OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2082, 18 January 1894, Page 34

OMNIUM GATHERUM

NEWS, GOSSIP. AND ADS.

Six o'clock is now the general hour of closing at Milton.

Small birds are playing havoc with the crops in Canterbury.

The Lyttelton Times has just passed its forty- third birthday.

Mr Malcolm Ross and party got withiu 300 ft of the summit of Mont de la Boche.

The Westporb Coal Company shipped 2969 tons of coal t'rom Westport laet week.

Four mummies have arrived at the British museum which date back to the days of Moses.

Dr J. B. Thomson has been appointed medical officer to the Kaitangata Miners' Society. It is stated that nearly 170 cases of leprosy have been discovered in Australia during the past five years. A fair number of tourists appear to be visiting Mount Cook this season, but not so many as were expected.

Oatmeal is said to have been the staple food of an old lady who has just died in County Durham, aged 110.

Mr A. A. M'Nab, of the Invorcargill Land Office, has been promoted to be receiver of land revenue at Christchurch.

The population of Victoria on the 30th September was estimated at 1,170,319, showing a decrease for the year of 865.

A bather in the Albert park baths, Melbourne, tho other day suddenly sank and was taken out unconscious and died.

An Order-in-Council prescribes the months of January, February, March, April, May, and June 1894 as a close season for seals.

The Victorian Lands department, between December 9 and 12, has received £8000 arrears from selectors lately urged to cash up.

On the arrival of the Te Anau at the Bluff a man named John Lloyd was arrested, charged with forging a cheque for £6 at Hobart.

The customs duty paid on parcels by post shows a steady increase. The amount has swollen from £1701 in 1889 to £5279 last year.

The road from Pipiriki to Tokaana (on tbe Lake Taupo route), a distance of 88 miles, is now open for vehicles, though not quite finished.

A unanimous call has been given by the members of the Congregational Church in Nelson to the Rev. B. O. Isaac, formerly of Kynetou, Victoria.

Within the past month no fewer than 27 persons have been committed to Sunnyside Lunatic Asylum from Christchurch and surrounding districts.-

Mr John Clegg, the secretary of the Caledonian Sooiety, having been granted leave of absence, takes a run to England at the end of the present month.

Tho New Zealand Electrical Syndicate has now connected 3000 lights under its private lighting contract, to about 100 different premises in Wellington.

Tho Hospital and Charitable Aid Board of Auckland has reiowod tho application to the Government for a pr-iut of £2000 to wake additions to the hospital.

The immigration returns for Decombor show the arrivals in the colony to havo been 2980, and 'the departures 1031 The bulk of arrivals were from New South Wales.

The meteorological returns show that the past year was the wetteat on record in Auckland. Every month exceeds the average rainfall, save March, May, and October.

Tbe hospital returns for the past week are :—: — Remaining from previous week, 96 ; admitted during the week, 20 ; discharged, 17 ; deaths, nil ; — total remaining in the institution, 99.

There are over 200 lady dentists practising their profession in the United States. Truly there are but few occupations across the Atlantic which the fair sex have not invaded.

Miss Coutts, the young lady who was so badly injured recently at Onehunga by being thrown from a runaway horse, has almost recovered again, and is able to be about once more.

"^famous novelist has been plunged into grief by the Ardlamont tragedy. Helen Mathers is a sister of Mra Hambrough, mother of the murdered man, to whom she was much attached.

A free fight on the sports ground at Pabiatua on Boxing Day resulted in one man being carried off in a comatose condition. He was struck in the region of the heart and rendered insensible.

At Louth, Now South Wales, the thermometer recently registered 114 in the shade for several days. At Adelaide, recently, it registered 107 degrees in the shade and 163 8 degrees in tho sun. The hospital returns for the week ouding January 6 were as follow : — Remaining from the previous week, 89 ; admitted during tho week, 22 ; discharged, 14 ; death (Edmond Revitt). 1 ; — total remaining, 96. The Ballauce Memorial Committee have £4so net in hand, which will be invested in the Post Office Savings Bank till wanted . The committee his determined to invite designs f >m . statue or memorial, not to cost more than £500.

The treasurer of the Dupedin Free Kindergarten Association acknowledges receipt of the following subscriptions : — Mrs James Logan (Greendale). £1; A Mother (per Miss Wieneke), £1 ; Miss A. Cummine, 10s 6<l. Acting on instructions from tho Premier, the police have made full inquiries iuto the alleged fight between a dog and a man in Wellington pome time ago, and they have wired to the Premier that the statement is utterly false.

At the conclusion of the Chess Co' gross a Dunedin player offered a 10-guinea trophy as the prize for a match of seven games up between Messrs Edwards and Barnes. Tho latter player signified his williDgness to compelp, but Mr Edwards declined.

The following form of an " apology" appears in a legal advertisement in tho official journal for the district of Rottwell, Wurtemburg : "D 1 — Apology. — T, the undersigned, ifc has been stated, have said that M D j3j 3 a miserable blockhead. That is true. And I am sorry that I am under the necessity of haviug to retract the aforesaid expression (Signed) Johannes Maikk.— At the office of the mayor, November 15bh, 1893."