OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 12

OMNIUM GATHERUM

A movement is on foot to form a Trades and Labour Council in Timaru.

There are about 600 men now employed on the railway works above Taihape.

Cabinet has approved a grant of £1600 for the technical school and public school tub Masterton.

A householder at Allenton, Ashburton, is at present a second crop of strawberries for the current season.

The Government obtained possession of Ftaxbourne on the Ist inst. The estate will probably be tfcrown open in May. During the past year the- Wellington City Council has had a record number of meetings, no less than 297 having been held. Mr R. M'Nab, M.H.R., is of opinion that the Premier will not reconstruct the Cabinet ; and, further, he does not think that reconstruction is advisable.

Word has been received by Mr F. R. I'iatinan, M.H.R., that the Premier has agreed to the expenditure of £1000 on the erection of a techincal school building at Temuka.

One of the new locomotives bring built at Addington was run for its trial trip on the north line with the midday passenger train on Tuesday, and appeared* to work very satisfactorily. The New South Wales Executive has commuted to imprisonment for 14 years and life, respectively, the death sentences on Percival John Gardiner, who shot at and wounded a young woman. The Bruce Herald understands that it is the intention of the Tokomairiro Presbyterian Church choir to compete in the choral contest at the forthcoming- contest of the Dunedin Competitions' Society. At a meeting of the Hastings Borough Council, a letter. , .was received from Mr A. Carnegie stating that the £2000 applied for would be at the service of the council as soon as the conditions were complied with. A young woman, Ada Dixon, has died at Hdpetoun (Vie.) from heart disease and hemorrhage of the- lungs. The deceased attended a social dance one evening, and next day became seriously ill, dying within a few hours. "*

There are now 4018 ,m«n engaged on co-operative works in New Zealand. Of these 176 artisans and 1927 labourers are on railway construction and other works under the Public Works Department, and 1915 labourers are on road construction.

The magnitude of the Northern Wairoa sawmilling trade (writes the Dargaville correspondent of the Auckland Star) can be gauged from the fact that at the present time there are vessels loading on the river that will carry away over 3,000,000£t of sawn timber.

At the Magistrate's Court, Timaru, on Monday, a St. Andrew's farmer was charged with failing to deface the stamps upon two beer kegs. The case was evidently one of carelessness, and a light penalty only was inflicted, fie was fined 5s on each information, with costs 14-p.

The co-operative workmen- employed on the Little Wanganui road (Karamea) have struck a vein of greasy clay, from which petroleum exudes. The surfaces of the creeks in the vicinity are covered with an oily substance, and the whole of the locality reeks with the odour of kerosene.

A coincidence in connection with the polling for the 'Wellington election last .week is that, a mock ballot was held at the Terrace School (which Mr Fisher attended when a boy), and the result of the voting, participated in by boys only, was as follows:— Fisher, 49; Hutcheson, 10; Izard,

Messrs Kenny and Huntley, the occupants of a firewood-laden ketch which "turned turtle and sank in the Marlboroug-h Sounds lasr, Saturday, were compelled to strike out lor the shore, a distance of about one mile and a-half. Despite the long swim in cold water, both men eventually reached land in safety.

I An appeal on behalf of the Maori Mission Fund has been addressed to all Anglican clergy in the Wellington diocese. It sets forth that while the contributions from the Maoris themselves arc sensibly increasing, there will probably be a shortage of £100 for the year. The sum required from the Wellington diocese is £550 per annum. In connection with a raid on a " two-up " school in Castlereagh street, Sydney, Charles Dunn, charged with keeping a, common gaming house, has been fined 5100 orsix months in gaol ; Sylvester Dunn, for assisting, £20 or two months' imprisonment. Fifty persons found on the premises were fined £2 each or 14- days' imprisonment. - , Some time ago the formation of a company to work the kaolin deposits at Kakahu was" mooted in Temuka, but, OAving to the doubts of som© of the committee set up "to make inquiries as to probable cost, etc.,

the project collapsed. Mr W. Beri, of Geraldine, is now exploiting the deposit, and on Tuesday the first load of clay was to be brought down to his Temuka brick works.

" Don't you think it's in your power to make him give me a home?" was the p'aintive request made to the magistrate at Christchurch on Tuesday by a. young woman who had been deserted by her ' husband after four months of married life. "It is certainly his duty," replied Mr Bishop; " but all I can do is to send him to gaol if he does not pay, and €hat would not give you a home."

A report from Charlevilie (Queensland) states that a Mr J. P. Klein, a Melbourne gem merchant, who is visiting the Queensland goldfields, had a narrow escape from death rces-ntly. He was riding a bicycle, when he got on the wrong track, with the result that he was 36 hours without food or water. His bicycle broke down, and when picked up by a teamster he was in an exhausted state.

