OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2578, 12 August 1903, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Umbrellas to the number of 2,214,76$ were imported into India last year.

In Cairo the prororti&n of blind people to ths population is 1 in 20.

The Wostport Coal Company's output last w&ek waa 15,324- tons of coal.

Italy is now preparing to send a national exhibit to the St. Louis Exhibition.

The Gore Standard understands that the rase Police v. Whittingham, for solimg beer in Gore since tho enforcement on no-license, will be heard before Mr G. Cruict?hank, S.M.. at Gore ou Wednesday, August 19.

A Napic-r poultry raiser, who averaged 20 fowls for the year, made a profit of £11 16s 6d on the- last year's operations. His 'hens laid an average of I£>7 eggs for the Year

Attempting to escape from his wife a St. Petersburg baker hid in the garret in order to make her believe that he was drowned. A collection had boon started for the " widow" when he waa found.

" She talked and talked for eight nights solid, and I nover got any sleep during that time," was the plaintive story a husband, charged with deserting his wife, told the Magistrate's Court, Christchurch, ou Tuesday.

Tho sulphur in the vicinity of the Champagne Pool, Waiotapu (-says the Auckland Star), wa-> found to bo en fire on Saturday last, and before it was extinguished on Monday a hole fully 9fc square had been created by tho file.

Hearing a tapping on h'= front dcor at midnight. Fred. Brooks, of Cortland, U.S., ■was confronted on opening it by two sen lions. He managed to hue them iuto a loom and lock the door. ' They had escaped from the public gardens, to which they were '(akon back next day by their keeper.

A lady from England who has boen staving with some friends in Napier frequently \\i e h<xl Ihat an earthqunkc would occur during her i-tay in the colony, t-o that sho could say she had experienced the sen-a-tion. Aftc-r Stindav morning's series of shocks .sho considers Now Zealand is a good place to 1 .^ out of.

The residents of two of the submban in Wanganui have- sent a challenge to the members of tho Bcrough Council of tho city by the. Aea, with a \iovr to arrange a walking matcli it an -early da to. Tlie cours? will bo 20 time round the two sheet-, naiiisd and the Cemetery road, tho hard portion of the road l.oinjr barred.

A Dannevirke resident complains that on a recent Sunday afternoon ho saw four crunken men on the maiu street of tho township, a game of football in full swing, •a locil tradesman doing business, a man building an outhouso, several perr/Oiu chopping and /awing wood in full \ie-,v- of Hip pas.-ors-by, and one man digging in his garciPii.

When the e.s. Cygnet arrivpd at Lo Bon's Pay on Tuowlav morning (?ays tho Chriatrihurch Pross) tho sea was i-o rough that a boat leaving the &l earner with passengers was upset. All were picked up immediately, none being much th« wor^e for the ducking except Mrs Mar.-h, of he Bon's, who was rescued in a rather exhausted conditaon.

Says the Wellington Poot : There fiai'e bt^sn some inquirips made as to the cause of certain unearthly y&'ls and shrieks which camo from the Terracs Gaol on Sunday. It appears that the noise emanated from a man who was having his hair cut— apparently for th© first time for many years, and v/ho vigorously resented th& application of ths cciorors.

The residence of Mr Robert Graham, at irooksid?, Canterbury, was burglariously entc-rad batweeji 8 and 9 o'clock on Monday night, aud •jewellery and articles, valued r.t £25, wore stolon from i>. box on a table alongside Mr Graham's bed, in which he was sleeping at the time. Mrs Graham and another lady were in 'the kitchen when tho robbery took place.

Dr and Mv Findlay, who are touring New Zealand in company wi-tL Lady Mary Ccoke and Lady Tollcmaehe, have presented ths Wanganui Mu'cum with several valuable curios, gathered during their reo:nt travels in China. And Japan. On? of thero is a dwarf cherry tree. The tree is only 20in high, but ■the formation of the trunk, branches, and leaves is perfect.

At a sitting of the Police Conrt in Chrisichurcb. a man waa charged with drunkenness Ho did not appear, but was represented by counsel, who. on his behalf, r!«adod " Guirty." After the case had been dealt with, and the accused had bec-n fined by the bench, the counsel leaned over to the cle-rk of the court and said, '"By the way, what was he charged with? "—Lyitalton Times.

Tha Wiitiganui Herold pays: '" Wanganui it siill keeping up its r^pi.itv.ion -is an up-to-date place. We ?re i.:fonned tl.ac an engineer a , the E&stowii Workshop.* hua invented *\ flying machine, and ho ih.-eaos-ii? to outdo all opposition in the conveyaneo of pa-sengera between tho city and suburbs. The public are promised, a 'treat-- ffltortlv, in ths fo.-m of a public exhibition of tho flying mach.no."

A young man, RobeK Miller, third cook of the steamer Kalgoorlie. died in the Sydney Hospital recently. Miller wps asleep in his bunk on the vessel when fumigating operations were being carried on. His presence was not sucpeate;!, and ins srlphur fumes penetrated to lr'.s robin, and ha.-l almost suffocated him before he waa discovered. In spite of mediea,' alteclioa he Hiccumbed.

"As this township is just over the border of the Ashburton prohibition area," writes the Chertaey correspondent of tho Lyttelton Timea, "it is quite common to see a few come here by exprere, and go back a^ain by the evening train to Ashburton. The oxpreF* crojses at Rakaia, giving people time to quench their thirst and take a bottls home with them. Chertsey has only lately sprung into a town of note."

