OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2561, 15 April 1903, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The captain of the relief ship Morning has presented two Antarctic penguins* to the Christchurch Museum.

During the past year land values in the Borough of Hawera have increased by £63.830, and improvements by £15,936.

A wedding was solemnised at a Palmereton Church on Saturday last between a bridegroom aged 47 j-ears* and a bride- -of 73 summers !

A motion uas carried at the meeting of tho Wyndham branch of the Farmers' Union, held last Saturday, disapproving of ragwort being scheduled as a noxious weed.

A mud geyser at Arikikapakapa haa been very active lately, and is throwing urj a very fin© cone, which looks like a .miniature Vesuvius, with the , lava rolling doivii .its side-s.

A ghost i» frequenting certain streets in InvercargHl and soaring every female it meets. A 'ooal paper says that the police are on the lockout, and if the ghost gets a broken head bo much the worse for it.

A writ for libel has been issued against the Napier Telegraph by Mr A. E. Eagleton, claiming £2000. The libel is stated' to have been contained in* certain statements made ro the plaintiff's candidature for the licensing bench.

An enthusiastic trooper, belonging to the Ashburton Mounted Rifles, rede 43 -miles to attend a church parade on Sunday, an-d 43 back again, making £6 altogether. The trooper came from near Lake Coleridge, and started from his destination at daybreak.. The Mataura Ensign says that the best ehooting since the season opened is that which has been obtainable in the vicinity of Waikaka. The night before the opening a number of poachers and marauders shot a large number of ducks and scared others away. J-The toll-gates throughout the Taranaki County( reports the Herald) ceased to exist on Wednesday in accordance with the promise made by the present council. It was quite a novelty, a farmer remarked, to come to town without paying' toll at Waiwakaiho.

Nelson is experiencing a scarcity of hop pickers. A movement is said to be .on foot in the ity to collect young fellows and girls to establish p scrt of " hop^picking bee"-in order to protect the farmers. There oould be worse employments on a Wednesday or Saturday afternoon. The s.s. Athendc had an unumal experience on her voyage from England to this colony. Two days before reaching Teneriffe she encountered a strong easterly wind, laden with fine red dust from the Sahara. This dust storm lasted for nine day", until seven days after the steamer left Teneriffe.

There is p. feeling (says the Wellington Post) that the City Council should provide the chief magistrate of the city with a private secretary, in order that as little as possible of his business time may be sacrificed. The question of making such an appointmpn»is to be brought before the new council when elected.

Cr Maitland .says there aie undoubtedly Wafers in Dum-din. There is a work going on at thf north end of George street, and many of the men (here, lip says, are simply wasting half their time, the result being that the council is not getting genuine work for the payment it i> making to these workers. _A correspondent of the Southland Daily News raises the question as to the right of the Borough Council to erect a the-atre on the land acquired by them for municipal offices only. He asserts that it i= open to query whether the Government could not resume possession under such condition 5 .

According to the Buieau of Statistic*, the internal commerce of the United States amounts to four billions sterling, equal to the pntire international commerce of the world. Its manufactures are nearly double those of Great Britain, and are nearly equal to those of Fiance, Germany, and Russia combined. -"* Mi.s Ga\ in Patcr-,on. another of the rapidlythinning band of Oamaru old identitiep, passed away (=ays the North Otago Times) on Saturday morning, at the ago of 73 year* Mrs Paterson had been a resident of Oamaru for about 40 year=. and was well known and highly respected by a large cncle of friend 1 ;.

Two settlers recently set out from Dreycrton. Wairarapa, to cross the Tararua Range to Palmereton. Owing to hcavv weather and {q% they bad to spend fi\e nights ou the

