OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2490, 4 December 1901, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The average weight of a horse is 10001b. The London Stock Exchange has 4392 members. There are several cases of English cholera in Wellington. Bees visit 3,000,000 blossoms to gather a pound of honey. Three hundred people die daily from accidents in Europe. A penny on the British income tax represents £6,312,000. For 74- men who die by accident only 26 women are so killed. The London Fire Brigade uses 17,000,000 gallons of water yearly. In England sugar now costs £15 a ton. In 1810 it cost £95 a ton. .British inhabitants drink 35 million bottles yearly of patent- medicines. It costs 8s to talk for three minute, over the London to Paris telephone. A child died ot El'tham (Taranaki) last week through eating green gooseberries. Peach aphis and red spider continue to give trouble to the Manterton orchardists. Notice of the vesting in the Public Trustee of section 3, block I, Allanton, is gazetted. Three per cent, of the able-bodied men of the Christian world make their living at sea. A sharp frost in Masterton on Monday night ruined tomatoes, French beans, and pumpkins. The cost of firing a single shot from a 16-in gun would pay a private soldier for five years. Fifty years ago Cornwall supplied 80 uer cent, of the world's tin. This has fallen to 7 per cent. Every 1000 British peopK have between them 107 newspapers daily; 1000 Russians have se\en. P. J. Molloy was fined £1 and costs at Chrutchurch on Tuesday for affixing a used stamp to a posted letter.

The Cardiff Dairy Company (Taranaki) was fined- for having an uncertified driver of a. 17 horse-power engine. (iyrmuri3's colonies are five times as big as herself, those of France 18 times, and Britain's 97 times bigger than herself. The Public Trust Office notifies the intention to administer the intestate estace of the late Jomes Black, the younger, of Owaka. The Lawrence Borough Council will consuler a proposal on Monday next to adopt Watty's wai-er gas as a means of lighting the town. The erection of municipal saleyards for Baiclutha. was commenced on Monday. The work will be completed in about two months' time. John Jones, a Eallarat resident, who would have attained the age of 101 vcars next month, met his death by accident on the ISth m«t. An application is to be made to the Government by thp Napier Harbour Board for a gram, of £800 in aid of the Western Spit protective works. The United States spends two millions sterling a year or its Red Indian pubjects, while C?nada manages a similar number on a qmriei of that sum.

The Colonial Treasurer acknowledges through rhc Gazette receipt of £7 in banknotes. The money was forwarded in an emeiope without any writing. At Wolverhampton a grocer has committed suicide by lying down in front of v train rather than appear befoic the magistrate on :i eliarge ot drunkenness. At, the Timai'u District Court the other day bis Honor Juds>e Ward remarked that it very often happened that men were perfectly ho,ie&|- till temptation offeicd. but after that noint they were oftentimes not to be relied upon.

There is evidently poi\ip freedom «hown in tho use of firearms in Feildinjr, According to the local paper, two M'.ots wore discharged in fie direction of r omo 'noak tnieve^ who we*<* attemminjr to s (rio a elothe«kip the other moraine. In the Metropolitan Poiicp Forcu of Dublin, there arc 1100 men principally cn-li-tcd from tho farming cln^o-. 700* of whom arp over 6ft lugh. and m> to 6ft 6-n. No m< n uivlcr sft Him pro c nh^t^c l . (J'vniff rvidcJiPD toe Fafiono^ Act f'fv.inv'jSiOii m ryi'ncy one man who woiked n- n vc rui'ianf 100' - ■ i- r,-k fo<- .30-^ «-.im ihsai h^ h-- 1 • . : - . m'ng that i VP, or.ti hardly l>.r .. .> own cl'ildicn The I'o c which i-> being made to test tho M-ihia IVni >u!a f.<' - coal is now riov n 100 t Cop] of g iod ni'ia'ity h-~ Lcpii found ou tl.e Mirfnce. an'! it i« ftisraipd {l>it a <-pd -.■> v. ill bo fo md at a dent'i of SODTt 0.600 f I. V * niP'i ciicp 'iiat will he appiec-'ated h\ tho tra-><?ilniu public — a lefreahir.eut sui'l di ihe Milton isilwav station — i^ in course of

