OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2663, 29 March 1905, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM

A now piiblic hall is to be ereoted in Wyndham.

A post and -telephone office is to bo opened at Edievale at an early date. Riverton and Colao mutton-birders are at present preparing to leave for the islands.

The Chinese in and around Wellington have donated £179 to the Wellington Hospital.

There are now 2600 wator services supplied from the Pareora River, South Canterbury.

A householder in Ashburton is at present enjoying his second crop of strawberries for this season.

It is understood that the rehearing of the Flaxbourne compensation case will open at Blenheim on April 12.

• This week (says the Free Press) the number o! men employed on the Catlins railway extension is to be increased to 30.

Two million trees, chiefly pines, which have been sown on pumice ground at Waiotapu State Nursery, are reported to be thriving well.

Mr It. S. M 'Vicar, of Puerua, with his wife and daughter, had a narrow escape from being poisoned through eating tinned beef last week.

Ten persons received letters of naturalisation in the colony last week, and of fchese four were gumdiggcrs.

A firm in Napier has re«ei%-ed an order from the New South Wales Government to manufacture 100 tons of fax rope. Tho contraot price is about £3000.

The Telegraph Department has decided to have a new telephone wire put up between Balckitha. Milton, and Dunedin, and it is anticipated the work will shortly be taken in hand.

The shopkeepers of Temuka have, byrequisition in writing-, asked to have tTio hour of closing of shops fixed at 6 o'clock on four nights in the week and 9 o'clock on Saturday. During the past three years the Timaru Borough Council has received and expended a sum of no less than £73,800. The increase in the rateable value of the borough during the same period totalled £9000. The Waitahuaa correspondent of the Tuapeka Times states that the Government is losing no time in making the necessary roads through the Greeafield Estate. Culvert pipes are being carted, and a few men are at present employed in road-making. There is, consequently, a good demand for pick-and-shovel men.

A Perth paper states thafc the German steamer Friedrioh der Grosse, which arrived at Fremantle from Adelaide on March l r brought 121 bags of mails, the largest lot ever carried to Fremantle by a foreign steamer. The company will receive no benefit from the mails, as tho whole of the poundage rates earned will be paid to the derrnan Government Before th« coming session the local members of Parliament will be asked (says the Ijiyttelton Times) to meet representatives of the various social organisations in Christchurch, in order thafc various matters may b& placed before them. The need for ind&terminate sentences for a certain class of criminals, and for sterner treatment of prisoners in the colony's gaols will probably be amongst the subjects dealt with. The Southern Standard understands that the Tokonul Railway League has decided to sever its connection with the Invcrcargill "Jsajlway Le_aj\je awing to the- latter includ-

ing too many schemes in its programme-, and the consequent prejudicial effect such action is likely to have on any cr.e bf tho particular projects The Southland Leaguo has recently tacked on to the half-dozen local railways comprising jts programme thai of the Edievale-Roxburgh extension, and the Tokonui people fear that their project will be swallowed up and neglected amongst j the lot. j Mr T. E. Taylor, M.H.R., in the course of his address at Kaiapoi on Tuesday even" ) ing, said he estimated that at the next license poll the number of persons eligible to vote throughout the colony would reach 200,000. There would be on "the new electoral rolls the names of 45,000 persons who , would roach the age of 21 before the next i election. Of these, he estimated seven- ■ tenths would vote for prohibition. He ; expected that in the South Island, Awarua, . Bruce, pvobably the. City of Bunediu, f Timaru, Oamaru, and other districts near | the present prohibition districts would carry no-liccnso. 1 At a meeting of the Ir.rercargill Railway League the secretary (Mr Smith) read some correspondence received from a Roxburgh j resident in reference to tho Edievale-Rox-burgh railway project, and on tho strength of this ifc was decided that a deputation of Invercargill business men proceed to Roxburgh and address a. meeting of residents, • to be ooavened by circular, prcbablv on '• Tuesday, April 11. Tho deputation" will leave Invercarsrill on the 10th, and proceed j to Maa Flat Station as tho guests of the ' owners. The next day the visitors will s<-e j some, of the country, and in tho evening the meeting will be held. i A meeting of creditors of H. Y. G-arforth, ! commission agent, Clintou, was held on Wednesday afternoon before Mr C. C. Graham, official Rsaignee. The bankrupt's statement j showed the amount due to unsecured creditors to be £126 6s. The only assets were set down as his furniture, £25. The principal cieditors, ali unsecured, were: — James Garden £27, Alexander Hamilton £20, John Ritchie £10 3s, Molhsoa and Co. £9 53, Heibert, Haynes, and Co. .£9, Duthie Bros. £7, Richard Irving, jun., £12, James M'lntosh £5 10s. The bankrupt attributed his failure to sickness in his family in 1894 and being out of employment for seven months in 1895. Since then he had paid some of his old debts, but contracted new ones, which were still owing. Messrs Duthie Bros, and \Mollison and Co. appeared to prove their debts. Mr D. D. Macdonald appeared for -the bankrupt. The meeting was adjourned to enable the "bankrupt to submit an offer to his creditors, -those present being strongly of opinion that some offer should be made.