OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2579, 19 August 1903, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The output from the Wcstport Coal Com- ' pany's mines for last week was 7002 tons. ' Over 200,000 tons more shipping entered the port of Sydney last year than in 1901-2. I The field force of the Commonwealth will on a peace footing number 13.911 men and 30 guns. The old residence of the late Hon. John Martin, at Wellington, has just been sold for £12,000. . The ketch Jeera has been chartered at .Sydney by the London Missionary Society for a cruise to New Guinea. Some days ago Mrs Rysland, i Sydney isitor, disappeared from Junee (Xew South Wales). The country was searched, with the result that the other morning her body was found in a dam in about 4ft of water. The body of a man named Spiller, employed as a Customs boatman at Lytton (Queensland), was found recently hanging by a rope in the boatshed at Lytton. No cause is known for the apparent suicide. The Port Chalmers Baud, under Conductor Schnack. assembled at the rotunda in King's =nuare on Saturday evening and played some musical selections to the evident satisfaction of a very numerous audience. The Waipawa Mail says that last week ; Dr Ross, at the request of the Maoris at the Waipawa pa, vaccinated every man, ; woman, and child there to the number of | 80. The first person to go under the needle ] was a Native 83 years old. At the inquest held at Tuapeka Flat on Wednesday last on the body of John Eric Thompson a verdict of " Death from ] natural causes " was returned. De-ceased, i who was 75 years of age and a native of Sweden, had been in the colony over 40 year«. j As a result of no-license in Bruco, a Mil- j ton hairdresser is (according to che Bruce Herald) contemplating giving up business, the fact of there being no hotels open having had a check on a number of persons ■who previously enme in from the- surrounding districts on Saturdays. The Bruco Herald pays: — It would appear from the iargc number of "dead marines" which decorate Union street buildings on Sunday mornings that, although the hotels are closed, some, of the young men of this" district have other ample means ot satisfying their thirst on Saturday evenings. A petition^ for presentation to tho Hou*e of Representatives is being signed in Ashburton praying for a lefund to Mr J. Dineon of ihe thre-e months' rent he paid in advance to tho Government for the raili \»ay refreshment rooms, and also asking that ho may be rolcasotl from his -ontraet. The carcase of a large sperm, \i hale, 61-ft in length, wjs found on Sunday last on the beach at Otara, about five miles from FortrosQ, by Mr Joseph T'<waitcs. jun. The " find" was secured, and Tlnvaites is understood to have disposed of it for a handsome Mim to an luvercargill syndicate.— 'Wyndliam F.< riner. The- Colonial Secretary lias been served by the trustees of the A«hburton Club with a writ of mandamus calling on him to show fau=e why hi.» revocation of the charter of tho club should not bo cancelled or withdrawn. The charter wa9 cancelled by tho Minister on the ground that no-license was carried in the district. An example of the caro that should ba (\erciscd in the- use of firearms wao afforded at Oamaru on Tuesday (s>ay3 the North Otago Times). A rifle was being used to destroy a horse when the bullet, after passing through the horse, glanced off a stone, passed through the window of an adjacent house, and went into the h?ll. What place is sacred from the. vhit of th© callous thief? pxclaims the Wellington Post. On Sunday night while t'le congregation of Scots Church, Abel Smith street, was engaged in devotion a diligent thief was engaged gathering a swag of their coats, hats, and umbrellas from t)ie outer porch [ In the Wellington Magistrate's Court last Wednesday a small boy, not yet 13 years of ago, stated that he had left school when he was in the second fetaudard, ancl^ had been sent to work for a country farmer for 5s a week. Asked how many days there were in a week, he hesitated, and then said " Six." The boy's mother told the magistrate that he would not go to school. At ChristcJiurch on Monday Mr Justice Donniston, in the course of a case in which " keeping company" was mentioned by one

of the witnesses, gave a rather interesting definition of the expression as it appeared to him. Thero were, it seemed to him, three stages in what was known as keeping company— viz., first, walking out; secondly, keeping company ; and thirdly, being engaged. While awaiting trial at the Launceston (Tasmania) Criminil Court, a prisoner named Walter Redburn made his escape from the Launceston Gaol. Ho secreted a cliisel in his cell, and with this broke open the door and tried to climb the water-spout, but fell. He then maele a ladder with strips of blanket, and with this scaled the wall, dropped on to the pavement 25fc below, and got safely away. He had recently served a sentence for horse-stealing. A stranger in Timaru narrowly escaped serious injury, if not death, on Friday ' morning (says the Timaru