OMNIUM GATHREUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2524, 30 July 1902, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHREUM.

■^Tho largest clock in tho world i, that in the "Westminster Tower. It was set up on May 30, 1859.

Notice is gazetted i evoking the warr.i-it of January 27 last, declaring influenza an infectious disease. It is expected that the jetty that is beirg ■prected at Lake Manapouri will he finished bt-foi c the tourist season commence*. It is expected that the Ashburton woollen mill*, under the new proprietorship, will recommence operations early ncx.t wrek. Pohutu geyser, at Rotorua, wa~- act^e 14 times during the rnomh of June, the di -plays a\craging a duration oi 50 minutes euch.

Cologne (Germany), whose Archbishop died recently, had a bi=hop in 312, and trom the >-ixth century its LUt of bishops is almost unbroken. Within the- Antarctic Ciicle there has never been found a floweiing plant. In the Arctic rogiona there are. 762 different species of flowers White gloves are to be worn in future by the United States Custom 1 - officers while examiuing passengers' baggage at New York and elsewhere. London Punch is to have a rival. The former publisher of an important London evening newspaper has the managing arrangements in hand. The Kelson Colonist st« tes. that at a meeting of the local City Counc 1 last week a councillor complained tl.at a number of cows were permitted to grazo in the Old Cemetery.

The Oamaru Mail ii informed that three boys, at , anyrate, will have to appear in court to answer to charges of ''going through"' the pockets of boys while playing footb.ill. *>-Tho Southland Time 5 - ;-ay.-> that a proposal to have a social reunion of passengers ck (-.'up Robert Hcndei-on. who landed on the Invcreargill jetty on September 7, 1862, is mooted.

A Ma-»teiton ro-ident r-tate- that indications of an early spring are showing in the. fact that peach trees in the most phelteiod portions of his garden are already bursting into bloom.

Orange-growing is being abandoned on the Peninsula of Lower Ca'ifornia, and the orrhardistis are cutting do*vn thpir trees and iilanting tho land with coffee, cotton, and t-uqjar cano

M.r J. H. Morrison, managrr of the Mospicl Woollcu Coirpany, on Thursday formaHv handed over the Ashburton Woollen Mill- to tlie new proprietor^, Mes.-rs Lane and Wa'ker Tt i- rri-oited (.-ays a Thames paper) that the robbery of <hires from some of the ro<luction lion-";: on the sjnldfiolcU has not yot rea-ed, and that a paicel came thiougli I'aerca the other <\jv. '•The )iarde<!t iiuik is ihat of a toptofal lecturer ; it i, tho hardest weak in the we rid to hamnTr c ound -en <•■ mi» c oft head- and get it to .-tick there." — Quotation l.v Mr- Harrison Lee.

A 10 j ear old boy named Ilt.pj^o was luninff a '•vi K'ptuiou- riJo on a \chielo at \dela <!e, when he va< tin own under the win el , had se\eral rib- bioken, hu lung- perforated, and hi, foot fiat turp-d.

At a meeting i>[ tlic c oii^i eqat inn of tlio Au-jlrrb'in Cluirt !i. at Liv know l.\"» South Wal n -|, i I'-oJutioi 1 - v. err parcel f»x]^re~-mg fonfidepce in llio IJrv. Mattlew Walkei who l 6 imnri«onfd f"i p i|.m r Kdi-i)n'- f.itlier. Stuh'c! I*di-cn, i- low 90 j'oai-, old, ,md .nipp- to live many yeai.longer. Hi^> fathrr hved to the age of 103 veai.-, and tv. o of hi- aunt- wore each S9 :it the tini" of their death.

