OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2676, 28 June 1905, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

There are 50 miles of passenger platforms in this colony, says Sir Joseph Ward.

A crusade against the importation of opium into Australia has been started at Adelaide.

The Mount Ida Chronicle states that a number of spurious coins are in circulation in Naseby and district. Th© Taihape-Waiouru road has got into such a bad state that the mail contractor has now withdrawn his ooaches from the road. The mails now have to be packed.

The monument to be erected at Pahiatua cemetery in memory of the late Mr John O'Meara. a former parliamentary member for the district, is at at Napier, where the inscription is being cut.

As showing the demand for land in the Tokomairiro district, the Milton Mirror states that it is reported Mr Mountney has bren offered £300 on his recent purchase of Mr David Strain's farm at Milburn.

There is a scarcity of labour in the Eketahuna district at the pres-ont time- (says the local paper). Several contracts for bushfelling and stumping have been advertised of late, and not a single response has been obtained.

At Wanganui Court John Fairley, licensee of the Wangaehu Hotel, was fined £1 for permitting "show poker""- to be played on his premises. For "allowing fighting to take place he was fined £10, and the license was eadorseS. While the proprietor of a hotel at Whatawhata was away at a dance recently the bsr was entered by a daring thief, and the ' cashbox which contained between £15 and £20, taken. No safe was kept at the hotel, so that the thief had an .easy task. It is stated that Mr Henderson, of Milburn, is the loser to the extent of £20 through fhe recent robbery at his store. Two lads have been missing from the Caversham Industrial School for some time, and it is suspected they can possibly account for the theft. During the hearing of the iron and brass moulders' dispute at the Arbitration Court, Christchurch, the President remarked that there was no dredge-building in New Zealand now. " The way to get a dredge now," he added, "is to buy for £800 what originally cost £6000." The Clutha Leader understands that the Balclutha District High School Committee intends to memorialise all school committees on the subject of the proposal to change the mode of election of Education Board members, as suggested by the Dunedin and Suburban School Committees' Conference. The Inveroargill Borough Council- sat in committee for a considerable time last week discussing a confidential communication, which invited the council to give the writer and his company a six or twelve months' option of installing an electric tram service in that city. The matter was adjemrned for a fortnight. _ , A correspondent writes fa> the Bruce Herald:— "The Clarendon phosphate works are exceedingly busy at present. Orders are in for thousands of tons of rock, and over 20 men are now engaged qua/rying and stacking. Four quarries are now opened up. all revealing a splendid face of highgrade rock."' Mw ,i m The 'Mount Ida Chronicle says:— "While visiting the Dunedin show last week, a resident of the other side of this district, who is also a Sunday school teacher, had his pocket picked. All the thief got was a pocket-book, resembling a purse which contained » commentary on the bunday school lessons." &i* isajs. th^rflceJ&aaldUiiaJL

two well-known Miltonians intend starting another goods waggon service between Milton and Dunedin. " The waggons will be specially built in Dunedin, and will, it is stated, be run on a system which will allow one waggon "to leave Dunedin and Milton every other day.

The West Australian Government Entomologist (Mr 6. Cooper), v,\\o recently discovered the codlin moth parasite, has received news by the latest American mail reporting the continued success of the parasites. The Californian Commissioner of Horticulture in a letter says the parasites aro giving the fullest satisfaction. An exchange states that an ex-Christ-chureh boy, who adopted the sea as a profession, and who has occupied the position of captain for several years, is shortly returning to the colony, having amassed something approaching a fortune by successfully running the blockade at Port Arthur on numerous occasions towards the end of last year. The Maori evidently enjoys dancing. Following the demonstrations in connection with the opening of the new hall at Arowhenua Pa on Thursday afternoon a dance was held, commencing at 8 p.m. This did not terminate- until 8 a.m. on Friday. On Friday evening a second dance was started, and at 8 o'clock on Saturday morning the final -waltz was started. In the oourse of an address at Blenheim on Monday evening the Hon. C. H. Mills announced that he had just received a telegram from the Premier to the effect that, the Flaxbourne case haying now been finally settled, the Cabinet, alt its last meeting had empowered the Minister of Public Works to have work resumed at the Marlborough end of the South Island Mam Trunk railway. A letter received in Perth (W.A ; ) states that Mr Lawrence Robert Menzies, discoverer of the Lady Shenton mine, after whom the town of Menzies was nanied, has made £80,000 out of a French mining boom in Madagascar, concerning which excitement was at fever-heat in Paris when the last mail left. Mr Menzies is also well known in connection with the Barossa goldfields in South Australia. The strange custom of tr tapu" was much, in evidence at a Maori burial at Raupaki on Sunday. All the belongings of a dead Native boy were buried, including an iron bedstead, mattress, violin and case, and the domestic utensils the lad used during his fatal illness. The total value of the goods must have been something like £15. The boy's parents, however, are people in very poor circumstances. A beautiful piece of Maori carving has been executed for the Tourist Department by Tene Waitara, an old Maori of Whakarewarevva. and will be erected in the department's office in Brandon street (Wellington). The younger Maoris are being encouraged to learn carving, and it is probable that a carving house will be one of the adjuncts of the , model pa to be erected at Rotorua. An important case ox much interest to the commercial community began in the Supreme Court at Sydney on the 12th inst. John . Macintosh and Sons, hardware merchants, are suing R. F. Dun and Co.'s mercantile agency for £10,000 for having published what they allege to be certain libellous statements with regard to the firm's financial position. One of the questions involved is that of confidential communications as .to the business status of merchants. "

