OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2497, 22 January 1902, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

At Lawrence 37.08 in fell last year, and at Clyde only 16in.

The Wanganui Harbour Boaid has a credit balance of £1572 5s lid

Letters of naturalisation have been issued to A. .Joseph, Taien Mouth, and Charles R Lauren, Dunedin.

A penitentiary for women is to be ereovel at Lutle Bay, X.8.W., at an estimated co>t of £118.000.

Wellington letail butchers are prepaung a reduced list of prices, winch will come into operation "-hortiy.

The Timaru Caledonian .Society cimc out of their X.mv Year meeting with a credit balance" of £IC6 32s 6d.

Acci "ding to the loeil paper Bishop NeAill considers the beauties nf Rivcrtcn aie not sufiiciently well known.

The average man, if he could have as much god as he could carry a mile, would Hud his fortune not over £6000.

There were nine deaths in the Dunstan Hospital la=t y.ear — the youngest to die being 56 and the eldest 82 years of aRP

An Adelaide youngster on a recent Sunday stole a pony and buggy. Ho was oidered by the court to a whipping of 12 «troke«>.

The Highbank and Mcthven (Canterbury) Schools have been closed on account of the prevalence of scailati-ia amongst scholars.

The Po»t understands that the Timaiu Piesbytery are to be petitioned vvit'i a viewto forming a second Presbyterian Church in Timaru.

Muritai and Rona. the seaside resorts of the eastern side of Wellington Harbour, have larger populations Uks summer than ever before.

Mataura's streets will soon be illuminated with electric light. The undertaking is to be carried out by the Southland Frozen Meat Company. Two constables stationed at Bourke =treet West, Melbourne, have been .suspended. They are charged with robbing a man on Christmas morning of £2 9s

In the year 1871 the White Star Line Company pos-scss"d 7614 tons of .shipping, while at the present day their total stands at 243.141 tons — a Vast increase.

The Bishop of London, preaching in St. Paul's Cut'iedtal recently, said that during nine years of his life hff had spent nearly every ovpning in a working men's club.

An old gentleman when passing a youngster selling papers at a street corner, remarked. " Are you not afraid you will catch cold on such a wet night, my little man? " "Oh. no," replied the boy; "selling newspapers keeps up the circulation, sir!"

During the past year spveral important additions were made to the Cromwell Hospital, the eluef onp bping the erection of a fever ■ward, built of stone Some 82 patients were under treatment in the institution during the year, and s JX deaths occurred.

News was rpceived in Greyniouth on the 11th m«t. that the body of a man (name unkncui) had been discovered 111 the lnaugahua River about half-way betwpen Reefton and the .Turj'tion. The body of the boy Du?gan. drowned at Brunnerton, has been recovered

"When do you think ihe war will be over"' " *aid a British oiiicer to a field cornet who brousrht a letttT to Standerton under a flat; of truce When you people aie able' to ratch n horse vvitli an ox v. :ii;v;"ii. ii'>t b.'Fo 1-',1 -', ' \.i- th" aii'WiT — Hum" papei An ofrcial iMinn Matf- that la=t year '-'S fi-h cuniii! «■- tali'i-Jiment" in the coloiiV <-mp!oved 107 lia'id- : paid £7513 in wagcp ; duel 500 tf.i= and tinned 57 tons of fiph. nf a tnml \a"ue 01 £95SS : and other pro duct- being vvoitli £5"'P5. tli" total value of the output wa- £25.173.

A Tailiape ri-idem wlio left In- lior-e tied to a !ci(t- for 18 lioni^ nithout food or vvalei wa- fined by a bcutii of .1 P"- £20. thr« full penalty allowed by law. at«d '«-'-• 111 default t\v.i mouth-" inipri-onnifiit. Tl.e in. ir. v\l.n had thre n «uiiTki coin let ">x\<* cigii'i -t linn, went tc> gao'.

4l'l«i-i:.n Theodor- Bruce and Mrs Brtic.". w lirj rfpently ll etf t .Adelaide for a boiiduv tiui m New Zealand, returned on toe sdi m-t. On amval at Lvrtehon a cablegram 1 cached them lnfo'-niiiicr them of tl:o -'Tjous illne=- of then L'laest -on. 'Ihey I'luii.ed liv tie fir-^t boar.

Attention 1- being given to the growing 01 marram p;ra=s in South Australia a* a nir'an- of fishimg dnft sand An Adelaide M I' . with the spcrctaiy of the Apricultmal Biin'i.ii, icccntly visited Victoim to make urninie-. nto the cultivation of the plant

A I", pan youth named Alajiati, aped 20 vivi- w,»- scntciifid i'J de-at h at Fiji la"-t iiio iiii f.ll t!.. muidii of mo Indian hawkcis 111 -lv.v I.i-t T.i- 1 1 ml, vvliuli lastr-d a week, ci'ai'd u.ne tlian usu:?l interest, jls

tile accused had previously been found not

guilty. A seaman, askpd in the Welbrgton Magistrate's Court how much "shandy" he could absoib without being diunk. was cv . dently puzzled. " London bjer is light," he explained, " New Zealand beer is heavy." Finally he decided he could .-uccessfuliy vvrr-.tie with six Xcw Zealand "shandies."