Herald). Be was wardering on the Moody wharf in a state of intoxication, and while looking at the. ■working of the steamer Toroa, fell overboard, just missing the vessel's side with his •head. An officer on board at once cried ] " Man overboard," aud one of the steamer's , •hands pluckily jumped to the rescue and pulled tho man out, little the worse for his ducking. Three boy.s. aged four, five, and six years, 6ons of Mr J. Haynes. of Meadow Creek, I Wangarata, Victoria, were bathing in a j creek a few days ago, when one of them disappeared. Another tried to save him, but failed. The third child went to his home, r'\-l sat down to his dinner. Later on his parents went to look for the missing children, and the body of one was found floating in the creek, while the other was clinging to a tree trunk almost unconscious from cold. Wiremu Pirihonga, better known as Wiremu fee Parihi, died at Oromahoe, Auckland, a few days ago, at the age of 90 ycar3. Up was the last of Hone Heke's old warriors, and fought -against the British in several battles. He was at Ohaewai when the as?ault ordered by Colonel De^pard resulted so disastrously., the British losing 100 -mien j in ;• few minutes. Wiremu led the war dance before the Governor at Waitangi four years ago. He was .greatly respected by both Maoris and Europeans. At the conclusion of a football match between Fooberay and Richmond. (Victoria) on a. recent Saturday, tho captain of the latter (Alexander Edwards) and a member of the team, named M'Nair, were both struck while leaving the ground and rendered unconscious. Police Court proceedings followed, and one of the Footscray team (William Harris) was fined £5, or cue month's imprisonment, for assaulting M'Nair, while one of the spectators was similarly fined for attacking Edwards. I Mr C. Bills, of George street, has just completed a large screen or kiln floor for the Wanganui Meat Freezing Company, to be used in connection with the manure works. It is the largest work of the kind turned out in the colony, being 60ft by 27ft, and when put together will weigh four tons. It is to replace the smaller screen made by Mr Bills somo years ago, as tho company finds it necessary to enlarge the capacity of the works. The fact of the second oreler coming to Dunedin is the be^t proof of the quality of the work. | Among the Maori specimens added to tho j collection in the Canterbury Muu'Uin (.=ays the Lyttelton Times) there is a net, with* a rake attached, used far collecting fresh-water mussels. The article was obtained from Lake Rotorua. The rake is carved, and is very old. Th© apparatus has, of course, gone quite out of use. and the specimen in j the Museum is valuable, as no more can be obtained from the Rotorua district. The net has been made for the purpose, tho one originally attached to the rake having decayed. When the north train arrived at the Papamu Station about 7.15 p.m. on Thursday an elderly lady attempted to alight. The. train was still in motion, though it had j slowed down, and, missing her footing, she j slipped between the train and f:e platform. Two jypnt-leme-n, who were on the platform at the time, promptly went to her assistance, -and pulled her out before she had suffered any serious injury. It is stated that the station is badly lighted, and that this fact is a source of some clanger. — Lyttelton Times. According to Dr Wohhnann, the Government balnealogist, the " number oi baths

I given at Rotorua last year showed an increase of some 10,000 over the previous) year's record. The yearly number of baths given is now close on 100,000, exclusive o£ private baths and these at Whakarewarewa. Dr Wohlmann is- sonding plans for new 'bath buildings to the Government, and if these are parsed Rotorua will -have "the finest baths in tho Southern Hemisphere, and probably the finest outside of Europe. On Friday afternoon Detective Ward, who was instrumental in the capture of the sup* posed perpetrator of the recent South Canterbury burglaries, found about £50 worth. I of jewellery scattered about the ground near [ Geraldine, about a quarter of a mile fron* the house which had been entered. Tho thief had evidently taken the cabinet containing the jewels- to this place, and broken it open there, and made off with the most valuable. Stolen .jewellery to the amount of £100 altogether has now been recovered. Press. A Napier 'business man has received a letter from a friend in Russia, from which the following is extracted: — "There has j been a nasty riot at Gratz, inHJerard ariSi Mikine's resH-ania, one of the largest fiaxspinning mills. All the French employees, manager and overseer included, had to run for the-ir lives in what they stood, and most of them will not be allowed to return. The military were cailed out. They were stoned by the mob, and in rejjly fired inlb it with ball cartridge. Many persons were killed and wounded. The mill is no\r- stopped." The-Sydney Morning Herald declares that the demand in 'New Soutlj -Wales for a lands- for-settlement . policy is "becoming almost clamorous." "It