OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2511, 30 April 1902, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Snow fell at Taupo one day recently. Fifteen degrees of frost were registered at Rotorua one morning lately. I A vacant house is at present unknown in . Gore. ! The output of coal from the Westport Coal Company's mines last week was 12,599 tons. Feilding is agitating lor a water supply, for which purpose the Oroua River is to be tapped The Wellington Post states authoritatively that the revenue of the Post and Telegraph ' Department for the past financial year has exceeded the estimate. j Counterfeit silver coin is in circulation in j Goulburn, New South Wales, principally ! half crowns and two-shilling pieces. The total number of rats received at the incinerator, Newcastle, New South Wales, from. March 6 to March 31 was 4051. " Heart " was Burns' s favourite word. In a Burns concordance the quotation under this word fill no fewer than six minutely firinted columns. 1 There is a serious decrease in the gold yield of Victoria for the past three months, • the figures showing a falling off of 22.5170z ' as compared with the first quarter of 1901. 1 The beer strikers at Kadina. Soxith AusI tralia, have ?ncce-eded in. reducing the price jo!" butchers " to 3d, but they complain that ', the publicans have also reduced the i-ir.e of I the glass. I Miss Birchavd. an Oamoru resident of 30 years, died suddenly while sleeping on a I sofa on Monday night, 21st. Miss Birchard ( was 80 years of age, and had been failing for some time. 1 The Tourist Department has arranged for Mr Aithur Warbrick, a member of a well known family in the Bot Lakes district, to conduct visitors to some of the remarkable sights, near Rotorua. Messrs M'Lean and Son, the sub-contrac-tors for all the electric tramway works and for the breaking-up of Queen street, Auckland, have nearly 250 men employed, their monthly bill for wages being about £1600. The Rev. H. B. Blogg, Vicar of Frodsham, Cheshire, has been advocating cricket and football for young people on Sunday afternoons. He maintains that it is better that they should be playing healthy, manly games, than loafing about smoking pernicious cigarettes. The Clutha Leader understands that Mr Clark, of Geraldine, is erecting 3 larpro sawmilling plant at Tautuku, his intention being to utilise the Tautuku River as a means of transit to the markets. At the monthly meeting of the committee of the Tokomairiro High School, held on j Monday, the 21at, Mi&s MaoGregor. of the j Tapanui School, waa again selected for the j poaition of second lady assistant teacher. '. I The report of the Massachusetts State Sanatorium, where the open-air treatment is used for consumption, shows that it was , efficacious in 67 per cent, of the cases treated in 1901. There was only one dp^th among 399 patients in the year. The average age of the patients was 28. j •*" Mrs Valentine Austin, a Kentish cen- j tprarian, died at Haktead on March 7. She had lately celebrated her one hundred and second birthday. She survived 14 brothers and sisters, r.ad retained most of her faculties. Last season she worked in the fruit gardens, carrying basket* for pickers. Some time ago an orchid grower at Kenilworth, England, bought for a few shillings from a dealer abroad an orchid in sheath. This Uirned out to be a rare specimen of the Odontoglossum Crispum. He gave it the name of " Mabel Whateley," and the plant gained the award of merit at the last show of the Royal Horticultural Society in London. He has just succeeded in disposing of his treasure for the sum of £220. A woman who applied at the Christchurch Magistrate's Court for a maintenance order against her husband was advised (says the Lyttelton Times) by the magistrate to go to work and help him to keep a home together, as she seemed quite a3 capable of working as he did. This, ho\vevcr, she refund to do. " I worked hard enough in my single day 3," said she, " and did not m? v ry with the intention of keeping my h'!,band. I expect him to keep me." c" A party of Kawhia settlers explored the Tlakaunui River, one of the tidal rivers of Kawhia Harbour, remarkable for its scenery. A small cave, recently discovered, was explored, and found to have a gallery '■ furnished with stalactites of alabaster white- I ncsa, and gTiardnd at the mouth by the Tossil remains of a huge lizard. During the re- , searches, says an exchange, a plough of a ' wry old style was discovered in a deep | cavern, a relic of the bygone age of Maori j history. 1 One of the unco' quid in Gla=pow, a rabid *-eaiotal£K. au4 »uiU.-ev^cKiluas. jßSfii I .

