OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2661, 15 March 1905, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM

A party of prospec f ors left Greymouth last week for the Wilberforce reef on behalf I of a Hokitika and Reefton syndicate, j Sheridan Rolfe, for having used a room for betting purposes at Sydney, has boen [ fined £50., or six months' imprisonment with | hard labour. A woman who wears a stuffed bird in her hat is liable to a fine of from £5 to £10 by a law recently passed by the Legislature of Arkansas. Whilst a farmer was getting tickets for the circus at Christchurch the other night he was relieved of his puree by someone in the crowd. A West Coast paper states that a goMmining claim on Middle Branch Flat, Goldsborough, is paying the fine dividend of £25 per man per week. During the two days' temperance mission of Father Hays in Castlemaijie over 700 persons of all denominations took the pledge of total abstinence. There are 14 applications for the position of doctor to the. Denniston Medical Association, and included ill the above number are two lady applicants. According to a clerical speaker at Masterton on Thursday, the Presbyterian Cl urch represents 22.87 per cent, of the- total population of New Zealand. The Hawera Star says that altogether over £60 w-as presented to Master Frank Kutchens, the talented young musician, prior to his departure- for London. At the rece-it gathering of the Grand Lodge of Druids, at Wunganui, it was decided to limit the death levy to £100, in addition to the funeral allowance of £20. In the course- of a speech at Amberley on Saturday jaighfc Mr A. W. Rutherford, , M.H R., prophesied that no amendment of j the liquor laws would bo made for some years. Thomas Malville, of St. Andrew's, Scotland, and iiis brother George, cf Cupar, who have just celebrated their ninety-fourth birthday, are the oldest twins in Great ' Britain. i The Christchurch Art Society has acquired the very fin* picture by Eastlnke j of "The Song of the S.hirt," which will be placed amongst the permanent collection of th-i society. " I am not surprised at anything I hear in evidence," said Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M,. ' at Christchurch a few days ago. " I hear all kinds of evidence here, and nothing surprises me." Wra. Henryman, a veteran detective, died at Melbourne on February 23, aged 79. He served in the London police, and subsequently in the Crimea. He arrived in Vie- ' toria in 1856. j A Chinaman, charged at the Sydney quarter sessions on February 23 with having counterfeit coins in his "possession, said "they must have fallen from the sky." He got four months. I " If Mr Seddon is not going to take the High Commissionership, upon my soul I don't know why we created t," said Mr j A. W. Rutherford, M.H.R., at Amberley on Saturday night. j There is a great scarcity of water at Feilding. Brisk business is being done by carriers, who are filling 250 gal tanks from the river,, a mile dHtant, and seJling the supply at 5s per tank. } .'< Captain Warden, of Vhe steamer Cape. Breton^, was fined £20 at tho Newcastle (N.S.W,) Court for having permitted a prohibited immigrant, in the pe-rson of a Chinese member of his crew, to escape. I Messrs Mac Lean and Co., timber mcr- | chants, Wellington, have .secured a large ' •timber contract from Australia. The con j tract is for 25, 000,000 ft of white pine, and ' exlendb over a period of fi\e years. ' Nine Chino-so q-arck'iiers were charged at the Auckland Police Court with woiking- in Iho-ir gardens at Avondale on Sunday. Be- ' fondants contended that it was a work of necessity, and tho ea^e was dismissed. | The impression is c O s-trona that iio-heen=e ' will be carried at Tnvercargill as the result of the polls in No\emler next that (says a southern paper) pveu the local bookmakers are making wagers upon the contingency. As the result of bis travels in the. Maori districts of the North Island, Dr Poniare is reported to tave said that he is unable j to encourage the hope that, tho Native race is increasing, or even that it is holding its ' own. j District Judge liaseldcn a few days aco referred to the prisoner's dock at the MaY terton Courthouse as a "disgraceful thing." and ut one stago of the proceedings ortleicd a prisoner to be accommodated with a chair While turning OVO7 the debris at tbp- fire c.l Mr Wilson's 'osidence. Woodville, r-occotly, some bo.v 2 found s iqil "i ncte-s

and sovereigns amounting to £10 10s. The ' notes we.ro only a littlo charred, and will be negotiable.

