OMJNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11798, 30 July 1900, Page 8

OMJNIUM GATHERUM.

Hares are becoming somewhat of a nuisanco in the immediate neighbourhood of Masterton.

Mr T. Anderson, rabbit agent at Clyde, hao , been transferred to Fairlie, in succession to Mr A. F. Keach, who has been appointed to the Milton district. It is stated that Mr Battye, who acted as representative at Rotorua for Messrs T. Cook and Son a few years ago, is one of the victims of the Peking massacre. Magnificent specimens of British ingenuity and skill are shown in the Royal Enfield and New Hudson Cycles. Popular bikes at popular prices.—Speedwell Cycle Works, 155 George street.... It is understood that the directors of tho Union S.S. Company exonerate Captain Brophy from all blame for the loss of the Taupo.—Grey River Argus. ' Mr A. Waugh, for many years on the staff of tho Taieri Advocate was presented with a handsome silver-mounted pipe and case on severing his connection with the office. The Rev. Henry J. Fletcher, of tho Presbyterian Maori Mission, who is stationed in the Taupo district, says the spread of Christianity amongst the Maoris in the interior is slow. As a result of the vote on the question of the use of individual communion cups by the Mornington Presbyterian Church-, only 26 voted against the proposal out of a membership of 340. ' . .. ■ Moreow, Bassett, and Co. are sole agents in New Zealand for the '99 daisy cart, patent steel horse collar, Sterling bicycles, and the M'Cormick Reaper and Binder.... - The fund to provide compensation foi v railway accidents in -Victoria inaugurated shortly after the Windsor railway disaster in 1887; now amounts to £71,500. It is to be closed when it totals £100,000, that sum being- considered an adequate reserve. Tho Southland papers report that spurious half sovereigns are in circulation in Invercargill just now, a business man having received one on Thursday in payment of an account. The imitation is almost perfect, but the fraud can easily be detected by testing the rinsr, the pleasant jingle being absent/ The Nelson Colonist states. that recently Mr Beck, who has a station some distance'inland from Tuparoa, found ori his property a splendid opal. The stone is highly coloured and of good quality, and the discoverer intends making further exploration in the locality. .. . ' The Quickest, Best, and Cheapest, method of Delivering Parcels in town or suburbs is The New Zealand Express Company's new "Freighter" system, commencing July 10 What was known as "The inner harbour mystery " at Napier recently is cleared up so . far as Miss Pilcher's connection with it is concerned, as, accompanied by her father, sihe returned to Napier from Melbourne on Wednesday evening. . Miss E. J. Gardiner, who has been appointed sixth assistant in the George street School, was presented with a handsome gold brooch and a gold watch chain on Friday on severing her connection with . the North School, • Oamaru. .' . A handsome brass memorial tablet has been plaoed in the council chambers of the Vincent County Council, as a mark of respect to the memory of the late Mr Robert Sheppard, who was elected as councillor in 1884,' and sat at the board as chairman from September! 1894, to May, 1899.

The Sterling warrant is backed by experience, reputation, capital, capacity, honesty, and the Morse chain. The Sterling rider sits

on certainty

A man named Andrew Hart, has been committed for trial at Warracknabeal (Victoria) on a charge of manslaughter of a maii named Thomas Buckley. The evidence af the inquest on the victim showed that he used vile language to Hart, who lost his temper and kicked him several, times.. Buck-

icy's death ensued in a quarter of an hour.

The Nelson Colonist states that on Tiies; day evening a very brilliant meteor was observed in the north-east, at an angle of about

45deg from the horizon, and it travelled tfi the south-west, appearing almost to stop as it passed, when it became surrounded by a halo. So bright a light did it emit that shadows were cast on the roadway. .

The following additional donations have been received by the Y.W.C.A. in response

to the appeal sent out to assist the debt reduction fund:—Mrs John White, Ander-

son's Bay, £2; Miss Farquhar, £1; Mr Sligo, 103; Mrs G. : Moodie, 53; Miss A. Muirhead, 4s; Mrs Sinclair Thomson,. 10s; Mr Gibson, Ashley Downs. £1; Mrs Martin, Fairfield, 10s; Mr Mitchell (Fergusson and Mitchelll,. £1 Is; Wilkinson and Son, chW-

ists, £1; Mrs R. T. Wheeler, jun., £2 2a; Mrs D., ss. One of the nicest and easiest riding gigs ever seen in this or any other country is.the new Daisy Cart, truly a buggy on two wheels. A shipment of which has just been landed by Messrs Moerow, Bassett, and Co., Cumberland street; and the price is only £10 105;..j

The following incident, which reads like an American invention, but which has been amply corroborated, occurred on the day of

the solar eclipse at Santarem.(Portugal).' A man at work in the fields was so alarmed by the celestial phenomenon that he became bereft of his senses, rushed hither, and thither in great distress, and finally plunged headlong into a pond, and was drowned.— El Imparcial, Madrid. The customs authorities at Hobart. recently seized a quantity of goods imported from Melbourne by two Chinamen, which, %upon examination, showed that enclosed in stlie merchandise, there was concealed abo.ut 30,000 cigars and 2001b of tobacco.' One of the offenders is missing. Upon the other the Treasurer has inflicted v, fine of £200 and confiscation of tile seized goods. • ■

Two sons of Mr White, of Kaikora (Hawke's Bay) went to South • Africa recently to try their fortune. On arrival at Durban Mr Duncan White went ashore, and was at once engaged for the Natal.Mounted Police, and op returning from the ship with his baggage Algernon came' with him, arid was a day or two later attached to the African Light Horso, and at once sent up to the front with Sir Redvers Bullor's company- ..'.., The cool and comfortable condition in which horses using steel, collars return from their work is a remarkable contrast to the heated and exhausted state of horses working in ordinary collars in hot or wet weather. The collars are lighter, stronger, cheaper, cleaner, and more comfortable than leather collars, and the only way to appreciate their numerous and undoubted advantages IS TO " GIVE THEM A TRIAL." MORKOW, BASSETT, axd Co., sole agents.... ■ A fatal shooting accident is reported from Camperdown (Victoria). Two boys, named Ryan and M'Carthy (who was five years of age), were playing in a room, when Ryan, the elder, picked up n gun, placed a cap on it. and fired at his little playmate, Raying, "I'll shoot you." Ryan was horrified to see M'Carthy drop, and at once told the father. Death was instantaneous, and Ryan has been placed under arrest.

Young Hee, a Greymouth Chinaman, in a letter to the Greymouth Star, says:—"Allow me. on behalf of my countrymen on £ho AVcst Coast, to protest against these wanton cruelties and atrocities, and I can assure you it is our earnest hope that these offenders against civilisation and advancement may speedily receive the punishment they so richly deserve. In conclusion. I bop; to express our heartfelt sympathy with the friend* and relatives of those who were so brutally murdered."