mountains, and when they reached Palmerston they were so shabby that they were refused admission at several boarding-houses, . and had to sleep out again. I The scheme to cut a channel between Shoal Bay and Lake Takapuna, so as to enable ferry steamers to make the journey between the Auckland wharves and flic lake in 20 minutes, "has been revived. The estimated cost is abojit £5000. The residents are willing to rate themselves a half- ' penny in the pound to provide the money. ! Two residents of New Plymouth had a j narrow escape from serious injury during j the earthquake shock which was felt in that i town on Wednesday last. In their alarm ■they rushed out into the street, axid as they „ did so a heavy piece of scroll work, weigh- { ing about 50lb, fell from the front of the bvyldijvg. Tlmy trussed, being s^swjk. by only a fraction -of a second-. ' " ■ ' - • - The Mayor of Timaru in the course of a speech some days ago remarked that he did not believe there, was another district of the same size under the English flag that could compare with South Canterbury in productiveness, and he doubted if, in any other part of the world, a population of 30,000 produced as much as was obtained in that fertile district. A peculiar thing happened in connection with the polling at the Hawke's Bay election. At Pourerere one man came to record his vote. Shortly afterwards another voter came along, and it was discovered he was not >n the roll. The first man then declined to have his vote recorded on the ground that there would be no secrecy, he being the only voter. The Southland Timea states that a fourloomed house- at Papatotara. owned by Mr M. K. Macdonald, was destroyed by fire at 7.30 p.m. on the 31st ult. The owner left to visit a neighbour over an hour before, after putting out the fire, and there was no one in the building at the time of the outbreak. The house was insurpd in the United office for £175, and the furniture for £25. A human skull and hones were discovered on the banks of the Tauherenikau River, near Kaiwaiwai, last Friday week by a party who were fishing there. The skeleton is that of a European, and has probably lain thero for years. In the early days many lives were lost -through persons attempting to cross the *rjtuhcrenikau during a flood, and probably the remains ire those of one of the victims. Michael Cavanagh wa on Thursday phanreel at- Waimate, and convicted, of supplying whisky U a prohibited person. He was fined £5 (and 9s costs). John Dooley, a prohibited person, was fined £2 (and 7s co=tst for causing intoxicating liquor to be obtained for him. T. O'Leary, a prohibited person, wa9 fined £1 (and 7s co«ts=) for getting drunk at the Waiinate racecourse booth. Mrs O'Brien, wife of Mr M. O'Brien, one of the best known residents of Winton, died on Monday, 6th. The deceased iady was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Deegan. very old and highly respected residents of Southland, and 3he was greatly respected and esteemed by all in the district. Telegrams of condolence from Sir J. G. Ward and a number of notabilities were received. There are three children, the youngest being but two weeks old. A requisition is in course of signature in Palmereton North requesting the Mayor to call a public meeting to consider tho advisability of asking the Government to hold an inquiry in connection with the recent retirement of Captain Dunk from the Mounted Volunteer Forces. Captain Dunk has been in charge of the Mnnawatu Mounted Rifles s-mce their formation. Oonsideiablo indignation is expressed in the district at his enfroced retirement. Nothing lia- bucn done »s yet to remedy the unreasonably long goods trains which are being run bttwomi Oumaru ay.-d Timaru, although it appear.- that, subsequently to the mattei being taken up by one cr two northern paper*, a traffic inspector was looking into the qur=tion. La.=t Thursday a train reached Timaru from the south which vvas a quarter of ' mile long. It consisted of 79 truck? and two carriages. Thirty of the trucks were double-decked sheep trucks, and 14 were filled with Oamaru =ton?. It his often been remarked that the colonial youth has little or no respect for constituted authority. A somewhat amu?ing instance of this occurred the other day dur- , ins tk© yibit of Lhe Premier to. Oamaru. A

' telegraph messenger had been in waiting on the Minister at the hotel for some time to convey an answer to a message. Whilst standing in the passage one of the servants of the hotel went into the room where the Premier was. "Here, I say," said youngNew Zealand, " tell Dick to get a wriggle on; I'm tired of waiting!" It is asserted by the industrial agent of one of the large railroad lines that 200,000 acres of land have been purchased in Southwest Texas for the Boers, a great number of whom will move there with their families. It. is stated that fully 20,000 Boer families are awaiting the result of the investigations, and will leave Africa at once. The Southern Pacific road, along whose lines the colony will be located,,,exgect''to assist the Boers in Iheir mitial "-.effortis <to raise rice aud tobacco iit the new^untry. It is possible that other colonies will be started by other roads. We have -received a very dainty little booklet for - children,'^ nicely printed, in - colours, and called " A Bunch of Roses." It is from the office of Messrs Scott and Bowno (Limited), tho manufacturers of that wofld-rcnowned remedy, ScotPa Emulsion, and has been specially, printed! and pre- • pared- as a pleasing souvenir- for the little ones. As will bb seeir by advertisement in Knottier column, a copy pi ; "A Bunch of. Roses '^ will be mailed to* anyone making application 'for same to, tho Australian branch of Messrs Scott anißowne (Limited) at Sydney: . - - - ■ Some Jriction ie said to have arisen jnshipping circles on account of the conflicting laws of tho .Commonweajth and New • Zealand as to the number of hands to bey employed on vessels. An Australian steamer that recently arrived in o,ur waters (writes the Timaru- Post), though she had satisfied all requirement." of the Commonwealth authorities, was declared to be insufficiently manned, and the master was oomp'elled to take ou extra hands. The result is an appeal to the Commonwealth Government, which will probably lead to representations being made to the Seddon Ministry on the subject of needed assimilation of shipping laws.

Durinsr the hearing of the tailoring dispute before the Arbitration Court on Saturday (says the Ashburton GuartKaiu the question arose as to the advisability of having factory-made suits branded with the factory's mark, and also having .the^name of the factory distinctly marked .on »€ach button. Tho president remarked that the buttons could easily be removed. "That reminds me," interjected another "melnber of the court, "of the .way the oldTtiin« prisoners of war were treated. . The 'buttons were"" all cut off their- -.clothing.*" -"What was that for?" queried the president. "To prevent them from running away," "naively replied the member. --At this tho whole court tittered audibly. A resident of Napier "Has received a letter from- one .of the party of surveyora who last year left New Zealand for the Gold Coast, in which .the writer states that tho health of the whole party is good. After the New Zealander had commented on what he calls the " horrid- perfumes -' of the Gold Coast, ho describes the bu?h which extends from tho coast well into Ashantee as " simply lovely, with any amount and variety of wild, boasts." There is, he cays, a vast tl-!ff©tcr.ce- v be^Tjc«n „s^^y^yin§. ,tJ>tT©-, and^sn"New / -Zpnfand,-~'i:n'e camp fquipmen'^'' being perfect. Fifty native carriers and 18 hammock boys are at their disposal. From, May to September the New Zealanders will be relieved of duty, the trying climate> necessitating several months' holiday in tho year.