Not many miles from Malcolm (says the Kalgcorlie Sun) tho unusual spectacle of a man and woman and a group of children, their .progeny, may be seen actively carrying on mining operations. The show has been dubbed the Hard Case mine, and is a very profitable concern. Both husband and wife take it turn about clowu below on the brace, the latter, garbed in masculine attire, doing quite her -s-hare of the work. Last month lh°v obtained £1200 worth of poI'J.

Mr W. Radcliffe brought up the question of utilising the harbour mud at Thursday's meeting of the Lyttelton Harbour Board 6-ays the Lyttelton Times)." He «-aid that iv other parts of the world such mud- was being put to remunerative uses. Lytt&lton mud was very clean and free from sand, and he had made from it some excellent distemper. He thought it might also b?made into bricks. Permission was granted him to push inquiries into tho matter.

According to the Lyttelton Times, the Lyttelton Harbour Board recently applied to the Railway Department for a free pass over the Christchurch-Lytteltou line for its chairman. The reasons adduced wero that tho chairman received no honorarium and the board had no power to pay his expenses except when he was travelling to meetings. Yet he had frequently to go to Lyttelton in order to carry out work which Has really in the interests of the public. The department has, however, declined to issue any pass. By a fire in Campbelltown at 5 a.m. on Tuesday a four-roomed cottage in Liffey street was destroyed, the inmates escaping with nothing but their nipthtclothcs. The cottage was owned by "Mr W. Sycamore, and tenanted by Mr Clement, his wife. pcd two children. Much sympathy i^s felt for tho family, who were unable to s.jvp anything. The building is insured for £50 iv the Commercial Union office. This is tho seventh fire that has occurred in the township- during tho pa<.t 12 months. — Southland Timca.

A woman and five children were ejected by their landlord from their dwelling near Masterton on Saturday, and were camped around a fire, in an open paddock, in Hope street, tho weather being very inclement at the time. The police took the family, including a bt>by, to the police station, where their immediate needs received attention. Subsequently, the chairman of tho Benevolent Society arranged for their temporary accommodation in a boarding-house. The husband was absent at work when the ejection took place.

A gentleman at present in Wellington (says tho New Zealand Times) on Wednesday received information lhat a letter written by him in the South Atlantic and thrown overboard, in a bottle on the voyage between Capetown and Melbourne (from the s.s. Moravian) reached its destination in the North of Scotland about six weeks ago. The bottle must have been drifting in the sea for nearly 18 months. It finally came ashore "near Wellington" (exact whereabouts not yet stated!, so that the writer of

the letter, after travelling a good deal in Australia, and the bottle after its drifting had been almost brought together again in New Zealand.

Informations have been laid against some of the young ladies who conducted raffles ji.t the bazaar in the Theatre. Eoyal in Palmerston North last wock, showing tho difference of opinion as to what constitutes works of art. The sturdy bandsman in charge of the race game at the bazaar is also being prosecuted, while a well-known dentist will appear before the court charged witii raffling artistically-worked cushions. It will be remembered (states an exchange) that the promoters of th© fire brigade bazaar, held in that town some years ago, were prosecuted for raffling a wheelbarrow as a work of art, the defendants being fined Is each without costs. Tho choir of the Sulphide Street Church, Broken Hill (N.S.W.) struck on a r-aoenfc Sunday night. " Tlie trouble arose during the progress of a Christian- Endeavour sexice. Mr J. H. Sinclair, cf Adelaide, who was coaducting the service, announced a> hymn of cxce-ptionally devout character, aud exhorted over3'one who could not sing tho words from his or her heart to refrain from. joining. The leader of tho choir, a we-11-kr.ov.-n irining manager, openly declined to solve the. riddle of his choir's Christianity in go hasty a manner, and promptly walked out of tho church, his example b&ing followed by the majority of the -choir. A • volunteer from the congregation had to bofound to take the nlaco- of -the striking organist. Tho Auckland Herald contains-thc following: — "While out ra'l>bit-'sliooting towards the end ,of iae-t month Mr George Baraks, cf Avondulo. stumblsd across a. hean of human remains aanong some scoria rooks at the top of Oakley Creek Gully, which i tins from Mount Albert to tho Avondale Asylum. The bones, which were subsequently gathered up and brought to town by Constable Dart, have been examined by Dr Sinrman. who, in his report to Inspector fallen (chief of police), describes them, as those of an adult (probably a man), and a young: poioon. of from 10 -to 14- years of age (.3cx unknown). The bones wcro crumbling away, and were so decomposed lhat the doctor is of opinion that they had boon lying whoro they were found for a groat number of years, and are probably Maori remains."

An Esquimaux camelito. or parkee (rain coat) was exhibited at Wednssday night's mooting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, at the Museum (says the New Zealand Times). This quaint garment is mado from the bladders o' seal. It is beautifully sev.-n, pnd when wot will draw out to any extent. The eainelito, wliich is an oxcelk-nt piece of workmanship; was brought from (tlondyke. It ' has been presented to the Museum by Mr T. Rodger, of "Wellington. An unusually large specimen of tho- insect known as the- New Zealand weta (Deinacrida thora"ica), presented by Mr M. Tanseyi of Tamaki, was also shown. This formidablelooking creature is specially active' at night. Another exhibit which attracted attention. was tho larpe brown trout from Blenheim (recently referred to in these columns), which was forwarded to the Miiseum by tho seer&tary .of th& Tourist Department.