GENERAL NEWS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2499, 5 February 1902, Page 13

GENERAL NEWS.

At the Hill of Beath, a colliery village near Dunfermline, a publichouse has for some- years been carried on for the pecuniary benefit of the community. Out of the profits arising from it the village has been provided with reading and recreation rooms and a bowling green, and has been lit by electricity. Money hae also been contributed to charitable objects. Now a. new building has been erected for the publichouse, and it contains a bar at which temperance refreshments are supplied. At a meeting in Edinburgh ot the Royal Scottish Academy of Arts, Professor W. Ivison Macadam, referring to the poisoned beer scare in England, said that no sample of Scottish brewed ale or Scottish glucose had been shown to contain arsenic. By a majority of 30 votes to 3 the Edinburgh Town Council has refused to let the Waverley Market to the Sunday Society for Sunday evening concerts. Ayrshire has been visited by severe floods. Loch Doon, in particular, rose to a height scarcely ever before reached within living memory, and the River Doon submerged its famous " banks and braes" throughout a great part of its course. The Edinburgh University Court has de- ! cided to make provision, from the beginning of the next academical year, for the instruction of women in tho subjects taught in the Faculty of Divinity. This is probably the firi-t step in the direction of lady parsons. Two donors, who do not wish their names to be known, have given £10,000 and £25,000 respectively to the building fund of the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College. This secures Mr Carnegie's gift of £25.000, promised under certain condition". Ayr is suffering from a plague of rath, which swarm especially in the district at on© time partly occupied by the cattle market. The new high-level bridge connecting Buckie with Buckpool, which fell on 31et 'January last, is to be rebuilt at a cost of £4730. The bridge is 160 ft long, 30^ft wide, and 45ft high, and lias thref arrliec. Undei the will of Dr David M'Cosh, late of the Indian Medical Ser\ice, who has just died at Bridge of Allan, Edinburgii, charities, will benefit to the extent of about£ls,ooo. of which one-third goes to the Royal Infirmary. The late Mr William Langlands, Glasgow, has left nearly £10,000 to charities in that city. A distillery map of Scotland just published , by an Edinburgh firm shows that there are about 170 distilleries in the country. They are scattered all over it, but are most plentiful in the Counties of Elgin and Nairn, and near Campbelltown. A year ago a lady in Dundee initiated a scheme of home flower-growing in connection with the public schools. This season the children have purchased in connection with it no less than 29,313 bulbs. It is illustrative of the dull times prevailing at Galashiels that the spinning mill at Langhough, which cost £24,000, failed to find a bidder when put up for sale by auction at £3000. It was again put up without any upset price, but not a single offer was made. In consequence of the failure of the Auiefjigan whale fi&hiug this year, the price

of whalebone at Dundee has risen 'grectlye^ Prior to the receipt of the nws the price was £1450 per ton, which was an advance on last year's figure. Now the holder 3 demand upwards of £2000 per ton. The Merchant Company, of Edinburgh, whose splendid scLJols" are doing such excellent work In thi* city, has now the administration of over £1,000,000 of capita l , with an annual income exceeding £83,000." The reopening of the once-flourishing lead mines at Strontian, Argyllshire, seems to be now close at hand. A mining syndicate has for months been clearing away the rubbish, sinking new shafts, and setting up - plant! The mineral called strontium was first dis« covered here. This is but the latest indication of the suggestive fact that industries are steadily pushing their way into thu Highlands, at one point after another. The personal estate of the late Mr D. Ml Watson, of Bulliorifield," Dundee, has been recorded as amounting to £52,400. Mr Carnegie was elected without opposition Lord Rector of St. Andrew's University. Professor Purdie, F.R.S., one of its teaching staff, has just offered to the same university a sum of £5000 for the building and equipment of a chemical researcTTdepartment, on condition that the Carnegie trustees approve of the gift, and \mdertake to help it by establishing scholarships for postgraduate work, and by an annual gran£ c£ money for laboratory expenses.