MULTUM IN PARVO

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO

— The English Mint was erected in 1810. — The most valuable tiger is the Chinese -variety. Its skin fetches from £10 to £20. — The thickness of the film of a soap bubble is estimated at 1-240, 000 th of an inch. -*. ' — On a night in Mar*h, 1905, 1863 men •and 312 women Were found sleeping in the streets in London. . — The best year for conscience money -was 2885. In that year the Chancellor received nearly £10,000. — The first London theatre to be lighted with gas was the Lyceum, in 1803. —On one of the Howe Islands ' is a banyan tree wihich covers nearly seven acres. . , — Sag« and rhubarb contain the* greatest number of medical properties of any plants. — The first English auctior of which any record exists was at Oxford on February 28, 1686. ~ —In India there are nearly 26,000,000- ■ widows. — The eyes of a. chameleon move independently of one another. — German national schools now give free dentistry to poor children. — For eaoh respiration, an adult inhales, .on an average, one pini oLair. f — Recently a swallow, made, a -flight of 150 miles at^ft rate of 134- miles an hour. — Hospitals attended to 2,245,000 patients " in England during the Vast year. —Mr Thomas Hardy's play, * " The Dynasts," contains 19 acts and 130 scenes. — A recent earthquake shock at Toulon caused the sea in the docks to fall l&in. — f Hampshire sends more strawberries to London and other big- towns than any other county — Last year 3795 boats passed through the Suez Canal. — Brazil grows more coffee than any other country, in the world. — Ireland's estimated population exceeds four and a-quarter millions. — Fifteen thousand children are bom annually in British workhouses. — Out' of a total of 18 South Pole expedi--tions, mine have been British. — Prince Edward Island's annual satoh of lobsters amounts to 20,000,000. —Mr Roosevelt saye "it is emphatically the first duty of each American to get dollars." — The united ages of a family of four iroihers and one sister at Sheerness England, amount to 401 years. " — Six and a-half tons of pure gold wa« the -cargo of a ship which recently 6et out from Alaska. —At Wisbech recently an old man of 82 married a bride of 81. - — London County Council sohools last . 6ummer taught 32,643 children fo swim. — The Archbishop of York recently addressed. 300(1 people in a quarry. — Masks are still in use amongst savage nations to ware away demons. — Only 10 per cent- of all the different European flowers have any perfume. — Single-room" dwellings for the poor are* being tried by the Newcastle Corporation, England. v % — -A. steam collier, built entirely of stone, ie being- contracted for the.- Italian Govenrment — Lake Superior is the largest mass of foesh water in the world, being equal to JCrelcnd in area —The first airship annual, entitled "All tbe World's Airships," is to bt published in October. — The name of "Rotten Row." in Hyde Yark, is derived from "route dv roi," or drive." -r Texas recently .had a. tornado of such severity that a whole train was blown off ' a bridge into a river. — Ths first three volumes of the "History of tihe South African War" have cost £3^,102 of public money. — The English Board of Agriculture last year had no less than 4237 applications for fancy names for margarine.' — Luring a hailstorm ir Roumania recently some of the hailstones wore as large as a man's fist. — At a rose competition in Paris recently 69 entirely new varieties of roses were exhibited. — Chicago surgeons .have successfully grafted a portion of the leg of i lamb to a man's leg as a substitute for a shattered ehinbone. —In Paris the theatres* subsic'ieed by the State are under obligation bo give a free performaroe each year. — Watches- were invented «i Nuremberg -in * the -fifteenth' century, and were called "Noirembsrg eggs." — ■ Nearly 100 speeches were delivered in • single afternoon- at a: recent sitting of the" House of Commons. — The" United Kingdom, Germany, and tha United States produce about- £0 per cent, of the world's supply of pig-iron. —In connection with last winter's uninployment administration, nearly 20,000 men were given work in the London district alone. — Special instruction in "baby-mind ing," in which a real baby is introduced, is given to girls at the London County Council garden schools. — Princess Andrew of Greece, who advertised in a New York paper for an English nurse for her children, had over 7000 replies. —In order to save tbe life of a young woman whose dress caught alight, a young man flung- her into a river, and " theu plunged in and rescued her. — Marconi's wireless telegraphy system has already been installed on nearly 200 mercantile ships. — "Immunity tickets" can now be purchased at tome bazaars. They insure the holders against being pestered to buy. —In order io give London policemen a weekly day of rest 1500 extra recruits will be required, at a cost of £150,000 a year. — The sum of £174 was recenily paid for one perniy. The penny was of the time o c Wiglaf oE Meroia, and dated a.d. 825. — A woman at FolcshiJl. England, passed every night of her life of 62 years, in the same house, and slept for 14,000 nights in the same bedroom. .—. — In th& last five years Mr Carnegie has .given more money io education than would have extinguished the American debt of 1786. — Since the beginning of the year the Royal National 'Lifeboat Institution ha* voted rewards for the saving of about 300 lives. — Chicago has decided to build a hall. capable of accommodating 45,000 spectators, wJbieh will -be more than.. four times the sise of London's Albert HalL •

I — For carrying an airship, which pro- ! traded 14ft 6in over the back, of 'his cart, across London Bridge, a- 'man was recently fined 2s fed and 3s costs. —In 1871 a penjiy on the income tax produced just over on-a and a-half millions cf money; _. ; t now produces more than two and a-half millions. — During the performances at a Glasgow theatre, the management has arranged to undertake the oare of babies of members of the audience at a- charge of 2d and 3d per head. — American Customs authoritiee estimate that the Government is robbed-of £4,000,000 annually through the organised smuggling of women's apparel into the port of New York. — The great majority of the Yagihan Indians of Tierra del Fuego — the southern' most ' people in the world — cannot count further than three.