OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2507, 9 April 1902, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

A Technical School is to be established at '. Rcefton. | Ninety-four per cent, of Russia's steamero burn oil | The Westport Coal Company's output last wick «as 9318 tons. | It is smd that a Wellington dentist is J mating an income of £1000 v year. • The- Canterbury Jubilee memorial will probably be erected on Coronation Day. j T!ie Queen Victoria Memorial Fund at the M?n«iou Hou B e now amounts to £189,000. ; There will be direct cable communication between Auckland oncl ifiji within three months. The price of sheep having fallen, the bucehero of Timaru have reduced the retail prie? of mutton by id per lb. Teachers selected to go to the refugee camps in South Africa are to leave Sydney j by the Damascus on May 13. "invercargill has sent, or, rather, when the Tenth Contingent has gone, will have sent, two chaplains to the front. The cost of erecting suitable building 3 for the Fluff at the n«w cable station ut Doubtless Bay will come to about £4700. A fire occurred at Mr Alexander Pullar'a Birtiaai farm, Chatron, on Wednesday, v. hicli completely destroyed his ohaffeutter and barn. The Blackball C-oal Company shipped from Greymouth last week 1424 tons of coal, and the Brunner Company 1630' tons coal and Z. 9 tons coke. Sir Donald -Mackenzie Wallace, who acted I as -pcc.il i orvespondent to The Time- dur j inn l»e loyal tour, is pu Wishing an lllus- i tint d ff count on the tour. j 'ihr Chinocc on the West Coa'.t aro grudually diminishing in numbers. There are now , less than 800 between Reef ton and Ros^, ! most of them residing in the Grey Valley, j Two old age pensioners in Nelson, husband j and wife, have bpen suddenly placed beyond further need of State assistance by a legacy | of £'500 received by the husband a few days ago. Advices received by the General Manager of Railways show that the weather throngh- ' out the colony during the Easter holidays has lveen fine, and the passenger traffic very satisfactory. Taking the British Empire at 8i million square miles it would, if parcelled out, give each man, woman, and child m the <_.':. itcd Kingdom a little property of 35 acrea. I There are at the present time about 150 . Maoris and some 60 white men digging gum j at Maiakamv, ~nea,r Tauranga, the former apparently, as a rule, having the better fortune.- ■ Things are so liad v, ith back-block farmers* in the State of Victoria, according to* a private correspondent of a Riverton re?idont, that boiled wheat and treacle has become the staple diet of many email J settlers.,— Western Star. | That thc-re is no need to teach tho younst I idea to take an interest in hor-»-racing was exemplified at Wanganui la*t Monday, whpn a youiij? urchin who stood about 2ft odd was to be met in the Avenue anxiously ( inquiring cf pa*«prs-by if they "knew what j had won the Fcilding Ci'p."' | A s-camTii named Charles C'ropp. while j cro=sinc; thu Pyrmont bridge. Sydney, tlie ) other night, w.is knocked dov. n b}' tliree | men. He icgained lv« feet and chase 'l In-- | a-'-aihnt'i, one of whom ■-topped and stabbed j him in the back, hip, and chest. Three j arrests have bo en made. j Mr C. Rask brought to the Southland News office a sample of tobacco plant which he has grown at Sandy Point. Tlia stem is of strong, vigorous growth, and some of the leaves measure fully 18in in length and 9m in width, showing that the soil is most condr.five to its cultivation. The Xew Zealand Times states that an area of 138 acres in the Waiopehu Survey District has been "et apart and declared open for loaso as the Horowhenua. Improved Farm Spcc.al Settlement. An area of 870 acres in the same district has lycen tet apart aa the Horowhenua East Village ] Settlement. j The kauri timber industry was never j brisker than it is at the present time. The i sawmills in Auckland City and Onehunga are working day and night to fill orders, and j a large fleet of scows is kept constantly fcmulojcd briuziujj bujwlies ol bulk timber

