MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO

>— A cab driver applied at Lambeth Police-court, London, the other day for a summons for the recovery of twopence, the balance of a cab fare. He got it. — A census of Paisley (Scotland) school chiWren which has just been completed brings cut the remai fable fact that during the past eight years the number of childr3n of Echool age in the area of the Burgh School Board has increased by only six. — Six bachelors, who have taken small { holdings with cottages on Orown at | Mouiton, Lincolnshire, have had to sign an agreement imposed by the parish council to marry "within a reasonable time." — Three hundred streets in Berlin are planted with 44,000 trees, which represent ft Talue.of £38,000. The care of the municipal parks and gardens requires 250 gardeners and 700 assistants, male and female, principally the latter. — A dinner of big things was recently eerved by an American farmer. The table was set for 12, and the bill of fare consisted of one s£lb potato, one 151b cabbage, one- 101b chicken, one 6'b turnip, one 2ib onion, and three pies, each made from i single apple weighing l^lb. — A passenger on an English Channel steamer fell overboard when the vessel was near liynmouth. A boat was lowered, and search made in Aram.A r ain. It was afterwards discovered that he swam nearly a mile, climbed 60ft up a- steep cliff, and then was rescued by the Lynmouth coastguard. — The old wooden battleship Asia, which aerved as the flagship at the battle o* i Nayarino. was recently removed from the ■position alongside Portsmouth Dockyard which she has occupied as a depot ship for many yeara, prior to beingf 6old for breakins 1 up. The Asia was built in India :n: n 1824. — A purple altar cloth bearing the date 3617 has been found at the bottom of an old oak chest at St. Giles's Church, Colchester. It had evidently been used on the altar in the Lucas Chapel, and was probably | hidden when the Roundheads besiegted ColChester in 1648 and executed Sir Charles j Lucas I — Forty poor children were given breakfast and dinners oosting Id to l£d each at- Bradford. At the end of the first week . the average gain in weight per child was lib 4oz Their average weekly gain in weight for seven weeks before the meals beean was under one ounce. — The question of Sunday harvesting has at -length reached the courts of law. At iForfar, Scotland, the sheriff had an action turning upon this point to decide, and his decision was that in a year like this. Sunday harvesting could not be regarded 1 as otherwise than a work of stern necessity. — A curious instance of the sagacity of a horse was related at the inquest at Witton, near Maidstone, on Thomas Pearce. Pearce was driving an old-fashioned van, when he fell from his seat, and his legis slipped between the shafts and the van. He was unable to extricate himself, and was dragged for a mile, receiving injuries from which he died. The horse deliberately crossed the road and stopped a brewer's van, thus calling 1 attention to his master's position. — A remarkable discovery is reported from Nottingham, where a live crab has been' found embedded in rock-sand 10ft beJow the surface. A workman employed by a builder was getting out some foundations, when in breaking off a large lump of rock with a crowbar he saw something move. Closer examination revealed a live crab, the 6hell measuring 3in by 2in. It resembles the ordinary sea orab, except that the shell has sharp rugged edges. It is thought that the crab- is three or four thousand yeais old. — The proposal to employ women as railway booking clerks is only the example of Continental lines, where women are generally employed in the ticket offices. In the South of France you may also see at the little wayside stations women attending to the pignals of the half-dozen daily trains ; while'the companies regularly economise at the levei crossings by employing femalelabour. The husband can be seen at work at his vines upon the hillside, while the wife wave-, the green flag and keeps the childien quiet. —To Scotland belongs the unique distinction of having 1 a town of 3000 inhabitants ■which does not possess a post or telegraph office,* ana a town of 4000 inhabitants that has not a single publichou3e. The town that has not a post o cc 'is Maxwelltown, near Dumfries, and the town that has not a publichouse is Newmains, in Lanarkshire. The- former place has to depend on the town, of Dumfries for its postal facilities, and the latter place needs no supplies of liquor, apparently, as every attempt to establish a lioensed house has been successfully frustrated. — The Eiffel Tower in Paris has been put to many uses. Not long ago it figured in the public prints as the loftiest wireless itelegxaph station in the world. Now it is cervmjf a practical purpose as a night clock in- which electricity is the motive and illuminating power. In this way it is useful to a large part of Paris, for its illuminated display of the figures of the hour of the nigh* can be seen for miles. It flashes not only the hour, but the minutes of the time, in butfe figures, and at a height on the great steel structure several hundred feet above the ground. — The Marble Arch at one of the entrances to Hyde Park, which is familiar to most visitors to London, was intended for the main entrance to Buckingham Palace, •but was found to be unsuitable for this purpose, and was transferred to its present site in 18bl. It is now proposed to set it further in the Park in the centre of a crescent drive, as part of a contemplated improvement scheme. The arch is of Carrara marble, and cost over £70,000. It is said to be the largest work of mere ornament in the British Isles, excluding memorials commemorative of a great name or cause, but it sinks 'into insignificance when compared with the £ro de Triomphe, which stands at the top of the Champs Elysees, in Paris. That was commenced by Napoleon in 1806, but was not completed until 30 years later, and cost altogether nearly half a million sterling-.

The Invercargill juryman who stood out fear a conviction against the other 11 in the Nigntcape manslaughter case thinks be has men. criticised too severely, fle pyrites to the local press, saying: "I can only say a cese whiph occupied an inquest, a Royal Commission, and three days of the Supreme Gpurt, deserves more thought and appreoleJaoxi of tl»e responsibilities of a, juryman's {uttoe than the farce of merely filmg 1 into $be jury room and out again immediately, with an irresponsible verdict.