secured the privilege to cater for railway tiavellers. The young lad named Tall, who was seriously injured -on Thursday night by a j fall at Gore in Mi' Inder's livery stables, has had a decided change for the better, j and sanguine hopes are now entertained of his recovery. j John Stewart, of Puerua, was fined a I nominal amount on Friday for driving a traction engine through Balclutha without having two mou — front and rear — to keep a look-out, as required by "The Police Offences Amendment Act, 1900." The maxi- | muir penalty is £10. The largeafc wag-gon ever built in America, it is said, has ju-t been completed by a St. Louis firm. It i. 22ft long and Bft <!in wide, j weighs 60001b, and has a carrying capacity of 15.0001b. The waggon wds made to carry , tobacco boxes, and it can hold 3000 of them. A eorresponc'cnl of a dn-i=tchure,h. paper . points out that ecustaut inconvenience is I noticed by railway passengers alighting from i the new American cars, owing to the awkward position of the eteps>. The difference I in" the elevation of different railway platforms is another -eause of the inconvenience. , In France, says the Boston Herald, tuberculosis kills 200,000 p©O2jle" a" year'; in other words, a city of the size of Toulouse is yearly wiped off the face of the country. This numbei is 20 or 25 out of every 100 in the total mortality, and.it represents in great part the productive and industrial force of the nation. To-day smokers are numbered by millions, a fact to which the Treasury of most nations have to be devoutly thankful. It is estimated that 1,000,000,000 acres of land are devoted to the culthation of tobacco. The

world con-iimcs each rear 6.300,000,0001b, or 2,812,500 tons, worth" £52, 000,000. I A laundi-yvnan of Pavi^ h.as discovered a method of cleansing iinc linen and other fragile textures without using 1 soap or other ■ chemicals. Instead of these he uses boiled i potatoes, which he rubs into the goods and then rinses out. It is said that this method I will make soiled linen, silk, or cotton much whiter and purer than washing in the ordinary way. j Saye the oamamm am Mail: — Owing to unfor- ' seen circumstances, due probably to the ', death of Mr Morvi«on and public business, the Premier and Sir J. G. Ward have, telegraphed regretting their inability to be present at the banquet to the Hon. T. Y. Dun- | can on Wednesday. In consequence we learn I that the banquet has been indefinitely postponed. A lar^e number of Oamaru people were disappointed on Sunday evening when a , sacred concert to have been given could , not be held inconsequence of a decision to I that effect by the Borough Council late i the previous afternoon. In refusing permisI sion in the present, iiistance the council were, no doubt (the Mail states), guided by the light of previous experiences. j Says the North - Otago Times : "It is ; said that the lady who rode at the Oamaru I show in the jumping contests and in the • stock-horee competition is a mechanic of the general uiilfty order. g>he is credited with constructing the gig that the pony j tandem team drew round the ring, and also with making the harness. And yet it is said that women cannot do men's work." Some miners workiug in a Fifeshire colt liery 275 years ago were drowned by a sud- | den flood. The old pit ha-s now been pumoed out. and tha workmen's tools — wo&den. shoyels and. nicks witkJiandjßs nearly aV> thick as' t!ie roof prop_s now -used — 'hietß been iound. iix gobd condition. -The modern colliers nr-c-re astonished at sizie of tKe blocks of coal" cut -out- jaoariy;- three' "centuries I ago.

