MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 2892, 11 August 1909, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

pi — One knot rquals a mile and an eighth. — Three per cent, consols were first issued in 1731. — Coughs infect the air at an average range of 25ft. — Last tct 27,849 vessels entered the port of London. —In Glasgow over hali the population live more than two in a room. — Unbreakable bottles, made of paper, are produced in the United States. — ■ For last year the total value of the United States crops exceeded £1,555.000,000. — People offering bribes to inland Customs officers are liable to a. fine of £500. — Over 76,000 persons in the United Kingdom are regularly employed as fishermen. — Dummy babies have been used as a meant of smuggling partridge-eggs into Vienna. — The largest, pearl known is 2in long and 4in round, and is said to be worth £50,000. — Russia's prisons are constructed -to hold 80,000 prisoners. Over 180,000 are now lodged in them. — There are" over "half a million farmers in the United Kingdom. — The ■ salary of the British army amounts to over £9,000,000. — English workmen spend more than faO par cent, of their incomes on food. — Five and a-quarter million people in the world are employed in mining work. — Sir Thomas Lipton says there are no finer sportsmen in the world than the Americans. — Old-age pensions of 56 a week after the age of 70 may be purchased for about £100. —Of every thousand English people, 14men and 17 women are unable to write. — The use of bad language over the telephono vb •Dunishable witb a fine of £20 in Omaha, U.S. — Just under one-third of the total population of England and Wales is under 15 years of age. — Prizes have been offered to children who attend school in Martham, Norfolk, with the cleanest boots. —It has recently been suggested that a tax of 2s 6d should be placed on ladies' shoe 9 with heels more than 2in height, and a tax of Is on corsete of not less than 22in waist measurement, an additional la being charged for every inch below that s-ize. —By the mining laws and customs of Derbyshire, a miner, if he finds ore, may dig for ( -it upon any person's ground. —In the last. 50 years population of England* has almost doubled it&elf; while that of Ireland has decreased by about onethird. — Twenty lambs, 12 rabbits, two hens, a duck, and *. grouso were found by gamekeepers recently ie a fox's larder on the Pentland Hills.' — Among the epithets exchanged by members of the Russian Duma during a recent sitting were " Baltic pig," " German monkey," "Pharisaic hypocrites," and " Murderers." — There are no fewer than 4000 women '■ postmen " in Great Britain. They are chiefly "employed in the rural districts of Tva'.es. Scotland, and Ireland. — Plans have been prepared in N«w York for -an hotel 376 ft high. It will be the tallest in Ihe world, containing 31 storeys, and costing; £400.000. — A tomtit has built its nest in a lamppost close to the Ashbourne Police Station doors, Staffordshire. Under police supervision the parents birds are rearing their family without molestation. — Allen Batohelor, .of Guildford, who was repxtted to bs England's oldest barber, has died at the- age of 88. He claimed to hays been patronised by kings, dukes, bishops, judges, policemen, politicians, publicans, ' anrl sinners no end." — The heaviest locomotive engine in the world lias iust be^n built at the Baldwin Work* m the United States. The weight, including the tender, i-> 265 tow, and without tho tende:- 190 tons. The heaviest British locomotive weighs 143 tons. — One of tbr- nio^t unique task? electricity, is to be comoelWl to accomplish is the picking of chickens. An electric fan for this purpose has be»n devised for wholesale poultry-picking. The fan is placed in a receptacle, through which it dri\es a blast of a>r claimed to be sufficient to rsmove all the feathers and down from a fowl in a few seconds. —An expert workman in one of the great nerrllc far-tori"*, in a test of -skill. rerfonned on? of the most delicate feats imaginable. He took a common pew ing needle of medium size, an inch and fiv>eighthq in 'engtb, and drilled a holo through it* entire length from eye to point. th<» cloning bein" just large enough to permit of the passage of a very fine hair. — An extraordinary illustration of tho ea<-"-lc*snt=s of the public is furnished by the Postmaster-general. He slates that ovor 11.000.000 letters. 3.500.000 post-rW.s. 15,000.000 halfpenny racket*, and 244.000 parcels were amongst the undelivered rcostal packets last year. There were also 393,000 registered letter, containing £19.378 in r-ish and notes, and £636,680 in bills, cheques, money order*, etc. — A startling experience rer^ntlv befell 0 London workman named Kirkbrid*. He was at work on tho floorine of a bank 'ji Vauxhall Bridge road, and about 10 o'clock in the morning had occasion to enter th" strongroom to set some materials. \\ hilo he was inside tho door swung to. forking automatically, and ho found himself a prisoner. Tso ore on the premises had the key, and it was not till 6 o'olock in tho evening that the architect arrived, in re-k-r>on*c ir> an ursrenr summon", and r*>l<v»«p'] him. There was lii'.le chance of Kiik bride getting out in am- oilier n.annei. for the fitroneroom was fitted -with the Patent Channel bo'i s>st«m of lock, which ha» rerentlv been brought out by a wellknown Birmingham firm of safe engineei=, and ha* no\er yet bf^on successfully broken open. It in an ingenious system which ove ••comes the ordinary faulty method of iiiing a series of small bolts.