Mr John: Campbell, an old man, wTio disappeared from his home at InvercargiU on Sunday. 9th inst., was found on Tuesday ! wandering in the bush beyond Woodlands, j He was in a deplorable state — hatless, minus one boot, and saturated to the skin. Having j neither eaten nor slept since Sunday, he was ' suffering from the exposure of two days and 1 nights, and, under the protection of the -I police, was taken to the hospital.

A lady member of the committee of the Wellington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals brought under the notice of the society on Monday last the cruelty of Maoris in the Hot Lakes district to horses and dogs. There w°s a recent Maori meeting near Rotorua, and horses and dogs were tied up tor three days without receiving adequate food or attention. It was decided to draw the attention of the Auckland society to the matter.

At St. George's Church, Thames, on Sunday week, the Rev. Mr Hawkins said that, roughly speaking, if a line were cut j straight across Auckland, the Maoris in the north might be said to be Christianised, while those in the south of it were still living in a state of blindness. He argued that there was a spirit of antagonism shown by some of the Maoris to the ministration of white workers even in these enlightened days, although that fact had -frequentlybeen pooh-poohed. The chairman of the Petone School Committee (the Rev. J. D. Russell) has received very encouraging replies to the circular and petition sent out by him to school committees all over the colony relative to the nature of the "consultation" which edueaition boards hold with committees on the subject cf->appointments of teachers. The chairmen of 120 committees, representing every education district in tbfe colony, have all replied supporting the Petone Com- V mittee, and signing the petitions asking for legislation on the subject, while six letters have merely expressed sympathy with "the movers in the matter.

The New Zealand Herald states that for the Auckland and suburban constituencies there are now five Opposition candidates in the field, with the promise of more to follow. The latest to enter the lists is Mr J. Ti. Bagnall, who has ann-ounoed his intention of contesting the seat for Auckland Central in the Opposition interests. Mr Bagnall is one of the best-known public men in Auckland. In 1873 he represented Thames in the Auckland Provincial Council, and was a member of Thames local bodies, and also the Crown Lands Board, for manyyears. He has been actively connected for upwards of 30 years with educational affairs in Auckland, and is at present a member of the City Council, a member of the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, a member of the Education Board, and a member of the Chamber of Commerce Council. Numerous complaints having been made about losses of goods at the Korong Vale Railway Station (Victoria), a detective was sent to make investigations. As a result of inquiries the house occupied by Brims lychsen was searched, and articles valued at more than £200 were found. The articles comprised jewellery, jam, graphophone records, ladies' wearing apparel, fenders, guns, carpets, gentlemen's clothing, silver p V k° ots - hats, hair brushes, mirrors, tea, hams, bacon, champagne, and whisky Jinough goods were discovered to fill a van. The circumstances which led to suspicion falling on Tychsen weixs rather peculiar, home graphophone records were missed recently, and Tychsen, who took a prominent part in a bazaar, used some of them on ■Ul9 own graphophone. One pf the airs Was recognised as being the same' as that of one of the missing records; hencx? the search. Tychsen was formerly seoretary of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Employees.

A SEW ZEALASDER *N PFRSFi*. Mr C. E. G. Tisdall, a native of Auckland, who has for some y-ears been an agent of i the British aad Foreign Bible Society .n Persia, gives the Now Zealand Herald some interesting information about affairs in that country. The society works under great disadvantages, for under the Koranic law 1 of the couutry any native .who openly J accepts the Christian faith is liable not only to be disowned by all his relatives and to . be deprived of all his possessions, but also j runs the risk of death. These disadvantages | havo been added to recently by an order of ! the Persian Government prohibiting the importation of further supplies of Persian Scriptures into tho f-ountry ; but fortunately j the supplies in hand, on which no embargo 1 has bren placed, are sufficient to last for about five years, and by that time it is \ hoped that the order will be revoked. The progress made by the society in spite of all I this has be&n very encouraging. The> sales I of Bibles have increased from 7000 to 15,C00 ' a year since Mr Tisdall took over the agency S six years ago, and many Persians have ; embraced Christianity in the face of the great risks that such action involves. Many j have remained in Persia and lived down the 1 result of their change of faith, and others have sought tho freedom of faith which India affords. Mr Tisdall throws an instructive light on the methods adopted by the English and the Russians towards native , races. The Russians, whose influence is in I the north, are greatly hated owing to their oppression ; while the English, whose influence is confined to the south, are ereafcly trusted. "A' Persian," says Mr Tisdall, " does not know what an English liar is ; he would take the word- of an Englishman for thousands of pounds — in fact, he would not think of doubting it on any account." All Europeans, however, are in danger from the Persian native when he is wound up to a pitch of fanaticism, for then he may not distinguish between the different races of foreigners. There is, if anything, a. backward tendency in the social state of Persia. "When Mr Tisdall left the country cholera was sweeping the country, 1500 people dying daily in Teheran alone. This high rate of mortality was largely due to the absence of medical care, and to the practice of washijjg, the bodies of persons who had died from the disease in rivers and afterwards drinking the water, for th» Alohammedan law teaches that it is impossible to defile the water of running streams.