A loss of money under peculiar circumstances occurred in Ashburt'on last week. Two men paid a visit to a house, and chatted a while in the .kitchen with the occupant's wife, who had a purse containing over £30 in her hand. She went into another room, leaving the purse on a table, and then went to attend to a caller at the front. She alleges that on returning a few minutes later she found that the purse had disappeared. The two men have denied all knowledge of the matter. A three-days' celebration was held at Tokio in honour of the soldiers who have fallen in the war. It began on Wednesday, May 2, and continued till Friday. With elaborate ceremonials the names of 36,866 soldiers and sailoi'3 who were killed prior to the battle of Mukden were enshrined in the Temple of Shokonsha. The many kinsmen and kinswomen ai the fallen, who were assembled in Tokio to participate in the ceremonies, were shown, special consideration, and were the guests of the nation.

The Waimafce Witness says that a Ngarre resident, while exploring on the upper elopes of Mount Egmont, discovered "what is olaimed to be some of the ash which fell in bygone centuries, when old Egmont was in a state of volcanic upheaval. The ash was discovered in a deep orevice of rook, which was so peculiarly located that neither wind nor water could get at it. It is olaimed that the dust is purely volcanic in its properties. How long it has lain there •would be an interesting problem for geologists to ascertain.

At Roxburgh on Friday last Albert Pyle was oharged with breaking and entering a ■house and stealing 'therefrom ike> sum. of £7 9s, the property of William Lutjens. The accused was further charged with Breaking and entering the tent of Robert JkftfiliSi *b4 Scaling therefrom £16 m

notes, two watch-keys, about 4s in silver, stamps, three or four photos, and a puree. After evidence had been given the accused! was committed for trial on both charges. Bail was allowed, the accused in his own. recognisance of £100, and two sureties of

£50 each. " I cannot see why women should not go on the land as well as men," was the bold declaration of an elderly lady at a. meeting of the Women's Liberal League at Paddington (New South Wales) the other day. " I have been 20 years on the land, and I am none the worse for it " — and her appearance betrayed her not. " I have felled many trees, and if I had as many pounds a.s trees I have chopped down I should be rich. I should be delighted i£ ev-ery woman were to follow in my wake." The land laws were not so much to blam® as the wretchedness of the administration.

Senator Findley, lecturing before the Ballarat branch of the Political Labour League on his recent trip to the Far East, said the Chinese were slowly and surely increasing

in power, and becoming a menace to the white race. In Hongkong labour was so cheap that it superseded machinery, men receiving Is and women 5d a day. He was shown some up-to-date machinery by a European overseer, but no Chinese would work it or any other machinery that would! tend to put one of their number out of work. Japan was not a socialistic country, but at the same time the chief manufactories were run on national lines. A Christchurch railway official was dis* cusing the question, of goods lost on th« railways, and remarked that on one occasion a buggy was lost, his reference to th» vehicle giving the hearer the idea tha* someone had pocketed an unconsidered trifle. It seems that a certain shipping company holds the record for the colony with regard to lost cargo. On one occasion a threshing machine was lost, and on another a boiler went astray. In the lastmentioned instance the company, failing to produce the boiler, paid" the amount claimed. Two or three years afterwards the missing boiler was found in the hold of one of the vessels.

The email sum of half a orown was the

amount involved in a civil action set down for hearing at the Wellington Magistrate's Court on Thursday. When coimEel intimated that they intended contesting the

case, Dr A. M 'Arthur, S.M., expressed surprise that the time of the court should be takon up wir-h a case concening 2s od when important cases were awaiting hearing. Several solicitors in court offered to sub-

scribe the amount of the claim and costs

if the parties withdrew. His Worship reL marked, "And I will give my contribution

also." Counsel, however, refused to adopt the proposal, but subsequently agreed to an adjournment of the action.

An extraordinary instance of gullibility

was disclosed in a case tried at the Supreme Court at Stawell (Vie.) Accused, a man named David Bethune, 20 years of age, went to a farmer residing near Lillimur, and representing himself as a constable asked him how many sheep he had. On. being told, accused said, '" You are only entitled to hold 800, and the balance must bo delivered up to me." He then asked! vrhafc amount of money the- farmer had in the bank, and on being told he said that

ne "was not entitled to so much, and per-

suaded him to sign a blank cheque, whieli the farmer did. Accused afterwards filled ib

in and cashed it. For^ this he received 18 months' imprisonment.

What appears to

have been a narrow

escape from phosphorous-poisoning took place at Huntly the other day. While Mrs E. B. Sheehan was absent from the room

her two-year-old son (Douglas) got hold ©£ a matchbox, and swallowed 47 match-heads beforo Jfe was detected. While Mr Sbeehan

at once went for a doctor, emetics were tried, with good effect, so that when the doctor arrived he pronounced the child safe. Mr Jennings, speaking at Waitara on

Tuesday week, mentioned the case of, a young "Volunteer from Inglewocd, who had been fined 20s for not attending the Easter encampment. The amount not being immediately pa-id, the fine was increased to 425. There was no response, and the young fellow was sent to New Plymouth Gaol, where he was garbed in prison clothes. Mr Jennings said he had resented this, had! telegraphed to the Premier, and he meanti to bring the matter before the House.

1851 \ 1904 J