OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2691, 11 October 1905, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

It has been ascertained that nearly 72.000 English "Volunteers offered to go to South Africa during the war. Twenty-nine thousand' were accepted for \ service and were sent oufc.-

Our schools (says the New York Outlook) are teaching an immense range of subjects, and they are compelled to do so ; but, after all, education lies in knowing a few things down at the roots.

Implying to questions at liis meeting a candidate for the Wanganui seat said he did not favour a tax on bachelors^ as they were sufficiently punished in being .deprived of the society of a good wife.

Mrs Ness, one of the four women in Britain who are sworn police constables, has just retired from her position at Scarborough. She held it for seven years, and in that time had 768 prisoners in her charge.

In the matter of woman's rights Abyssinia is far ahead of Europe. The house and all its contents belong to the wife ; and, if fhe husband offends, she turns him out until he is duly repentant and makes amejpls. Itris stated (says the Poverty Bay Herald) that the Maori children in the Waikaremoana district are dying off rapidly. Much of this is due to improper feeding. Diseased potatoes and rotten corn are not the best articles of infant diet.

A woman in Spain has awakened from a trance which is said to have lasted 31 years. She has been under medical observation, it is declared, during all that time. She has now regained her senses, but cannot be persuaded that she has slept for years.

Towards the end of October the Governor and his household will take up residence at Government House, Auckland, The journey from Wellington to Auckland wiil probably be made by his Excellency by motor car, taking the Napier-Taupo-Rotorua route.

In San Domingo there is a remarkable salt mountain, a mass of crystalline salt almost four miles long, said to contain nearly 90.000,000 tons, and to be so clear -that medium-sized print can be read with ease through a block a foot thick.

An auction sale of articles icffc' in the Wellington tramcars and never claimed has been held. The articles included 92 umbrellas, 65 purses, a collection of walking sticks, articles of clothing, miscella-ieous parcels, boots, £ur3, gloves, and various other sundries. -^

A widow who introduced donkeys on to the beaoh at Southport for the use ot visitors, and is still known as " The Donkey .Queen," has just completed her lOlsc y.-ar. She has 152 descendants — three children, 27 grandchildren, 102 great-grandchildren, and 20 great-great grand children. A m'isoner, when called upon at the Supreme Court, Christclmrch, on Thursday handed up to the judge a lengthy- written document. His Honor observed that he received such documents regularly, and they represented the ingenuity of experienced gentlemen in gaol, who "framed them for others. A German physician reports that the air of the Egyptian desert is about as free from bacterial life as the Polar regions or the high &eas. Tubercle bacilli are killed when exposßO six hours ;n; n the sunlight. He considers the desert especially suitable for rheumatics and patients suffering from kidney diseases and tuberculosis. As a settler at Korokoro, near Petone, was proceeding on his way home late the other evening some individual, evidently attempting to imitate the notorious "Phosphorus Jack," made his appearance from among -the bushes, calling out " Prepare to meet your God ! " The assailed one promptly armed himself with a few miniature boulders, but before he got his first &hot in the lunatic had disappeared, white robes and all. — Chronicle.

It is reported from the Revva district (says the Fiji Times) that the cane planters are not -at all pleased with the weight of their crops this year, and that the sanguine expectations with which the reaping of crops commenced have not been verified by result?. The percentage of shortage is not stated. On the other hand the density of juice in the cane is above the average of previous years, and this will be some set-off to the deficiency in the weight of the cane.

At the adjourned annual meeting, on Tuesday evening, of subscribers to the Wyndham Athenseum. there were only four of' the old committee present, and one additional, though a special circular had been sent to each subscriber inviting his attendance and interest. It was decided (says the Herald) to lock the doors till a sufficient number of subscribers took the interest to attend a meeting to elect a committee of,management. The institution is at present closed. _

The work of plate-laying on -the Onuakau. Chatto Creek section of the Otago Central railway is well -advanced (says the Alexandra Herald), the rails now being laid about halfway between the two^ si-at-ions. As eocm as the gravel pit is reached, the work of ballasting will be taken in haaid. Carpenters are also engaged in erecting the necessary buildings at the Chatto Creek station. As yet nothinp: has been done towards erecting any of the buildings at Alexandra, but these will be taken in ban dshortly.

"One of the great evils of the -north a-nd the cause of decay is the kauri gum diggings." So states Mr Riapo T. Puhi, Native sauitary inspector at Kaitaia, in his annual report. "It is," he says, "well ui^h 40 years since ihe Natives commenced digging for gum. and I have not yet seen a Maori who has benefited thereby. One of the great fruits of the Maori's gumdigging are bills &om the "storekeepers, and afterwards summonses. Many families raie moved to the gumfields. where they slave and starve, and take their children of sch6ol age to the district." It is not generally known that some five or six miles from Whangape, in the Hokianga County, there exists a remarkable mud spring. It is near the top of a hill, and is quite cold. A mixture of mud and saltwater bubbles slowly out of the ground in several places within a radius of a chain or so. The mud appears to be identical with the mangrove mud so well known in northern harbours. In dry weather quite a saline incrustation forms on the surface. How this fait water mud comes to be forced up to a height of 500 ft or 600 ft above the sealevel and at a distance inland would surely be an interesting problem for gome •of our scientific men.

A plea was made in a paper on " Maori Place Names," read at the meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society on Wednesday evening, for the correct spelling of Native, names Irom piaoes in the South Island. Kurow, for example, is "neither English, Maori, nor Japanese." Mr W. Adams added a protest against the fabrication of Maori names. He told of a secretary of an" education board who had endeavoured to euphonise the name " White Sows Valley" by translating ii into Maori. He had not only misplaced the adjective, but had substituted rui (meaning to sow) for the translation of the noun, thus aiiving at the ingenious barbarity of "Maruirnata."

Our correspondent writes to the Oamaru Mail: — " An interesting memento of the Indian mutiny in the shape of a silver medal and clasp was picked up in Glenavy at the end of last week. The medal bears a raised engraving of the head of the late Queen Victoria on one face, while the opposite face has a representation of Britannia with right hand extended bearing a laurel wreath, while a,t her feet are the British lion and a shield. On the edge is engraved the name of "I. K. Robertson, 14th Light Dragoons." This is the l'egiment which distinguished itself at Betwa River during the progress of hostilities, and no doubt the medal is full of historic interest to the owner."

The following strange story comes from the Te Kowhai correspondent of the Waikato Times: — "About four miles from here, a gang of men which is making a road through the ranges was disturbed from rest by a person whistling and playing music outside the camp, and on making investigations someone was found in an old cook-house with a lighted candle. The party tried* to catch him. but he escaped through the chimney and disappeared in the darkness. The same thing happened the next night, when the men surrounded their visitor, but he jumped over their heads, knocking one man down, and cleared with his hat. They say his footprints are about 16in long, and he seemed to be Ift on 3ft Mali jrt