" Often! feel'l do not Know what I should rk> without the Salvation Army," remarked Judge Conolly at Auckland, ipropos of cases where there is an apparent desire on the part of the nreuspcl persons to lead better ]ne« if they he given a chance to do so, ni^tcnd of being- <-ent fo gaol. His Honor Mid there were many oases, of homeless and fripiulless people being csred for by the Army. yiv Cameron, of Waikari. reports (say* the 'I'i-.naru Herald) that a supposed sulphur spring, hich has' been cToniiant..for some timo, 10 miles from "Waikori. towards thp 'ca, ou rhe frbnmark esfrte. has froghened up. Th.» vater, he .=a^ ' ■;»',- in->pn^-iiat' d with ?ulohutettcd exov bnt "• ■-I'v.nlr 1 'übmitt.'d hardly fj..cam? tho full flavoui of the Ilanmc 1 n !*■ >• A -simple lia> been =op.t a^ay for ai^p.h i-. _A -ohonl committee ;\t v nifptinn of tlir Hr.wke's 'Bay Education Brord the othor day .vked foi- a vc!ic\ing icachcr, bui the cliairn^n said tlipy had none to send, neither iran nor v, email. " V\"e liave e\cry kind of pei )i diaggoJ i.i to a-^iit.' 1 added Dr Sidoy. The chairman wai told during Hs k-i&iit Y&i_§£_y[_\ >hAt i^ CLrlstcLuica

teachers had never been so scarce as at the present time. — Hawke's Bay Herald. j Ilera Weka, a Maori, 17 years of age, was admitted to six months' probation at the Oamaru Magistrate's Court on Monday on a charge of stealing the sum of £3 153 2d, the properly of Robert Frame, at Moeraki. Accused was described by the police as a labourer and a preacher of the Gospel amongst his own people. Probation was granted on condition that accused repaid the money stolen aud costs (£4 0s lid), ■ which was done. j A novel request was before the Hawke's | Bay Education Board on Tuesday, when an application wa<- made that «i school in the back blocks might be closed about a fortnight earlier for the holidays, to enable the female teacher, who is clerk to the local :oad board, to take her holidays, so that she- might davote her time in issuing the local rate demands'. The board admitted that it was an unusual request, but, as I clerical labour is scarce in the part of- tho | district referred to, granted the application. ! A remarkable j-tory is current with regard Lto Sir lan Hamilton's spectacles. It apjsears i that the gallant officer, then a subaltern, lost j a , pair of spectacles' in th,e., battle of Majuba I Hill. They were apparently picked up by a, I Boer whom they suited, and who kept them for 20 years. In the early part of the present year the spectacles were found on a dead Boer. There could be no doubt as to their identity^ for the case had General Hamilton's name on it, and they were in due course returned to their original owner. — Bradford Observer. By tho last English mail a Dunedin resident received a letter from a relative of his now in London, who says : " Whilsfc travelling on a 'bus the driver pointed out j several houses some of the occupants of | which were ill with smallpox. The driver | asserted that the sufferers contracted the disease through eating 'frozen meat.'" Whether such statements are made because of the ignorance of the person making them or whether these persons are subsidised by tho^e interested to damage colonial meat; it is impossible to say. Much inconvenience is being caused to Timaru business people (says the Post) through the new Factories Act, which makes it compulsory to close factories on Saturday afternoons. Previously the holiday in Timaru for both shops and factories has bpen held on Thursday, but now, in cases where factories and shops are combined in the one establishment, some of the employees will have to take their holiday on Thursday and some on Saturday. In places where the works of shops and factories is done by hands from both departments the employers' arrangements will be very much disarranged ; and the workers also would prefer to take the holiday on the onr da,y. Captain Hare. Chief Commissioner of the Westralian ' Police, has received particulars from Sub-inspector Duncan, of Turkey Creek, in the far north-west, of what appears to have been a cold-blooded murder of two natives. The bodies of the aboriginals were found about 30 miles from Turkey Creek, atid an attempt had been made to burn them. Duncan reports that on the day of the tragedy a party of natives were en,gaged in cut-tinsr up a cow. A white man arrived and fired several shots at the natives, killing Iwo. The ethers ran away. Thomas M'Laughlin. of Texas station, was identified by the natives as the man who fired the shots. When a detecHve we<iit to arrest M'LaugliHn he covered the officer with a "rifle, avid "escaped.- It "is supposed that M'Lattghlin has gone to South Australia.

— 'Railway 1 ? use up over two million tons of steel a yeai — almost half' the world's product.