some wort done at his house, and made a. bargain with a contractor to do the job. And when the bargain was concluded he 1 said, in stern accents, to the contractor: I "" Noo. mark ye this. I'll no hae ony o' i [ thae drucken carters aboot ma hoose. Send mp a -canny quiet teetotal body." — " Weel," t said the contractor, " teetotal carters are a ) scarce biand in Glasgie, but I'll send ye ane , that ye canna nil fou."— Exchange. i . Several dastardly acts of larrikinism, . , which may have caused serious loss of life, \ have been perpetrated at the Brunner coal mine.. In one instance fctvo casks of grease, , each weighing *icwt, were sent rolling down s the mclme-tunnel of the mine, one faling with such force as to tear down partitions, and it was within an ace of wrecking the electric lighting plant. Another act was | still more serious. Three trucks, which were , \ standing ready to be lowered down the I tunnel at the commencement of the 6 a.m. , shift, were deliberately uncoupled, and had the mischief not been detected, the uncoupled trucks would have broken away. I The followiug extract from a lettei- from , Mr T. Keay. of Aliwal North, South Africa, to an Invercargill citizen is published in i the Southland Times: — "No doubt you know that people coining here have got ; to have a permit and £100. On arriving 1 thfty have aho to answer a lot of questions ard put up with a lot of trouble in getting passed by the doctor and military on account of the plague being in Capetown «till. Then if on» gets a billet up-country he has to write to headquarters to gel a> permit to travel there, and then be has to roport to the Prov. Marshal to get a license. As regards work, there 13 plenty for carpenters, bricklayers, and tradesmen of all sorts ; but I would not advisp anyone to come, for although wages are big, living is dear." , Messrs A. Lorie and Co. have finished another of their interesting ballot competi- . tions for a cash prize for the competitor i who correctly answers certain interesting . questions. In the present competition* oufc of 10 songs named. "Home, sweet home" was adjudged the most popular; of 10 books, " Uncle Tom's Cabin " received the ; vote of the majority; of 10 authors, Charles Dickens was selected; the steam engine was recorded as the most useful in- | ventiqn, eclipsing the electric telegraph and printing among the other inventions enumerated. The Right Hon. Joseph ] Chamberlain was picked as the greatest 1 otatesman of 10 whose names were given, mj eluding the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury; Lord Roberts, of course, gets pride jo* Pk* ce as tuo greatest present-day general; j Snakespeare heads the list among the names iof qyeat poets ; W. R. Grace naturally takes , the lead among great cricketera ; and to the ! sudden change of subject, "Which is the j disease most to be dreaded? " cancer is '• selected for gruesome pre-eminence. Th© winner of the prize is J. A. Vallance, Jtiversdale. i Japan has, perhaps, the shortest of all national anthems. It is called " Kimi Ga, I Yo," from its first three words, and consists of 32 syllables, which count in poetry, howj ever, as 31. The exceeding brevity is due I to the national fondness for conciseness of phrase and economy of expression. The patriotic^ song is what the Japanese call a " tanka," or a verse of five linos, the first and third being of five and the others of seven syllables. Below is given an English translation : — h«.Ji May our Lord's dominion last Till a thousand years have passed, Twice four thousand times o'ertold! Firm as changeless rock, earth-rcoted. MO3S of ages uncomputecl. A murder has been committed in New: York which reveals in a startling manner the Mafia-like league between police and criminals, which had been fostered under Tammany's misrule. Jame3 M'Auliffe was the principal witness against Glonnon. who> was convicted of blackmailing "dive"keepers. M'Auliffe's body, much knockedabout. wa3 found in Sunday street. The police put forward the theory that M'Auliffe was drunk and run down by a trolly. This version is not believed, and the press ia giving great publicity to the case, as M'Auliffe had received many threatening! letters. This publicity has led to the discovery of the fact that M'Auliffe waa a. prisoner at the 47th Station throughout the night preceding the murder. He was discharged by the magistrate in the morning, quite Bober, and 30 minutes later he waa found dead. The- tram company records do not show that any accident took place at the tfme, and it i« believed that the police gecratlv murdered M'Auliffe during the night and substituted a dummy in the court in the morning. M'Auliffe was to have been a witness in certain approaching trials of policemen, and Iris evidence waa threaded by the police. He recently told b.«» wife that ha would, be dead by. ATar^h 1

The highest rainfall in the South Island during March was 15.07 in at Peel Fore=t. wrhere rain fell on 17 day-. The heavier fall for a period of 24- hours was 4.74»n at Woodbury on the 24th ult. The lowest fall for the month in the South Island, was sLQSiu. it BalnVr^h*!

Mr C Coleridge Farr has wr-tten to tin. Chr'-tchurch City Council pouiting out :hat a system of electrical tiact.on Will haie a very detrimental effect on tho Magnetic Observatory in Bagley I'ark. Mr Farr's letter has been referred to a special com-—''frii-Ria.