to them from the bush districts in the north. A criminal who has served 61 years in the Victorian gaols was recently sentenced in Mplbourne. He admits 12 prior conviction. From November 21. 1901, to March 20. 1902, 46,477 boxes of butter, valued at £116,192 and representing about 1300 tons gros-s weight, passed through Patea grading works. " A Living for All " writes ; " According to a correspondent of Notes and Queries the late Sir Andrew Clarke, Agent-General for Victoria, was the first one to make use of the expression, ' a living wage.' This was done when advocating better pay for British soldiers. The phrase has been much in evidence ever since with trades' unions." The Oamaru Mail says-: — "Mr Miller, the local stock inspector, and Mr Kerrigan, veterinary surgoon, are now purchasing hor=es for remounts in this district. They have already vit-ited the southern part of North O'Tgo and have bought a number of horses. They next visit Kurow and then Duntroon. While the Governments of New Zealand aud the Australian Commonwealth are doing the:r best to suppress " Tattersall's " sweeps they aro allowing; the prospectuses of German lotteries to pass through the pa=t. Scores of the=e prospectuses, offering prir.es amounting to 500,000 marks, have been distributed in Christchurch during the present week. — Lyttelton Times. At the meeting of Natives at Waiomatatini it was decided to hand over to the council the lands) in the Waiapu district. The Natives arp now arranging what land i-, to be set aside for reserves. There are •-ome A OO,OOO arrej> in the district, tl>p tit!p« of whicli have b^n investigated, and it ia thought that about 40,000 or 50,000 acres will be set aside for Native reserves. — Hawke's Bay Star. Some amusement was created in the Magistrate's Court on Friday, when the charge^ of paint-stealing were called on, by a, little pasFage-at-arms between Mr J. F. M. Frascr, the Crown prosecutor, and Mr Hanlon. defending counsel. Mr Hanlon was urging a remand, and exclaimed dramatically: "Surely the witnesses will keep; they won't go bad in the hot weather.' "I have known witnesses go had, even in this court," retorted Mr Fraser. Charged at Southwark, near London, with being drunk and disorderly, Benjamin Hardup, who described himself as a poet, ."aid lie had been out of work for some time, and unfortunately had had more ale given him than money. Proceeding, he said: — f acluaowledge in my deportment that I failed, Through taking a little too much ale. If you ask me I won't offend again; If you send me to prison will gne me psin. | Laughtpr. in which the magistrate- joined, greeted this poetic outburst. Silence having been restored, Mr Chapman quietly re marked. "Seven and six, or seven days." The Tuapeka Times says that a fire took place at Mr Martin Ryan's farm on Friday, March 23, when a nine-stalled stable, with loose box, together with a buggy fched, bupay. harness, three riding saddles and bridle?, and a quantity of bags, were totally consumed. A horse worth about £25 was burnt lo death. It is not known how the fire originated, but it was first noticed about 7.Z0, whilst tho family were sitting down to breakfast. The building was insured in the Norw ii h Union for £100, but the loss above the insurance i-, estimated at over another £100. A thunderstorm on Saturday week was very severely felt on tho Matakana gumfie''l«, nnd we (Bay of Plenty Time=) learn that one of the camps was visited by that | hard-to-define phenomenon described as a thunderbolt. A number of men were standing in one of the stores at the time when the place seemed to be filled with flame, and a terrific report followed, the air being filled with ruby-coloured sparks. The men were thrown about, tome failing against each other, but no one appears to have, been hurt, though considerably shaken by their narrowescape', from one of the most dreaded forms of death.

A pathetic story of noble self-sacrifice, in which a young woman voluntarily forfeited her honour to save that of her father, was tcM at North London recently, when a little girl named Ann Adams was charged with being of <-uch a disposition a 3 to be bejoud the tea try! gl Ucr zuwUiiiu. Mi?s

Sarah Graham said she had kept the secret for 10 years, but now it was bound to be told. Ann Adams was an illegitimate child of her father (now dead), and in order to save her father trouble and disgrace she had taken the sham© upon herself. The child was sent to one of the remand homes, pending the finding of a school for her. A rather amusing incident occurred at the Pahiatua railway station on Saturday evening (says the Wairarapa Daily Times), where the special train bringing the Premier from, Napier stopped to allow Mr O'Meara., M.H.R., to have a short interview with Mr Seddon. A young man approached the Premier, and asked permission to travel in! his train and take his bike with him. "I assure you, sir," he said, "it is a matter of great importance to me to get to Car-, ttrton early this evening." " Oh, certainly." • aaid the Premier, good naturedly. Then to" the guard : "Mr Turner, will you on no account fail to let this young man and his bike down at- Carterton; otherwise I am rive there will be a disappointed young lady there to-night." — (Cheers and laughter from the crowd on the platform.) The lowest depths of the movement for raising a "National purse" to Mr Seddon must have been reached in the arrangements that have been made for the collection, through Government officials, of shillings from the old-age pensioners in the Auckland district. The New Zealand Herald thus explains the method that is being adopted : " Any of the old-ag& pensioners who have " not yet voluntarily subscribed in the Eden, Waitemata, or Manukau Counties, can do so up to Thursday next, the 3rd April. The - contributions, which are not lo exceed Is, will be received by any of the postmasters afc the respective places, or by the deputyregistrars at Auckland, Otahuhu, »nd Helensville. The lists on the date mentioned will then be finally closed and all moneys transmitted or handed to the honorary treasurer, who is the chief clerk of the Money Order Savings Bank at the Chief Post Office, Auckland." An amusing story is being told (says the Press), which may or may not be true, m connection with the fining of two ladies at the Police Court recently. It is stated that the ladies were cycling within five miles of Christchurch, and, coming to a place where the road was exceedingly rough, branched off for a chain or so on the footpath. They had hardly done so when they noticed a carfc approaching them from in front, . with a -.vorcan driving, and someone covorrd by an umbreUa sitting beside her. Reaching the rough part of the road, the cart also took to the footpath, but when it approached the cyclists the umbrella went up. showing the other occupant to be a constable. Thf guardian of the law took the names of both ladies, and at court testified in each case that he had " seen the defendant riding on the footpath on the day in question.'* Neither lady was ?.b!e to attead, and both were fined 10s and costs. The Roman Catholics have just opened a Ladies' College in Melbourne for the higher education of girls. Higher education prior to the university is left entirely to private enterprise in Victoria. The churches hnv:* taken it in hand largely. The Church of England Grammar School, tho Scotch College, Wesley College, St. Francis Xavisr's College are the leading secondary schools for boys : and the Presbyterian Ladies' College, Methodist • Ladies' College, Church of* England Ladies' College, for girls. Hitherto the Roman Catholics have depended on the several large convent schools for girls, but; the new institution is a fresh departure. Of course, in addition to the sectarian, schools, innumerable private schools flourish in a big city like Melbourne: but in many the educational methods are far from satisfactory; and a system of high schools, as in New Zealand, is a great want. At present, however, there is not the slightest possibility of their being established.