At Wellington a few days ago a man was fined £5 on a charge of ha\ing left a youth under 18 years of age in charge of a boiler. The defendant pleaded that he ( did not know he was rommitting an offence ! against the law. ! A batch of cases arising out of supplying a prohibited person at Tokorahi with liquor J was called on at the Oam«ru Courthousa on ' Friday, but was adjourned to Monday. 20th | March, in consequence of -Lhe illness of | Major Keddell, S.M. j At the Greymouth Magistrate's Court on February 27 Gee Gin was sentenced to 14 days' imprisonment on a charge of stealing 151b of apples and Bib of peas, valaed at i 11s 6d, from the garden of Mr George , Tacon, Cimerons. A tragedy took plac-e at Corunna (X.S.W.) on F-ebruary 2fi-. A man named Macdonald , wont homo intoxicated, and began to illtreat his family. The eldest sen, aged 21 years, returned from work with a gun in his hand, and he shot his father dead. j Mis Srhammer, of Ifr«mc-es (S. Australia), has reached the ago of 103 years. She is a native of Prussia, and was born in l£o2. She landed at Port Adelaide on September 24-. IFSB, and now lives with her youngest son, Mr George Schammor, who is 72 years . of age. T '_v The closing scene in respect to the Tasmanian aboriginal race took place at Wattle Grove. Port Cygnet, on February 24, when Mrs Fanny Cockcrn Smith, the last halfcast" survivor, passed away. The deceased at xhe time of her (.lemis© was in hc-r seventy-fourth year. ( At Ashburtoii on Thursday oven ing last > the Rev. J. Guy was entertained at a j farewell social prior to his departure for j Christchurch, to whiol^ city he has been I transferred. During the evenirg he was j pr-esent-ed with a handsome silver hot-water I kettle and a spirit lamp. A meeting of the various branches of the i Oamaru railway staff was held on Tuesday night (says the- North Otago Times), when it was decided to raise subscriptions in aid of the widowed mother of the late Guard H. Jameson, who was killed by falling from a train in Deborah Bay tunnel recently. The will of the late Mr William M'Lean, formerly of Messrs M'Lean Bros, and Kigg, was lodged for probate at Melbourne recently. The estate is valued at £35.000. Mr M'Lean's life was insured for £22,500, in addition to insurances for about £15,000 held by various institutions as security. , The recently-formed Portobello Brass Band assembled on Saturday evening in the | Main road, under Conductor Montgomery, and played some excellent music, which was greatly appreciated by residents and visitors present, who marked their approval by , t a liberal subscription in aid of the band funds. I The Redemptorist Order has established a house at Kilbirnie (Wellington)— the first j established in New Zealand. It will be in ' I charge of the Rev. Father Clunp, who has ' j recently been conducting missions in various parts of the colony, and who will bo ' assisted by the Rev. Fathers Pid^con and ' M'Dermott. A correspondent of the New Zealand rim-es writes from Waikanae sug^estin" that a leading firm of timber merchant" should send Home samples of New Zealand cedar— a timber at present not utilised— to the English pencil manufacturer who is | makmg inquiries for suitable wood for I pencils. A sample of plain totara has been sent. ! In the course of a speech at Westport last week. Mr H. D. Bedford, M.H.R.. stah-d that the amount of money expended on hquor last year in the town of Denni-ton. , the population of which is 1500, was £13 P 65. which save an aver.iso i nro ", ]lc , f o ,. 1], O 12 months of about £1733 to oach of tho eight I hotels of the town from the sale of liquor alone. I VThe Nol«on Colonist reporta tin- dvath of Mi- Jamr-j Knapp, of Spring- Gio^e, who ramo out to XoKon m the ship Olympus in If 42. Tho (Vcca c oJ s'onflenian, who was 35^ years of asro. le<i\(* a. widow, aged SO year*, who has boon the partner of Ins joy-, and sorrows for 63 voai--. In addition to ciL>hi of a fa-nilv, Mr Knapp lea\es 43 gianrlcluldron and 14 £>r<?at ara'ulohiklren. I Mr Jacl:«on Palmer bad a rather unpleasant cwfvi-cnco at l.ako Tarnwera on : Sunday wtclc. It appears Xc unwittingly i^top^erl Miio a quicksand, which slicked him dov n as fa>- ,i<; the armpir^. and bo \\'i* onjy «lj],> with gnoat 'difliciltv to exlntato" him olf niK l t o roach tho shore in an oxhauMori ooiidition The Tourist Department has placed a notiea ac tho spot

