OMNINM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 4

OMNINM GATHERUM.

Shipmasters had- some difficulty in making their way down the coast from Cape Brett to Aucldand on Sunday and Monday last, owing to the smoke from the burning of fallen tea-tree bush. At a special meeting of the Taicri County Council on Friday it was decided to make a special rate of %d in the pound for paying interest on proposed loan of £500 for metalling road in Outram Ruling. A gianir kauri,- 40ft :n: n -irth, was levelled in the Wainui bush, north of Auckland, last week. After the ive h.-u] been felled 36 persons got on the etu_np, and more could have been crowded on. Duffey, ihe American sprinter, was immensely delighted with Milford Sound, which he saw on the way across from Melbourne. "I never saw anything like it in nay life '' was his frank tribute. At the quarterly meeting of the Invercargill Licensing Committee a favourable report was received from the police in regard to the hotels in the Invercargill district, and no comment was made. A Wellington warehouseman, on a visit to a Wairarapa town the other day was stopped by a constable in the street, and given 24 hours to get out of the town. He was mistaken for a suspicious character. The deficiency in connection with the late Exhibition at New Plymouth is being variously estimated by ' ; the man in the street." but it is understood that the audited documents show the amount to be not far off £1050. The Hokitika Presbyterians are mo ."ing in the direction of procuring a pipe organ for the church, and Mr Carnegie, having already donated to similar objects in parts of the colony, has been written to on the matter. As a result of the recent bush fire Mr Clements suffers a loss of about £300 (says th* Eltham Argus). Work in his mill cannot be resumed until a new Jinc of tramvr.ly is laid down. The fire passed througb over 1000 acres of bush. According to a bankrupt Treasury clerk at Sydney, H. A. MacPherscn, his bankruptcy was caused by borrowing from money-lenders at an exorbitant rate of interest. He had paid to some money-lenders as high as 240 per rent. "You seem to me to have no moral sense at all," said Mr H. W. Bishop when convicting a youth at Christchurch on Saturday. " You have proved yourself a ii-ir and a thief, and I Sim afraid you won't come to a—good end." Mr G. Laurenson, M.H.R., speaking- at Wools-ton, referred to the conditions under whioh firemen on large steamers had to work. It was high time, he added, for the Legislature to step in and make the conditions of life of the firemen better for them. A writ was issued at Melbourne on Mar.-fn 2 at the instance of Peter Ferodovatch Varawa, of Shanghai, China agent, at present residing at Menzie's Hotel, claiming £20,000 damages from Howard, Smith, and Co. (Limited) for alleged false Imprisonment. Mr Tatham intends taking action against the Railway Department for the sum of £500, on account of his horse (Jeanne d'Arc) receiving injuries through the partition of a loose box falling on her. and thus preventing- her participating- in the events ot the Wang-anui Racing Club meeting. A shocking accident happened in the railway yards at Ararat (Vie.) recently. A little girl named Blanche Millman was crossing the line on her way to school when she was run down by a shunting engine, which was running tender first at a rapid rate. The child's body wai cut to pieces. At the conclusion of a speech by Mr Meikle in Cathedral square, Christchurch, on Monday night, his numerous hearers unanimously resolved— " That having heard Mr Meikle's account of his case, and believing thai he has suffered unjustly, this meeting considers that his name should be removed from the criminal records." The President of trio United States of America has expressed his willingness to receive a representative of the Church Scciety for the Promotion of Kindness to Animals, whp would endeavour to obtain his co-operation in an effort to secure due consideration and skilled attention for animals wounded in war. The fire -whicli took place at Palmerston on Thursday mornin°; left one of tSc suf-

