MULTUM IN PARVO.

Otago Witness, Issue 4030, 9 June 1931, Page 67

MULTUM IN PARVO.

—On January J 5, 1930, Germany had 3,092,000 unemployed. On the same date this year the number has risen to 4,765,000. America has 6.000,000 wholly unemployed and 4,400,000 on part time. This is 23.8 per cent, of the industrial population wholly unemployed and 21 per cent, on part time.

—At the end of last year the tonnage of merchant vessels under construction in the world was 2,3'26,086. The proportion under construction in Great Britain was 39 per cent. Britain's nearest competitors were America with 10 per cent, and Germany with 9.4 per cent.

-—The Financial Secretary to the British Treasury estimates that if members of Parliament travelled third class on the railways instead of first the country would save f 16,000 per annum. —Despite everything, things in England continue to move upward. Proceedings for begging, which in 1914 numbered 25,000. have fallen to 5000, and proceedings for “sleeping out.” which in 1914 numbered 8000, have now fallen to 2200. —During 1930 22} acres were added to the area set apart for sports and games in the royal parks of Britain. In addition three and three-quarter acres were used for the construction of boating and paddling pools.

—The fastest daily run on British railways is the 3.45 p.m. from Swindon to Paddington, a distance of 77.3 miles in 70 minutes, or 66.3 miles per-hour. More trains travel at 55 miles an hour in Britain than in any other country.

—The profits of English brewing concerns for the year 1929-30 are estimated at £25.000.0000. This is after allowing for wear and tear of machinery and plant. —ln 1913-14 the expenditure in Britain on defence was £77.098.723. Last year. 12 years after the war to end war,” the expenditure on defence was £110,764.200.

—The numbers of employers on the King’s 801 l was 27.151 in January, 1929, employing 381,479 disabled ex-servicemen: in January. 1930, 26,709. employing 375.326: and in January, 1931, 25,908, employing 371,792. Membership of the King’s Roll is a condition of obtaining Government contracts.

—Every year more than three thousand childless couples in England legally adopt children, nearly ten thousand boys ami girls having thus found new homes in the last three years. —Families in England are growing smaller every year, there being two children under 16 years of age in 15 per cent, and three or more in 19 per cent. —The four main causes of crime are lust, greed, vanity, and jealousy, according to Mr Justice M’Caidie, who added th.it drink and poverty had very little to do with crime.

—With only two feet to spare at each side, H.M.S. Nelson recently passed through the locks of the Panama Canal. She is the widest vessel ever to have passed through the canal.

- —During the year 1929-30 the British Government-owned licensed houses in Carlisle and district made a net profit of £66,689 7s 9d.

: —-According to Lloyd’s Register, there are 9172 steam vessels of 20,648,000 tons gross registered at ports in the British Empire. Twelve per cent, of this number—3o per cent, of the gross tonnage — are steam vessels fitted for burning oil. —The annual trade of the co-operative societies of England amounts to about £300,000,000. —The bulb industry has increased so greatly, in Lincolnshire that one town alone, Spalding, now sends out 32,000 boxes of cut blooms every week during the height of the season.

—Under the control of the London County Council are 40.000 beds for the treatment of the sick, 20,000 beds for the mentally afflicted, and another 20,000 beds in Poor Law institutions. —Lindbergh, America’s famous airman, received 1943 gifts after his famous solo flight across the Atlantic in May, 1927-. Most of these took the form of medals, plaques, and other “ mementoes.” —Flying is growing so rapidly that aerodromes are already in use at Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, Hull, Blackpool, Ipswich, and Nottingham, while over 20 other authorities have similar schemes in hand.

—The total amount of correspondence sent to India by air during 1930 was 32,2881 b.

—The total amount paid in coal mining royalties and wayleaves in England for the year ended September 30, 1930, was approximately £5,650,000. This works out at a little more than 5d per ton of saleable coal raised.

—ln 1920 the acreage of arable land in England was 12,019,745. By the end of last year this had shrunk to 9,833,140 acres.

—By the draining of the Zyder Zee, which is expected to be completed by next year, Holland will increase her land area by 550,000 ftcres at a cost of just over £lOO an acre.

—One spot in the. Pacific Ocean, 40 miles east of the Philippine Islands, is the deepest yet sounded. The depth recorded was about 5900 fathoms, or seven miles. The deepest spot in the Atlantic is off Porto Rico,where 5228 fathoms were registered.

—After being used as a tithe barn in Kent for oyer three centuries, .a fifteenth century oak building was recently dismantled, carried across the Thames, and rebuilt at New Barnet, Hertfordshire, where it is to be used as a church in connection with a college. —Falcons have been trained so that their flight can be controlled and kept within range of a film camera at the training school for motorless aeroplane pilots at Rossitten, Germany. “ Slowmotion ” films of the birds are shown to

the pupils, who have included, during the past year, representatives of eight foreign countries, including Britain and America, and 12 women pilots.