OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2413, 7 June 1900, Page 2

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

An Army League, with objects similar to those of the Navy JL<?ague, is being formed. The Rev. Canon King has been appointed .Grand Oheplain for Obago by the Masonic ■Grand Lodge of New Zealand.

Bullet-proof trains, drawn by armourplated traction engines, for conveying guns, ihave been despatched to the Cape. The Native meeting at Waahi is over. The Waikatcs demand homo rule, and will support Henari j£oihau's= Maori Ootmcil Bill.

Mr E. W. Gurr, formerly of Apia, Samoa, ■has bsen appointed secretary for Native af•fairs on the Island of Tutuila by the United 'States Government.

Satisfactory progress is being made with the- formation of the Gi3borne-Karaka line, the first eight miles being completed. Fifty •men are employed on the work.

The second mate on the Wainui says that •luring- his 10 years' experience on the coast of New Zealand he has never witnessed such mountainous peas as in the strait last week.

At Invercargil] on ¥/ednesday a mail named Edwax-d Th on- as was committed for trial on a charge of obtaining a bicycle, valued at £22, Wider false pretences, fie is sko waiting his trial on a charge of stealing the machine.

Sufficient money has been subscribed in Oiomwell for the Baden-Powell testimonial (says the Argus) to enable the proposed nugget of gold to be purchased and attached to a suitably-inscribed gold plate for presentation to the hero of Mafeking.

A fire was discovered at an early hour on Thursday morning in' a storeroom at the back cf the studio of tb.e Convent traildings,Oamaru. about £70 worth of damage being done. T-iia origin of -the fir& is- a- mystery, us 'tliore had not been a fire anywhere near the roam

The Rev. D. C Bate? recently issued an invitation to the footballers of the Invercavgill clubs to attend a service on Sunday morning last, and, as a result, over 100 young men ivcre present, the rrajority having donned the colours of their respective clubs. They were treated to an instructive and appropriate sermon.

The Taieri Advocate states that complaints are already being made concerning the unpunctuality of the early train. It runs from 10 minutes to a quarter of an hour late. Some of the passsngers by it have to be at work by 10 minutes to 8. If thej' are not there by that time, time is deducted from them by their employer.

Mr A. Bea«ley was presented on Friday evening (says the Bruce Herald) with a handsome, silver-mounted walking stick and cigarette holder by the members of the Milton Brass Band on the occasion of his departure for Port Chalmers, where he takes up em-

plo3 r racni with ihe engineering firm of Morgan and Cable.

The Southland Daily News learns that Mr Rigg-, who for the past 18 months has been acting manager in invercargill for the Bank of New Zealand, has been appointed inspector for the southern districfc in succession to Mr Buller, who bscorn.es msnagsr at A\ickland. Mr Rigg will continue to -make Invercargill his home for the present.

A (Canterbury lady, has received from her brother, serving in South Africa, some trophies in the shape of ostrich feather tips, a Dutch prayer book and catechism, a lover's letter to his best girl, and a document apparently marriage lines, as well as a half sovereign with "two holes in it, which, was sewn on 'to a pair of Dutchman's trousers for a brace button. — Timaru Herald.

On Sunday last the Bishop of Waiapu. assisted -by the Yen. Archdeacon, Rev. Arthur Williams, and JLevs. Katene, Steward, and other Maori ministers, consecrated the new ■church at the pa, Waipa,wa. Hundreds of Natives were present from all parts of Hawke's Bay, the church not being nearly large enough to hold them all. The hymns ai the services ■were conducted in the Maori language.

A Frenchman named Paul Auber was arrested at Melbourne recently because he was carrying a suspicious-looking bundle. Sttbsequent investigations led the police to believe ire was an escanee from Noumea, ■who had escaped at Port Melbourne on April 25 while being takon to New Opledonia, having been extradited from West Australia. Auber was remanded.

The Hera. 'R. Eccves was called upon to say grace at ihe opening of the banquet to the Hen. Mr M'Gowan on the 24-th inst. (says the Westport Times), and he improved the occasion by adding the following petition to the usual 'prayer:— "Oh Lord, we pray Thee soften the heart of the Minister of Mine-, and incline him to grani us all the little requests we may make him." The banqueters were too much taken by surprise to &ay " Auien.' Two cases arising out of bush fires occupied the attention of Mr Wilson Heaps, S.M., at ihe Nelson Court last week. Char-les While and George W. Sharp sued George Fairhall for £33 Is'od and £98 respectively for damages done to their properties by fires caused by defendant to be lighted on his son's section, the said fires having got beyond control. 'In the former case judgment was given for £53 11 * 7cl, with costs', £13 7s 6d ; and in the latter for £54. with £11 Is costs ; making a total of £112 0» Id.

Conrolete specifications relating to the following" applications for letters patent have been accepted at the Patents' Office as under : —John Robert Perry, Dunedin, improvements in power winches especially de?i«ned for gold dredges; Joseph Low den, Morning ton. improved apparatus for coupling and uncoupling railway rolling stock; John Ramago, Balclutba, an improved acetylenegad generator ; James Shepherd, Invercargill, an improved pulley-block. Provisional specifications have* been accepted as under: — Herman August, ■ Invercargill, improvements in packing cans or tins, to render them airtight. An interesting specimen of the mischief wrought by the teio-do is at the harbour office .at Timaru (reports > the Herald). Some six or eight months ag,o a workman made a false blow with an 81b hammer, the handle snapped, and the head and part of the handle dropped into the sea, and sank. This has been fished up by the dredge, and ihe hickory handle easily snapped again owing to its being nearly all bored "away at one point. The stick was sawn through in several places, and the borings were found to run from end to end. The warms -started in the eye of the hammer, and bored along the grain. The outside, of the stick, except at (.ho eye end. is quite whole. At ihe last meeting of the N.S.W. Aborigines Board some ?.2 wild blacks, \esiding near Wentworth, applied for warm clothing for "the cold season. Mr Fosbsry, inspector-general of the police, explained that many years ago a, blacklellow and a couple of young gins vanished from a place called Poolamacca, near Wentworth, and wore never heard of for about 30 years, when they were discovered at Waterhole, on the Lower Darling, the trio haying increasod and multiplied to about 40. When found thpy were absolutely wild, very savage, and quite nake'l. The present applicants number nine ndults and thirteen children, and were the remains of a newly-found tribe.

According to the Palmorslon Standard, Mr Cowood, who ha? a large fruit garden near CoJyton, has been troubled by rats eating his apples this season. The rodents climbed ihe trees to reaoh the fruiU

At the olose of .next month all licenses for the sale of alcoholic liquors within the Clutha. electorate will terminate (says the Leader),

and cannot be renewed. The Clutha. wiU then bo a no-license district,