A family named Byrne, living in Ballarat, have leccived a legal intimation from Dublin that they are the- heirs to £50.000, which, it is s-aul, has bean 111 Chancery for nearly 20 ye:irs. Mr and Mr; Bvme arc uot alive, and it £eem= that the bt quest was made to the latter by her biother, recently deceased, nunic-d Thomp-on. "Coming events ia-.t their .shadows bef ore •• — _vf a large cstabl.tlimcnt jiot 100 miles from Keiunigton lailwi-y station a protest meeting v. as held at noon on Tuesday to object to one of the lecal M.H.R '« who m ai credited with pio Beer proclhit'cs receiving the compliment of an iu\:tation to the annual picii'c. In logard to tl-e strange paralj tic stroke which has taken away the po«er of speech from M'Xeil (particular- of wlncJi we published last week), a WWete e t Ccast paper learus from Kuniara that Dr Scott states he is suffering from the effects of a hemorrhage of the brain. Grave feais are entertained concerning his recoveiy.

The Kltham Argus records the narrow escape fioir. poisoning of some Ngaire boj>. The manager for C. A. Wilgin<-on put a quantity of dried figs dosed with "Rough on Rats " 111 the letter box. With a piece of hooked wjre tome boys (who had srented the fruit) got out the fig^ and ate them. The result \va- a severe fright and strong emetics.

A family of the Zirgari, or gipsies, consisting tif one man, two women, and a child, arrived in Rotorua on Tuesday (?ays the Hot Lakes Chronicl 0 ). They travel in the usual caravan, and have commenced business in palmistry and other of the occult arts. The Maoris are rather taken with the idea, and part freely with their silver with which to cro3s the hand?.

The Gisborne Tines =ays that a Gembrook grower sent one case of prime four-crown apples to Melbourne, and received in payment from the middleman Mxpennyworth of (•tamps. He sent the stamps back to a Melbourne friend to buy Mxpence worth of the bame apple', and th« friend went to a city shop and got just one pound for the sixpence.

Venus, the evening star (writet " Astrou. " in the Ranpitiicei Advocate) is now bo bright that she may easily be seen all day long. Her shape is crescent, only a little more than one-fifth of her surface being illuminated by the sun's rays. She is. therpfore, similar to a. moon three days old. and such can be recognised with a very ordinary telescope.

KatooTiba, the fashionable summer retreat among the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, is very much worried ovpr the presence of a lot of navvies on the railway \vork-> in the vicinity, and the County Council has requested the Government to suspend work on the railway extension until after Kaster, so as to avoid ha\;ng a lot of navvies about tow n during the °fia-,on.

In procuring maantenance, a destitute wiff informed the Chnstchurch magistrate on Tue-day that, although hpr husband'f? earnings avwaged £4 a week, she saw very little of the money Some went to the lawv.'i =, more went 111 racing, while £25 was «-cnt o\ er to Sydney by her husband, who in*i*-t<"d tiiat h«" o- mad, and wanted to buy some tnedKine to cure bia madness.

Rf-tuT'in received by the General Manager of Railways that, the average loss of tjmo in the arrival of trams throughout the colony rb,ring the recent holiday »ea.«an was better t'lan in the < oiTe '■■ponding period of any previous year. de--pit<- the -breakdown of mo or three engines The number of pa*'cas;f'i= w.i- al^o jrre iter than m any pie11011s ('ln i-tmn'4 and Xpw Year holidays.

An Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Earl Cadogan 1 1 - in receipt of a salary of £20,000 a year Th* 1 i-um doe 3 not by any means ( <>\ er expenses Xo one but an exceedingly wealthy man. <-ufJi a<< Lord ('■adngau il-.i 1 -. can afford to lie lord lieutenant: indeed, the hospitality that the King's substitute ha* to dispense is hueli that it eath away a Fiib-s-tantial fortune m a very few year.s indeed

Tho menibpi" of the Bible rlnspr* anil choirs of the MiTburn and "Waihola Ir es by tenaa Omjrches held their annual pjcnir lit Taien Moirth on Friday last, journeying to the abo\e mentioned place in Mr A M'Kegg'h well-known fi f. Wai-wera The weather was all that could be. dcirod, and. thanks to this and the courle.-y shown by Mi M'Kegg, the da>'s outing pu>\id to be a tjreat mkoc-s

When th" Preuui r wa- lr'iu inpr rite Wos-t Coast bjr tiain for the overland trip to

C'hristc'iurch the engine broke down, and it was found ncces-ary to =end Vack to (irej mouth for another locomotive. Tho railway officials Hiro much annoyed at the position, but the Premier turned on tho honey by remarking that "even the engine objected to teal him away from h's own beloved Const."

