OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2630, 10 August 1904, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Steps are being" taken to establish a fire brigade at Winton. •

A daily mail is now despatched from Bsilclutha to Ratanui, instead of twice weekly as 'heretofore.

An official recount of the votes at the Pahiatua election reduced Mr Hawkins's majority by one. The Taieri Advocate says an unusul amount of sickness appears to prevail in Mosgiel at present. Several severe cases of pneumonia are reported. At Kurow Mag-is-trate's Court on Friday Mrs Aitkenhead was fined 20s and cctts (£419s) for slaughtering and selling the meat of a cow in an advanced state of pregnancy.

The creditors of an Auckland mechanic wlio filed his schedule intend to develop an invention (patented by the bankrupt) for automat.icalfy extinguishing and lighting street lamps-. By the iiuapehu, which arrived E>t Wellington ou the 4-th inst , there were nine saloon and 20 steerage passengers from Capetown, and eight passengers from South Africa lcfi; the steamer at Hobart.

In a Jetler from General Stoessel. received by a friend in St. Petersburg about two monlhs^ago, occurs the following significant passage: — "I do not know if we shall ever see each other again. My own decision, orders or no orders, is, however, made My life is given to Russia. Whatever happens I do not surrender. Port Arthur shall be my tomb." The ways of the signature-hunter for petitions are not always characterised by overscrupulousness. The Gore Standard records an instance where a canvasser for signatures to a petition against the formation of a new county is representing that tho document he presents is in favour of the proposal, and by this means is securing a number of signatures' that otherwise would not be obtained.

The Triad is permanently enlarged to 48 pages from and including the August number. The supplement now* consists of eight pages, printed on art paper, and containing black and white reproductions at least equal to anything of the kind done in Australasia. The Triad is evidently continuing to prosper, and its improvement and enlargement keep steji therewith. The current number is full of interest, instruction, and amusement.

At Lyttelton en Wednesday icme cruel poison or persons tied a cat up in a sack and afterwards fill-ed the sack up with snow. The cat and sack were left lying in Oxford street, and a lady who wa-s passing, hearing the cries of the animal, turned out the snow and released the cat, which was half perished with the cold a.nd unable to walk. Its feet were lacerated and bleeding. The poor creature was revived with waim milk, and recovered from the effects of iti cruel treatment. The matter hns been placed in the hands of the police.

At a Masterton hotel on Saturday night last a young man, who' earlier in the evening had engaged a bed there, on presenting himself at the hotel " after hours '' found the doors closed. Fearing he was locked out, he discharged a revolver in the hope of attracting notice. For this offence tho lodger, who is an American, was brought before a magistrate and fined £3, or in default seven days' imprisonment, his plea that it was the custom to carry firearms where he came from having no effect in exonerating him for his action.

At a public meeting at Kaitangata, convened by the Mayor on Wednesday evening, the followiaig committee was appointed to take steps to raise funds in aid of the

Veterans' Home: — Messrs Darling, Bfackie, Moir, Di- Fitzgerald, Souncs^, Morris D. Ckments, his Woiship the Mayor, and the Rev. Scott- Allan, with power to add; n\c to form a quorum. It, was resolved that the first form of entertainment should be a concert, to be held on mo t suitable date to be arranged by the committee. Mr G. Aitehesan was unanimously appointed hon. secretary.

A meeting of univeisity students, past and presenl, was held in Melbourne on July 19 to protest against the prh ciple on which the selection of the fii-st V.ctoriun Rhodes scholar was carried out. There was an attendance of over 200 members. The. foUowing w r as the principal resolution carlied: — "That, in the interests of future candidates for the Rhodes scholar?hip, this meeting respectfully expresses its regret that tlie 1901- selection has been made upon principles which make it possible for a student w"ho has no interest beyond the scholastic and intellectual side of university life to represent the State as a Rhodes scholar. ' Writing to the Sydne3* Daily Telegraph under date July 25, a Melbourne correspondent says : " While it rarely happens that players in the football matches under Australian rules are seriously disabled, it has been becoming of frequent occurrence inMelbourne lately for spectators to'- be carried away injured. At flic present moment there is a young- man named Albeit Hewitt lying unconscious in the Melbourne Hospital. He was struck on the head with a picket at a football match at Northoofce on Saturda}-. In dealing with the assault' --case, Dr Cole, P.M., said he was determined to prevent footballers from becoming a terror to tho community, and offered accused the alternative of a fine or 14- days in gaol." A prisoner named Tliomas Henry Calvert, who was recently sentenced to two months' imprisonment iov breaking a Chinese laundryman's windows, was brought before the Wellington Court on Friday last on a charge of having assaulted Detective Cameron so as to cause him actual bodily harm. The evidence showed that when' the detective went to arrest the prisoner in Molesworth street after the breaking of the windows, prisoner hit the detective on the forehead with a hammer belonging: to the Chinaman. The blow went through a hard hat - and caused a wound which bled profusely, but which is not serious. Accused pleaded guilty, and was remanded to the Supreme Court for sentence.

It will be new to most laymen to learn that the destruction of a second will <~ not validate the first even if in existencs. The point was deeded in Victoria the other clay in a case in which Mr P. T. Finn, erstwhile of Invercargill. was engaged. A man had made a will in Ireland in the sixties, by which he loft all to his wife. Recently he had made a will in Geelong. leaving his belongings to a— nephew, and 20s a week to his widow. He tore the -latter up two days later, and thereafter . died. Mr Finn and another save evidence as to the contents of the second will, which the court was asked to validate. This was refused, and the consequence is that the teetater died intestate, and his widow will get half the estate, some £5000, the other moiety going to his brothers and sisters.— Southland News. In the course of a press interview at Auckland last weak Mr C. L. Wragge, F.R.fi.S., said he firmly believed there at one period of the earth's history a vast southern continent including the islands of the Malay Arohinelago, New Guinea, Australia, and Ne>w Caledonia, and that another jrreat mass of land existed, joining New Zealand acro=.<= wbat is now the South Pacific with the wonderful Easter Island, or, as it is called by the natives, Rapanui, which is over 15,00^ miles from the coast of Chili. He also believed the Maori race was of remote antiquity, and its -ancestors were probably connected with those wonderful people that erected what are tho most remarkable ruins of the world — viz., those of Easier Island — probably older than tho«c of Central America, and "certainly infinitely more .ancient than the Egyptian temples, the Sphinx. Pyramids, and Baalbek. In fact, the Easter Island ruins probably belonged to a period of civilisation in 'many respects far superior to that of the present da 3% and go back fully 300.000 years.