A fluid, r.cai'v three vonr- old (lamed Fredeiuk Sinclair Brown, who lucd with li's j^arent- at Neutial Hay. Sydney, was f.mifd diownpd in n copper boiler which contained only 3m <-i 4in of water. fi i- renorted that ore of tiie life a-~ur-aiiep eon.pames doing hu-iness in the colony has acoc-p'.ed a 20 year-,' endowment polity fnr £10.030 on tli.> life of a gentleman in lip Nf,i rli I^'aiul ih.n aniji.ul premium being £°10 S-- 4 f l

The Leader -,ay- that the building trade at T*.-i'(luHia ha-'n"\rr h-fore been so bu=v a-. H ha-, h^en fui -'.me time pa-t, r.cid .-till continue to h-> The coining mmnur pro ny o- ro he an evtepuoruilly hu-,y one in laMuthi. 11 lie Uj£ txffiiloa. gntri&ft £££■

vice between Ashburton and ChnVtchurch estimate that they will be able to save between 3s and 3s a ton on the goods they handle. This is in competition with the railways.

The Oamaru Mail lcarii= that potion is be-ng taken all along rhe line from Georgetown up to Kurow to protest nga-ust the inclusion of the western part of W aitaki County in the proposed Mount Ida electorate.

Charles Wll'iain*. who commii'lctl a daring theft of a 1-ar.gle. -valued at £125. from a Melbourne pawnbroker m April la;t. ha> been Rontonr^d to three year 1 -' impri-oiment. v. ith hard labour, and periods of solitary confinement.

Tlie Wairarapa Daily Times says that Judge Kettle is taking steps to form a Wanganui Prisoners' Aid Society The main object of the society will be to afsist persons on their discharge from prison to obtain ■employment, etc.

A coirespcyulent writes paying a tribute of respect to the late Mrs IJutou, of Dunedin, who died recently, referring especially to her charitable disposition, and expressing t':-> hope that other ladies may bo found to follow her example.

An erstwhile trooper of New Zealand's Second Contingent is superintendent of police at Pretoria, at £800 a year, quarters, and rations. He formerly drove a timber ■waggon at Ur>ner Thames, but is (says an exchange) a. college man for all that. \ A re-miniscence by Mr Justice Denniston, evoked by foreshore actions in Wellington: In the early days all the racecourses on the West Coast were below the high-water mark, and very good racecourses they were, 100. The grand stand was a ship wrecked in the sand.

Professor Rollet, of Lyons, France, has ju=t operated on a wolf for cataract. The animal, which belonged to a travelling menagerie, had become exceedingly ferocious with the piogrcssing blindness, and not even the menagerie men dared to approach him.

On Sunday evening the bonfire on the big hill at the Bluff, which had been prepared by the Coronation Committee, was <-et fire to by tomeone. It was intended to lieht the bonfire on Coronation Night, a= now fixed, and a great deal of labour had been spent upon it 3 preparation. A lorry-driver named William Thornton was, at Kew, Melbourne, standing in fiont of his vehicle fixing a pole chain, when the two horses hounded forward. He was jammed against a tree, and the pole penetrated the lower portion of his body. He died in the Melbourne Hospital ne\t day.

Enfouraged by the libr-ral rospon=e to the Coronation ode competition, the proprietors of Good Words are offering; tlnee prizes of £50, £15, and £10 respectively for •'Songs of the Empire "" — viz , national poems <-nibodymg- the grandeur, power, duties, and reaponsibilitie, of the Kriu^h Empire. The census of 1870 gave the whole population of Utah at 88,374, of vhifh 80.000 were Mormon-. Tlie census of 1900 pives it a population of 270 740. of which 220.000 are Mormons fn IP9O Mormomsm liad H4.000 adhorpiit- in the United State*: in December, 1901, th -re were o\ ci 300,000. A young man named Oorge Watt, who had walked with a companion from Wellington in feaich of work, was tlie other day admitted into tlie Napier Ho-pital. He bncame *enou a ly ill <-hort!v before reaching Hasting.-, .n " con-equei.cn of exposure tlirough -lee-lung in *liri.U on t!'p lourney. As illiistntiiiif llio <-\ioid of ihe ping.peng craze in Difio<hii i' is interesting to note that a large Him of furniture manufacturers in Geoigo street h;is taken up the iraniifacture of wooden pint? pong bats, and is now turning out o\er a gross per day, while the demand i- more than equal to the .si.puly. Tlie fuUnn'n.s nhlegram. repoits the Hawko's n.*y Hrr:ihl, lias been sent to Mr Si-ddon fio.ii Njpicr —"The Irishmen of Napier would be glad if you r-ould do sometiling during your \isic to the Mothcrlan.l m the direction of promoting autonomy f or Ireland, thus -ensuring grasped hand? across the channel

Stppi are being taken to erect a memorial to tlip late Sir John M'Kcnzie at Hampdcn. It ib intended that the memorial shall take the form of a tablet to be erected in the- Hampden Hiijh School building, and

the Palmc-rston Times) been promised toJ wards carrying out the project.

