OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2785, 31 July 1907, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The hide of a cow produces about 351b of leather, that of a horse about 181b. Sixty-eight of every hundred newspapers in the world are printed in the English language. An ordinary motor omnibus costs between £600 and £800, and its life is about three and a-half years. Tasmanian and Australian apples sent to New York have realised 12s 6d to 16s 8d a case, duty paid. The capital of the Bank of England is £14,500,000. It has stood at the same figure for the past 90 years. Syrian tobacco has less nicotine than any other; Virginian has most, the percentage in the latter rising to 7 per cent. After 41 years, two military veterans at Nottingham have just received medals for service at the time of the Fenian raid in 1866. Fourpenny red-on-orange stamps of the Tiansvaal, issued during the British occupation of 1877, fetched £40 at a lecent auction. German mendicants form a brotherhood, and possess an interesting code which often enables them to escape the clutches of the police. A large number of native birds, including pigeons, kakas. and tuis, are taking up their quarters in the Recreation Grounds, New Plymouth. Mr Carruthers states that the New South Wales Government is in favour of the proposal to pay civil servants fortnightly, and it is being considered. The dangerous epoch in the life of a lad is (according to the Prison Commissioners of Scotland) the time when he first goes to work and earns wages. It "is stated that the British Government has decided to set apart £6000 for developing experiments in India in connection with the Bronnan mono-rail system. The diseases that caused the most deaths in the four cities of the colony last month, were pneumonia (which accounted for 23), cancer (18), and consumption (15) The fact came out in evidence in a case at the Magistrate's Court at Napier on July 22 that 18 persons were living in a four-roomed house in that town. A school of languages for parrots has been founded in Parie, and M. Lalemant, ' the director, offers to teach birds in English, French, German, and Italian. Owing to the migration of householders to the suburbs of Glasgow, it is estimated that there are 15,000, unlet houses in the city. In 1876 there were only 200 telephones in all Euroj c, and 380 in the United States. To-day a. eomparatnely small town like Genoa has oier 3000 telephones in working order. The Americans (says an American authority) are the ideal engireers for rapidly opening up a new route in wild country, but the British are the men to buikl the railway which is to la-t. The Tilbury school manager-, have instructed the clerk lo purchase for the library an ovpurgated edition of Kingsley's Westward Ho," with the passage comrronding tobacco omitted. . i For tome time past a Native Councl i a<; b-on hr-Id at Tahoraite with the view ' of taking -'<',■% to obtain a correct history | t>f ilte Ma. Vice. The conference closed for the tune being on the 18th inst. Nino armlets of solid gold, plain and ina^ne. and of perfect workmanship and I) reservation, possessing claims to be con- I MdereJ as of ancient British origin, have l.een unearthed in a eand pit near Bexley Heath. Although the gold coins issued from the Australian Hints are identical with those i--ued from London, they may be distinguished by a tiny letter just above the date. .M is issued in Melbourne, S in Sydney, and P in Perth. From a return of Gorman trade for the fii^t quarter of the year the following comparison is made: — Imports: British, £171.192; German. £104,735,000. Ex- • >rt*-. British, £101,866,986; German, £82,245,000. The United States built 60,000 automobiles in 1906, France 55.000. England 28 000, Goimany 22,000, Italy 19.000, and Belgium 12 000. In 1901 " the United States built only 214 ear.;, while France i built 23,711, ■ J

1 Mr M. Connolly of Georgetown, Te- ! muka, has had some 20 geese poisoned j with grain laid by boys to destroy small I birds. The boys were not employed by j him ; they were after the local body's ' bounty for heads. In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the artist was very much like the craftsmen. Michel Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci received £26 a month, but Cimabue and his assistant got together only the equivalent of 19s a day. Alfred Taylor, a resident of Richmond, Melbourne, was admitted to the Melbourne Hospital suffering from an overdose of eucalyptus, and subsequently died. Taylor had been inhaling eucalyptus with, a view to curing a cold. The manager of the House of Commons kitchen receives £400 per annum, the head waiter £150 a year, and the head carver £1 10s per week. The working week is 48 hours, and overtime is paid ' when the House sits late. , There is a growing danger that prescrip- ! tton writing will become a lost art. It j is surprising (saye the Hospital) how few j medical men there are who originate a prescription of their own, and do not borrow or copy formulse. The old cry that "the gumfields areworked out" received another refutation last week, during which no fewex than 175 sacks of scraped gum were brought down the line from Kaihu and the stations j between that place and Dargaville. • "You seem to have a long list of conI victione against you," remarked one of the presiding justices to a delinquent at the Auckland Police Court. "Yea, your Worship, "they're very easy got sometimes, I replied the candid victim of adverse fate. A report furnished by the Victorian Public Works Department ahows that cooperative action on the part of a number of municipalities with the Labour Bureau to register unemployed and secure employment has been attended with very little success. A clearing-out sale of arms not required has been held by the Imperial Defence Department. A sum of £2300 was realised for 4686 Martint-Henry rifles, 400 M.