OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2652, 11 January 1905, Page 1

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

3ketahuna rejoices that it is three yeara ■ince a bankruptcy was recorded in the district. The bankruptcies in the "Wanganui district for the year 1904- were 17, against 19 for the year 1903. During a recent fortnight over 50 ton 3 of tobacco leaf was despatched from Inverell (N.S.W.) to Sydney. . . f Tomato plants in the Hawera district aro ! suffering rather severely this year from ; green blight similar to that which affects roses. . _, A person who has been acting as _ agent for Tattersall in a town between Wellington and New Plymouth is being anxiously in-

quired for. While In Woodville on Wednesday Mr Dan Fitzgerald received a cable from hi 3 brother Mr Tom stating that, the latter had completed the purchase of six elephants ■ for the next New Zealand tour of Fitzgerald's Circus. The Borough of Timaru is apparently a very desirable place in which to live, as during the month of December not a single borough resident died. The registrar says this is the first time within his recollection that such a state of affairs has existed. It has been decided to erect a memorial at Orange, New South Wales, to the memory of soldiers from that district who fell in the Boer war. The memorial will take the form of a, marble monument, for , which £100 has already been subscribed. A man named Thomas Scotland, 84- years of age, was sentenced to three months' imprisonment at Invercargill last week on a, charge of vagrancy. The defendant had been an inmate of the Old Men's Home on several occasions, but would not remain in the institution, preferring to wander about the district. The steamer Sophocles, which put into Fremantle on fire a week or two ago, is very well known in New Zealand. She was formerly the lonic. The Aberdeen line purchased the lonic from the New Ze,alandi Shipping Company after the loss of the Thermopylae, refitted her, and called her the Sophocles. A young man named James Green has been missing from Te Wharau, Wairarapa, since December 27. At one time he suffered from sunstroke, and it is feared that he has again become affected and wandered away. The Carterton Leader states that a search party is being organised. Green is. a single man, aged 30. A painful accident happened to a clerk in Timaru the other day (says the Herald). He was standing near an open door, holding a pen close to his head, with the nib pointing inwards. A gust of wind blew the door violently against the end of the pen and drove the nib into his scalp, where it still defies the doctor's efforts to extract it. Wairoa geyser was called upon to play on Christmas Day (says the Hot Lakes Chronicle), and to the delight of fully 600 people who had assembled to witness the eruption, gave a good display. Almost -simultaneously with Wairoa shooting the column of water into the air, Kereru commenced to play, the shot of the last-named being the best that has been seen for a very loiig time. The first of the party which sailed from, the Bluff in the Hinemoa on a visit to the Sounds has returned to Inveroargill, and Mr Howells reports that they had an ideal' holiday. The steamer went out of the beaten track, running into fiords" of unsurpassed grandeur seldom visited by the ordinary tourist. Mr M'Nab, M.H.R., who organised the party, made the trip to collect data in connection with the historical work upon which he has been -engaged for several years. — Southland Times. It is almost .certain that the most isolated Englishman at the present iriomerifis the Rev. E. J-' Peck, r the -representative -of the Church Missionary ...Society; among % the Esquimeauic on Blacklead Island, "Cumberland Sound, -Baffin's ' Bay.' The only con-, necting link between himself and the outerworld is an ajmual .ship, -and news . has just reached London that he did -not,. hear of his daughter's death in England until 12 months after it occurred. 'The rev. gentleman was the last Britannic subject to learn of Queen "Victoria's decease — eight months after the event. At the Ashburton Police Court on Thursday afternoon Percy Eden, on remand, and Oliver Spieer, were charged with the theft of three bales of wool, valued at £46 10s, the property of Messrs William Anderson and George Poeock, farmers, Westerfield. Robert Wakevy, wool buyer, of Geraldine, identified the accused as the mem who had recently sold him wool. He paid £22 for the wool. Spieer freely crossexamined the witness, and stated that he could prove- an alibi. On the application of the police, accused were remanded for eight' days, bail being allowed — each accused in a personal surety of £200 and two sureties of £100 each. Bail was forthcoming for Eden, but Spieer was taken to Lyttelton on Friday morning. At the Roxburgh Police Court on Thursday, before Messrs John Inglis and John " Bennets, J.P.s, Ah Jock, a Chinaman, who has lately bean creating considerable disturbance in the Miller's Flat district, was charged with (1) assaulting Nathaniel Cambbell, (2) with using threatening behaviour with intent to. provoke a breach of the ■peace, and (3) with trespassing on the premises of John Sellars and ""refusing to leave when requested to do so. Sergeant; Bowman appeared on behalf of the police. On the first charge it appeared that the accused had struck Campbell over the head . with, a butcher's steel, tfie implement being ' broken by the blow. The injury was not so great as at first thought, and it was decided to reduce the charge to one of common assault, and a sentence of two months' imprisonment was inflicted. On the second charge he was fined £5 or one month's imprisonment, and on the third charge £1 ©j; 14 days' imprisonment.