When speaking at tLe laying of the foundation stone of the Presbyterian Church at iJastertoa on Thursday. Mr J. G. W. Aitkcn referred to " Irish Presbyterians," and remarked that they were very nearly Scotchmen, but not purebred. As' soon as aa opportunity presented itself the Rev. J. K. Elliott, at whom the remark was evidently dirjeted, somewhat wittily retorted that he was very nearly a Scotchman himself, only somewhat refined by the long reaidenee of his ancestors in Ireland. At the Police Court ai Tim lru on Friday Philip Wirth, proprietor of Wirth's circus, j was fined £2 and costs for having assaulted a man at the- circus in Timaru. The defence was that the man in question had got among some of the circus fittings, where he had no right to be, and as he would not leave when asked to do :,o he- had to Ibe forcibly ejected. The- costs in the caso totalled £3 1* 6d, including 10s 6d for a new hat for the person assaulted, his hat having been damaged in the scuffle. The conference of growers of sugar by white labour held at Towr.svill© (Queensland) ha? passed a resolution approving of a White Australia policy in relation to tho sugar industry, but cxprcssi'ig the opinion that the bonus to =ugar growers should be continued for a number of years after 1906. and that the period of deportation of kanakas should be extended for three yeais. Various speakers said they had had r.o difficulty with white labour, which they found, in many instances, advantageous. According to the AshJiurst correspondent of the Manawatu Standard some citizens Mho took upon themselvfs the burden of the ronstabVs duties while that official was absent on leave had a lively time. The necessary duty *of conveying a drunken man to the lock-up was carried out sp'-en-didly, and the offender was duly searchedand placed under lock and key. But the scene changed at break of next day, when it was discovered that the lock-up was on fire. However, the ha^-suffocated prisoner was rescued and the fire extinguished. A doctor, giving evidence- in a case at the Supreme Court, Christchurch, in which a woman sought a divorce on the ground that her husband squandered his means in habitual drunkenness, said that he had . professionally attended the man owing to the latter's drinking habits. His Honor Mr Justice Donniston at once raised a question about the privacy of the relations between doctor and patient, bur the witness explained that he had given his services as a friend, without fee, and his Honor then allowed hira to continue> his statement. Mr George Brownlee is (says the North Otaaro Times) forwarding to the Early Settlers' Association, Dunedin. several very interesting papers which have been in his possession for a number of years. The first is a copy of the first annual ' report of St. Paul's Church. Oamaru, dated ! October, 1865, which Mr Brownlee believes is the only copy in existence The report is signed by Mr J. C. Gilchrist (then ' secretary to the church), and the balance 1 sheet by Mr J. Hood (thon treasurer). The second of this interesting group of I relics is the small four-sicled report and ! balance sheet of the first year of the pxistence of Columba Church. With this is a Masonic paper printed in red and black, tho same as that deposited in the cavity of the corner stone of Columba Church on tho day of the lavins: of the foundation stone, December 6. 1832.