-H. carbines, and 400,000 solid drawn cartridges.. They were bought for a Birmingham firm. . A Chinese boy who was born in Victoria I and had gone to China was refused permission to land in Melbourne when he returned by the Kumano Maru. The boy's friends applied to the Supreme Court for a writ, but the" steamer eailed : with him to Sydney. ; The Milton Mirror states that owing to , the high rate^Os per cent.— charged by , the accident insurance companies in the colony, the Otaero flaxmillere are moving I in the matter of forming an insurance ! fund among the various flaxmilling assoc iations throughout the colony. ; Says the Greymouth Star: "That the recent agitation anent the shortage of rolling .stock on the Westland section of railways has had a good effect is evidenced by the fact that two powerful locomotives and, in the course of a few days, 10 ' t T B' timber trucks are expected to arrive ; in addition, 1 50 coal hopper waggons have been ordered." j A rather interesting meeting resulted on ' the arrival of the judges in connection with . | the Hawera jx>ultrr show. Messrs Palmer and Johnstone knew each other well by repute, but had never been together at a 6how till this week, and on being introduced discovered that they had been to I school together 25 years ago at Christchurch. Through a fire at the parish church of Popoli, near Sulmona, a massive urn, supposed to contain the bones of St. Boniface, patron of the district, was utterly consumed. The townspeople were so exasperated that they stormed the residence of the parish priest and beat him mercilessly with sticks, believing him to be responsible for the accident. A green tinge can already be eeen on some of the paddocks on the Upper \Vairarapa Plains, the young grain just coming tnrough the ground. The bulk of the land in that vicinity is still lying in the furrows, and is likely to do so until the weather is more settled and gives the land a chance- to dry, so as to enable it to bo worked and sown. A few days ago one of the ponds in the Auckland Domain was emptied in order to •

obtain goldfish for the fountain in- Albert Park. While this was being done a large eel, 4ft 4in in length and 18lb weight, was by the workmen. Its voracity was provetl by the discovery in its stomach of four Prussian carp and a goldfish. Several small eels were also caught. Last year when the pond was cleared (says the St»r> another large one was secured. The Western Star relates a sensational mishap to a traction engine. Mr B. Reid, of Orepuki, last week was driving his traction engine from the Waiau to Orepuki. On nearinjr Forde's road he was endeavouring to steer his engine clear of some ruts when the machine toppled over a 15-feet bank, and landed on her nose, with the back wheels in the air. Strange to say, neither the engine nor driver were damaged. At March 31, 1882, there were 116 telephone connections in New Zealand, and ■ the balance of revenue over working expenses was £207 16s. At March 31 lasfe the number of connections was 17,403, and ! the balance of revenue over working 'expenses was £14,587 14s 7d. The total cost of the Wellington Exchange w*9 £15,578 15s Id; of Auckland, £5808 14s 9d; Christchuroh, £5619 5s 7d; and Dunedin, £5643 Is 2d. '.I The herrings on the Pioton beach awL being taken out to sea in punts. Mr Brace,the agricultural expert, considers (says . tfca Press) the fish invaluable as a manure, and last evening expressed great surprise thai; the " harvest " was not being taken advantage of by the gardeners and farmers in the district. He considered it a gseati waste to dump the fish back into the sea^as they made one of the best manures it was possible to obtain anywhere. For a wager of £25 that he would writ© a paragraph that would be copied into 20 per cent, of the New Zealand newspapers, a Hansard reporter about 30 veara ago wrote the- following: — "Mdlle. de la; Ramces who is 'Ouida,' the well-known novelist, is now on her way to New Zealand to marry an equally well-known Canterbury squatter." Seventy per cent, o* iihe papers copied it without question and the newspaper man earned £1 a word over it. I Dr Nbrris, chairman of the Victorian Board of Health, produced some appa'limj figures in a recent report. In 1903 the mortality per 1000 among illegitimate infants under one year of age was 273.7: in 1904, 199.1; in 1905, 216.1; and in 1906, 236. The average mortality for all infanta of a like age during the period 1902 to 1906 was 94 per 1000. The average among illegitimate infants in the same period was 241 per 1000. Even these figures do not measure the harvest of ills resulting from evil conditions. It is estimated that for every infant that dies at least two more are permanently injured. One of the last things in the world which one could have imagined as being a subject of development and inventive genius would surely be the bagpipes, and yet. strange to say, this oldest of all musical instruments has- recently been the subject of a patented improvement. Henry "Starck, the great Scotch bagpipe maker, of London, has brought out what he terms the "Dungannon Marching Bagpipes," whitfh possess the great advantage of being simply played on a compass of two chromatic octaves, the chanter being keyed like a clarionet* The drones, of which there are three (the bass E, tenor A and E), are fitted to the instrument, and enter the bag at one ' centre. /These bagpipes, it ie -claimed, are particularly suitable for the playing of old Irish airs. Messrs Charles Begg and Co. have one of these interesting instruments in their window at the present time, and will, we have no doubt, be pleased to show! it to those interested.