{ ferors considerably the poorer (says the North Otago Times). He was negotiating for the insurance of his property, and the policy was to have been issued yesterday. The fire, however, came, and the negotiations consequently . fall through. "Tom" Long, the hangman, is at present employed with some Natives at Pipiriki. "Tom" receives a sum of £25 for his gruesome business, but of this amount he only receives £2 in cash. The remainder is docketed, and then forwarded to the sergeant of police in the locality where the executioner pursues a peaceful avocation. The Hastings correspondent of the Hawke's Bay Herald writes: — "Some of the influential Natives in this district are endeavouring to arrange for a visit of a team of Hawke's Bay Maori feocbalWs to Australia during the coming winter. They are meeting- with good support, and it is practically a certainty that the trip will be made-." A rather grim game is being played by youngsters attending the Masterton School. Two '" men go ovit scrub-cutting, p.nother creeps up apparently unseen, shoots one of them and bolts. "Detectives" are immediately sent in puisuit, the runaway captured, and eventually hanged, the school roller serving as a gallows. This new game is called " Ellis." Mr J. Kevin Tait. wo 11 known in dramatic circles, who was !ii irankfort-on-M&ine in January, writes he has been trying- to sr-eur« Kubehk for Australia and New Zealand, but, the great \irtuoso wants £10,000 before his violin will breaHie sweetness into the Antipodean atmosphere He is a huge draw in Europe. Mr Tait mentions that Dolores is doing great things in Europe. A Hawera delegate to the Methodist Conference on Tuesday *poke scathingly of the practice of paying ministers low stipends. The stipend of £150, he thought, was low enough, and ho knew his follow stewards at H.\wcra would be ashamed and averse to offering the beggarly stipend* of £140 and £120 which some circuits paid their ministers. The statement evoked some fervent " Hear, hears " from members«"Of the Conference. T!fe Sydney Public- Morals Association ie urging the Attorney-general to pass a law early next session to provide for the establishment of children's courts m New South Wales. At the last meeting of the association Mr W. E. Tocse. who recently visited America, described the children's courts in operation in each of the States. As the result of his investigations, he expressed the firm conviction that Ihe working of these courts was in the b&st interests of the children, and of the community generally. The s.s. Toroa, which arrived at Timaru from the Chatham Islands on Wednesday, had an exceedingly rough passage all the way, and her cargo, which comprised about 1100 sheep, suffered great hardships. Some 50 sheep were lost on the voyage, and a few more died after reaching Timaru. Captain M'Alister said the trip was one of the worst he had made from the islands. j The crew had a trying time, being engaged day and night in keeping the sheep on their feet. The Toroa had five passengers The Tariff Commission now sitting in Melbourne is uneai thing some curious facts regarding the spirituous liquor supplied by some of the Melbourne hotelkeepers. Some of the piiblicans, it is alleged, suppfy their customers with methylated spirits as a substitute for gin, brandy, and whisky. Methylated spirits contain a quantity of naphtha and kerosene, and taken a^s a beverage would be calculated to burn holes in a throat of brass, and for " biting "' effect, so dear to topers, ccmld give many points to the most demoralised brand of back-blocks' whisky. The To Awamutu correspondent of the Xew Zealand Herald states that Mrs Dench. wife of a settler in the back blocks of the King Country, had a sad experience while travelling in the train from Tauinaranui to Te Awamutu on Saturday last. It appears that her young family are all laid up with influenza, and on Friday night the youngest cm!d, aged four months, became so ill that it was decided to seek medical aid at Te Awamutu. a distance of some 65 miles. Mrs Dench, whose husband was absent from home, had to walk over five miles of rougu bush country, carrying the child, in order to catch the train at Poro-o-tarao tunnel. On j;h<3'" journey down to Te Awamutu in

the (ruin tbe child died in its mother's arms. The Win ton Record reports that a «eiioiTS a=i=ciult was committed on a middleaged voa an, C'laia Fioggatt.^at her hou=e on the mton-T3rown'-i load by a man, who called and asked for toa. In her struggle to escape -ho was cut in the head with a knife, which her assailant used. She succeeded in escaping from the house, and gave information to tlio police, who arrested a young fellow about 23 yeais of age, named Sudden, alias Wm. Smith, who has been, working as a labourer on a road contract at Centre Bu=h. Sudden iras brought up at the Winton Police Court before Mr C D. Moore, J.P., and- charged with assault and attempted rape. His Worship remanded the accused to Inve-reargill, where he was further remanded to appear at Winton on March 15. An interesting ca-'e was heard at the Rangiora Court on Tuesday, wl.en a young; lacY- 25 years of age. sued her grand-uncla for" £59 12s for housekeeper's wages. There \ia« a counter claim for £60. Tlio plaintiff staked that "?hc had lived with the defendant and her aunt at Loburn from her seventh till her twenty-first year, when she loft him for two years, returning after her aunt's doatli to keep house for him. When she inquired about wages, defendant said that ho would will bis farm in her favour, and later, on his selling the farm, lie offered to invest £200 for her, and pay her the interest. Defendant proposed marriage to her in January, 1903. but -he refused him. Afterwards he married =omeovo clso. Plaintiff left him in May, 1903. The defence was that there had been no promise of the farm or i settlement by the defendant, and than he I>ad not proposed marriage. Jn his will he had intended leaving plaintiff something: with others The magistrate held that till her twenty-first year plaintiff was with defendant as his child. After her aunt's death the relationship changed, and the counter claim (showed that :he had been recompensed for her services. A nonsuit was recorded.