is recognised," continues tho Herald, "that in order to compass closer settlement in the 20in rainfall country it would be necessary for the State to resume the large estates and render them available in farms of proper size> for men of ordinary means, either on purchase with long terms or on leasehold. The present Government would be assured of the support of the whole community in such an \mdertakmg." Ten years on the -down grade has almost | put an end to No Town (writes n, corre- | spond'eait of the Grey River Argus). Once a. sccu€. of life, affluence, and activity, "with a population amounting to thousands, there is not to-da.y a score of people within its iborders. In the back gullies and elsewhere some oE the old hands, ftb tiie ago of three-cco-ro y»«ars and ten, are still fossicking" away for a pennyweight of gold to add to the- miserable pittance of the old-age pension, which, on account of the high cost of living that obtains on this coast, and especially in inland town/ships, does no more ■than fcecp soul and body together, leaving clothing and boots out of .the question. A man named Michael O' Sullivan was committed for trial at Brisbane a few "lays ago on a charge of shooting at Constable Hayes, -near Toowoomba. The evidenca showed that Hayes met O'Sullivan and another man. He accosted the men and went up to O'Sullivan, who i-aid, "Keep back, or. it will be worse _ for you." Tho constable went toward.? him, and said, "I am Constable Hayes, and I waut..to know who you nrc." O'Sullivan then presented a revolver and fired? The constable closed: with and arrested him. The accused €aid._ " You have me row, and can hang me if you like." The revolver contained three full cartridges and two empty shells,. and pn_ tho man was a packet of cartridges. When the wood-paying scheme was reso'ved upon in Wellington city (says tho Now Zealand Times) it was decided that, I£ possible, a trial should be given New Zealand woods for this purpose, and, accordingly, inquiries in that direction were made by the city engineer, who has suggested that a trial should bo given to rata, and that a small portion of street should beblocked with this wood for- experimental purposes. The price quoted for rata, however, is very high — 20s per 100 ft, — and ife lias been ascertained that to pave a chain of street with rata would cost £104, aa against £35 if the same length were paved with jarrah. The City Council -has decidwl to have further inquiries made on the- sub- ■ ject. • ' - A rather >novel point was Taised at the?" Hawke's Bay Land' Beard meeting by an. ' application from the wife of a 'man who has been an inmate of a lunatic asylum for several years to have the section she and her family are at present residing on transferred from the husband to her»elf. as in tho event of his leceasc the lease, she thought, would lapse, and they would be homeless. The Commissioner pointed out; the difficulty of getting the requisite signature, to th-e document of transfer in such a case. The section, he thought, in the evpnfc of tho husband's death would pass into tne hands of the Public Trustee for administration on behalf of tha family. It was decided to ascertain what could be dene in tha matfrer. Gas is the great therapeutic ageni in connection with the Kamo thermal springs, corresponding to the hot sulphur waters of /Rotorua. The "champagne" bath at Kaimo Dr Wohlmann, ' Government balnealogist. considers a most valuable spring, and (according to the Whangar<u correspondent of the Auckland Star) he has expressed the opinion that in regard to the large swimming baths the gas escaping from tho springs should be caught in gasometers and recharged into the waters, so that tho water when 'being bathed in should' be fully ; saturated with gas, and the bather should enjoy his "soda-water" bath at full ■strength. By conserving the gas in suitable holders all sorts of baths could be supplied, from an ordinary dry gas bath ,to the needle bath charged with gas, which would exceed in its invigorating .effects an electric biush passing over on-o's body. At Ashburton on Thursday John William, Adam, George, and Tcin Harris, -Arthur Wood'hous«, Samuel Dixon, and William Baker were charged with assaulting Andrew Thompson, mine manager, Mount Somers, by .smearing him with treacle Mid feathers - on August 3. It appears that a sister of! the brothers Harris had bean keeping! company with a young man named Cockrill. who was acquainted with Thompson, and for certain reasons it was alleged that; Thompson had advised, and financially assisted, Cackrill to clear out. The brothers Harris, hearing of this, procured a 71b tin, I of treacle, and, meeting Thompson in a. gig, poured the greater part of the treacle over him, adding feathers to the solution as well. After hearing the evidence, the blanch deoided that an assault had been, committed, and fined all the defendant?, . with the exception of Woodhouse. Bator, ' and Dixon, 5?, each eido to pay their own expenses. The bench were sa':sfied that the assault was committed under provocsE lion.