An old Wellingloi.ian. who spoke p.t tho public meeting held by tie Primithe Methodists 111 Wellington, related an mc.d ent bearing upon the tii^anp* of a Wellington gale. H;- said that many years ago his father had a now hat blown away on the reclaimed la"d. ami in the morning th™ speaker's In other was gent to look for it. He was 111 able to find it. but lie brought bar!: fi\ c oliier hat- a 1 - a result of his '•o:\rch.

Recently the committee of the Mosgiel District High School eominunicate;l with the Boroujfh Council with rcapeet to tho establishment of a public bathing-place which could be u«od by the boys attending; the ichoo l . The* matter has now a»>-imed' practical "-hape, and several workmv'.i of the council are engaged damming a portion of the SiKeivtream with bags of sand. The dam is situated nbout 120 yards from the. Siherstream bridge. A bath of some four chains in length and 40ft wide, with a depth of from 2ft to 4ft, will be prodded.

Speakers at the Primitive Methodist Conference meeting in Wellington the other night lamented the tendency to Sabbath! desecration wJA;'.i they alleged to be conspicuous in this colony j.t the present time. It was urged that vigorous steps should be taken to combat this state of affairs by example- and endea\our. A delegate to the conference expressed the opinion that Sunday was more rigidly observed in Dunedin than it was hi any other centre of tho colony— clue, in his opinion, to the strong leaven of Pretb} tcnanism in the city of the south.

On Wednesday right la=t. whilst Evangelist Farnswarth was lecturing in the Victoria Hall, the Tlieosophical Society were holding a reunion in the board room of the Agricultural Hall. Somewhat bewildered by the blinding rain, a number of ladice who had intended listening to the elucidation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, fou«d their way into the Theosophical meeting and got comfortably seated. Before long, however, they awoke to the fact tl'at they were listening to the heretical doctrines propounded by Mr Mauraip. Instantly they rose and fled, their sudden exit affordi^.^ t-ome aicusem»nt to the members of the Theosophical cult.

Two boys, named Tulford and Ma-quire. aged 16 and 15 respectively, were sentenced to be birched at Ballarat Gaol the other day for brutally ill-treating an aged Chinaman living in the district. They took the old man unawares while he was drawing water from a wpII, and pushing him in, endeavoured to their utmost to force him under the water, using everything they could lay their hands on Their loud laugiler while the cruelty was eoing 00 attracted the notice of some la'oourere near by. who, running to the spot, saved the Chinaman ju XtK t as he was about to disappear. At first the bench hentenced each of the boys to seven days in gaol. A very painful case of suicide nreurrcfl at the n^w leper asylum, on Bequa Island, Fiji, a few weeks ago. when a male Indian inmate, who was in an advanced state of lppro«=y, took the unusual method of destroj'ing the life which had apparently become so burdensome to him by setting fire to the thatched house in which he dwelt.

It 1- interesting to know that there are at present about 550 men locally employed! in the couj-truction of the Auckland eleetrirs tratntrayfc, including tract, undereround) conduits, and power station hands. Shortly the Pansonby depot will be started, whick means an increase of from 60 tc 70 men. and in about two months from now it is expected that about 1000 men will be at work.

While engaged in the dunt " Home to our mountains"" witli Mr Newbury at La-w-rence mi Monday evenieij*, Madame Emily Spadn stopped singing, and raipin? L«r hajid with nerious haste to her face, clutched with spasmodic wildness at sometluug that was mviciiblp to the audience. Apparently she surr-eeded in dislodging \vliatp\er slip was "ti quc-t of from her fao^ and npprnrod to throw it from her on to llu- flooi . iiftrr which the duet proceeded. At its rotulnMnii. »n mnip being demnTided. Mr Newliurr rnv\r on the stage and fijud ihoy would !in\<" tn lm pvfusrcL as Madame Spnda wii uot al>l»' to King at the moment, haviug lw<ui Maiug r«u the rhe«»k hv a be© while M-ii^uifr ll' 1 ' cliK't. adfiinp, "It's not at nil a uieo Ihi«uh"»s, I tell you. ' "Which it iM-rtnmly wasn't (»avs the Tuapcka Timp'-'), th<- !a<l\ at Ihe Minx> time exhibiting wonderful plurlt 111 mm ludins the duet, as pha iiiii«t lm\e suffered no inconsiderable pain, her face bqou af'.ei bouig much JMyoUeu*

The Wellington correspondent of the Southland Daily News states that the Defence Department intends to spend £2000 providing fiesh unifoimfi for members of contingents in South Africa.

The export duty on ostriches in South Africa is £100 each, and £5 for each egg, the object being to prevent Australia, Argentina, or New Zealand becoming competitors in tht feather market.