The Irishmen of Blenheim have sent rhe treasurer of the Irish Federation, Wellington, the sum of £17 10s 6d, with a promise of more to follow, m support of the Irish. Parliamentary Fund, and m appreciation of the " persi«f:ont efforts of the Nationalist leaders in tho attempt they are making to settle the people on the land."

It is reported that French naval experts have evolved a process whereby petroleum is made semi-solid, mixed with coal dust, and pressed into briquettes. A splendid fuel is thus produced, and among its advantages is the absence of dust or ashes. One brick nroduces the heat of '"our times its weight cf anthiacite coal.

The inhabitants of a large village in "Wiltshire have decided to collect funds for a. permanent momorial of the Coronation, which is to take tho form of a hand-bier for tho churchyard ! The lord of the manor has intimated his strong disapproval of this arrangement, and off.T= to give a dinner at hirs own expense to the whole of the parishioners. ~°" - 1 1 nt the four chief f.ontves. including suburb?, for the month Gf June, and the proportion per 1000 of population, were as follow; :— Auckland, 56 11.10 per 1000); Wellington, 38 (0.77 per

urch, ai (l.il per 1000); Dunsdin, 41 (0.77 per 1000). The total number of deaths, — -. iz., 186, was an increase of 7 on the number for May.

Since the Cook memorial movement was started (says a Gisborne paper) many people have visited the Boat Harbour on the" Kaiti to view the first landing place in New Zealand of the great navigator. It is ar remarkable fact that until lately some people resident in the district for years were not aware that the landing place was quite close to the town of Gisborue.

One night hast week a water pipe burst in K.i^h streat. Auckland, and when it was roticecl by a constable the water was beinty thrown into the air a 3 high as the surrounding warehouses. On one side cf the street, which was flooded, the force of the water cast a piece of road metal against Messrs Morrin and Co.'? second-storey window, breaking the glass and flooding the office; while on the other side of the street a large quantity of water flooded Messr3 A. Yates and Co.'s cellar, doing considerable damage to a stock of bonedust.

The Lisbou correspondent of the London. Express states that a remarkable phenomenon observed at Peclrosa^ a village en tho Douro. recently, caused the utmost alarm among those who saw it. The sky was cloudless, and the air quite still. On a sudden n tremendous rushing noise was heard a= of thousands of horses galloping — so onloofcers described it. The ground is said to have opened in several places, and a. huge flame-coloured column of smoke and fit c f wept over the country. Trees were bent or torn up by th-e roots A large number of farmer 3 (representing the principal districts of Tuapeka) and the bu=ine.=s people of Lawrence met and attended a smoke concert held in Montgomery's Hotel, Lawrence, on Friday evening to do honour to Inspector Mills, of the Rabbit and Stock Department, who has been transferred to the North Island. During the proceedings, which were marked by great enthusiasm, the chairman (Mr .Tamos Robertson, president of the Tuapeka Agricultural Society) presented Mr Mills with a gold pendant and a. jmrse of sovereigns. At a public meeting at Milton on Monday evening tho following motion was adopted with reference to the erection of a Town Hall there:— "The Mayor cause a poll of the electors of the Borough of Milton to be taken on tho following proposal — viz. (a) To raise a loan of £3000 for and in connection with the erectkm of a Town Hall ; (b) That the general rates of the VJorough be specially appropriated and pledged as speurity for such loan and the interest thereon ; (c) That in connection therewith the council issue 30 debentures of £100 each, repayable on December 31, 1917, with separate coupons attached for each half-year's interest, principal and interest to be payable at the- Bank of New Zealand at Milton or Dunedin."