islington comes next with 321,712, and Lambeth third with 296.162.

—One of the most rapid growths in population is shown in the district of Merton and Morden, Surrey. There the increase is from 17,532 in 1921 to 41,228 this year. —Seven London boroughs have a smaller population now than in 1921. They are Chelsea. Deptford. Fulham. Islington, Lambeth. Stoke Newington, and Poplar.

—No fewer than IS counties in England and Wales, chiefly in the North of England and in Wales, have decreased in population since 1921. the worst drops being in Cardiganshire and Radnorshire. —The southern and home counties of England show some remarkable increases in population. Middlesex is 30.8 per cent. “up on the 1921 figure. Surrey shows 27 per cent., Hertfordshire 20.4, Essex 19.4, and Buckinghamshire 15. —Among Scottish cities. Aberdeen shows the greatest proportional increase, its population now being 167.259. which is a growth of 8296. or 5.2 per cent., on 1921. It is now the fourth Scottish city, the three ahead of it being Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee. —ln taking the census in the United Kingdom census forms were handled by thousands of enumerators, including 12.704 unemployed, 1821 civil servants. 6347 employees of local authorities, and 19,144 other employed or retired persons. One enumerator disappeared while the count was in progress—and his enumeration book and the schedules he had collected vanished too.

-Special gas masks have just been sent from Loudon to Bangalore, for use in a burning mine there. They travelled by relays of aeroplanes and flying boats.

—Ol the 159,820 babies born in England and Wales in the first three months of this year, SI.SSI, or mote than half, were boys. -—More than 1,000.000 gallons of petrol were consumed in Great Britain last yea r.

—The number of babies born in England between 1921 and 1931 was more than a million and a-qtiarter less than in the preceding 10 years. —ln Wales the maternal death rate lias been during the past 40 years about 40 per cent, higher than that for England.

—A wooden cross from the grave of an unknown soldier in France has been placed in Liverpool Cathedral under the flags of the Liverpool Regiment which fought in the war. —The world’s biggest image of Buddha is to be erected near Tokio. Japan. It will be 40 feet high and built of concrete at a cost of £lO.OOO. and there will be room for 3000 people to stand in its lap.

—Telephones which enable, train passengers while travelling to communicate with their homes and offices, etc., are being tested by one British railway. They are already in use on the expresses of Canadian National Railways. —Accidents on British railways involving injury numbered 843 last year, as compared with an average of 1000 seven years ago. Accidents to the railway staffs totalled 7022—about 4000 less than the annual return seven years ago. —Girls show better examination results in history, English composition, and modern languages than boys, -who excel in mathematics and science. —Great Britain comes second in the list of nations using motor vehicles with 1.556.980. The United States of America has 26.746,184, and France is third with 1,520,501.

—There have been 27 Royal Air Force accidents in Great Brtiain this year, involving 49 deaths Last year there were 65 deaths, and in 1929 42 deaths.