MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

— It is declared by Mr Robert Blatchford that the bulk of the poor in England have 8. vocabulary of only about 300 words. — Italy obtains a revenue of £2,500,000 annually by taxing salt. Austria makes nearly £3,000,000 by a similar tax. — The ruby is the mosfr costly of precious Btones. A four-carat ruby is worth £450, and a ruby of 47 carats fetched £20,000. — The young of the condor are the only birds which remain in the nest, unable to fly, for a whole twelvemonth. — The average life of a British ship is 26 years; but Scandinavians make their craft last on an average 30 years. The life of an American ship averages^ only 18 years. —In France the average yield of wine is 112 gallons to every acre of vineyard; in Spain it rises to 130 gallons per acre; but Algeria holds the record with 300 gal-

lons to the acre. — A railway through the mountains north 1 of the Adriatic Sea, constructed by the Austrian Government to build up the trade of Trieste, though only 130 miles long, has 679 bridges and viaducts. It also runs through 49 tunnels. — Lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey at zoological gardens and menageries follow the example of mankind in eating by day and sleeping at night. In their native state these animals sleep away the hours of daylight and hunt for their/Food at night—At Crowland Abbey, in the Lincolnliire Fens, the ringing of the curfew bell at 8 o'clock each evening has been revived. It was sounded every night for many centuries at the abbey, but the custom was given up 30 years ago. — A large tank in the upper part of a Huddersfield woollen mill burst suddenly, and 25,000 gallons of water poured into the - workrooms, destroying two machines, sweeping men and women pff their feet, and causing cuts and slight injuries to several. — " We deoided 30 years ago to marry*, and have been waiting for the Deceased Wife's Sister Act to pass. It has come at last, said the bride at the conclusion of the •wedding ceremony between Mr Henry Brooks, aged 65, and Miss Harriet Griffin. his junior by 10 years, at Kintbury, Berkshire. , . _, —An absent-minded tobacconist at Canterbury placed £40 for safe keeping m a dust bin, and some hours later had it emptied into a scavenger's cart. An hour afterwards he realised what he had done, and hastened to the refuse destructor, where the morning's collections were just about to be burnt. He only discovered his bag of money after two hours' search. — The latest appeal to fashionable women in London takes the form of ring watches. VThese dainty ornaments aTe very costly. The cheapest cannot be purchased .under £25 They can be had in any number of forms, and some of the most beautiful are ximmed with enamel, into which are set raearle diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones. They are intended to be worn on the finger over the glove. — Some wild scenes have taken place at Paisley in connection with a strike at the thread mills. Several hundred girls who have continued work became indignant that no effort had • been made to settle the Btrikers' grievances, so they windows till expelled by the police, and then mobbed the police in the streete. The mills have been closed, and 5000 hands The Saining of Sowley Pond 130^rc ? in extent, on the estate of Lord Montagu of Beaulieu in Hampshire, is expected to take a month. A tunnel has been cut under the main Toad, and the water will flow into the Solent, half a mile away. Into this pond the monks of Beauheu are declared to have cast a large solid gold fip r ?., o j the Virgin for safe keeping in troubled times, and antiquaries fancy that it may h& there still. The pond contains a large quantity of coarse fish, and these are being sold. It will be restocked with trout. — At the Bloomingdale Institution for the Insane, White Plains, U.S.A., a new eenes of most interesting experiments is being conducted with the new flower cure in the treatment of insane patients. Beautiful, sweet-smelling flowers, it has been discovered, have a mysterious influence upon the human mind, and the weaker the mind the greater, it is said, is the influence of flowers upon it. Seemingly hopeless and incurable cases at Bloomingdale 1 and elsewhere are being treated with the new flower method with beneficial results. — Finger-print identification has been extended to commercial uses by the Postal Savings Bank of the Philippines at Manila. This bank has recently issued a series or stamp deposit cards on which are spaces for stamps of different values to be affixed. When the depositor has stamps to the value of one peso on the card it is exchanged at 'the bank for a deposit book showing the amount to his credit. Opposite the lmes for the owner's signature and address is a square ruled off for the reception of hia 'thumb-print; so that, even if illiterate, depositors may readily be identified. — The maintenance of the pride, pomp, and' circumstance of civic state costs the Corporation oi London a. ?M rlv sum of close upon £18,000. The Lord Mayor receives £10.000 and the income tax on that Bum is paid for* him, while he is allowed £100 for the supply of new furniture, and his robes cost close upon £200. Then the rates, taxes, and tithes payable on the Mansion House total upwards of £3000. the lighting involves an outlay of upwards of £570. the water supply costs £180, and firf and boiler insurance absorbs £135. Aext, structural and other repairs represent an expenditure closely approaching £2000. and periodically there is a heavy "call" for special redecoration — the amount snent last year, for instance, on the Egyptian Hall being £560.