OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM

During sea voyages dogs lose their game >oee. One-tentl^ of the world ia still unexfforeA , , . , Park has 76,000 persons employed m her Bresimakinor establishments. With A population pi 4X,000,000. only 441 Japanese have fortune* of £60,000 or or^r. The reooat smallpox opidemio in London pofli the Metropolitan Asylum* Board about Jn'ali classes of the OQmjnunitv in Engt*M the oofb of living lift* increased gTe&iry fluring the last 12 month?. , , A farmer at Ditefclinflp, Suseex, dropped : }JjaUpenny. On searching for it o& the J]&% be found a half-sovereign,

A signalman named William Marshall was found dead in hie eign^l-box at Priory Station, on the Furness railway. London is IS miles broad one way and 17 the other. Every year sees about 20 miles of new streets added to it. During the past few weeks of fine weather fishermen at Colao Bay have been oatohing large quantities of hapuku. Lapt year the Austrian Government derived *30,0Q0 /rom the tax on playing card*. Austrian? are myeteratc ga-mblers. A new drink oalled "Hiawatha" is being j sold in. Oklajjotna, U.SA.. It consists of beer flavoured with peppermint, soda 7 and rttrti. Italy has fewer horses available for militaxy purposes than any other great Power.

She has only 2,000,000, while Germany has 3,350,000. The average annual amount of ivory received in London from the African wilds is 41J tone. The average price is £1000 per ton. Paris hae no fewer than 1216 classes of workmen. There are, for instance, 386 classes engaged in the chemical trade, and The largest gold nugget ever discovered in 4ja«fra has been found on Anvil Creek, in the Nome district. It weighs 182oz, and is valued at £660. A farmer at New Cumberland has died from swallowing! a clinical thermometer, whion he placed in his mouth in order to ascertain his temperature. The Bishop's Stortford Board of Guardians has made a, saving; of £239 in 12 monthsby using boned meat in the workhouse instead of ordinary joints. The police at Glemrowan, Victoria, found fire families and a single man, altogether 25 persons, living in one houee, whioh was very ditty and in bad repair. The degree of civilisation attained by Turkey may be judged from the fact that the Turkish postal system ha« only 424 pillar-boxee for the use of the public. In 1504 ale was sold in England at 3d per gallon, and it was about 20 years after that that hops were introduced. When the word "beer" was first used is uncertain. One Maeterton family has adjusted itself to the prevailing eultry .weather by vacating its villa residence and taking up its abode in a cool and commodious tent. Two officials and a member of the Zoological Society are proceeding to Australasia to secure additional specimens for a forthcoming London exhibition of Australasian fauna. Polish women are engaged at work as navvies on the dams now being constructed near Bredstedt, Schelwig, Prussia. They are eaid to work as well as men and for less *money. Two Accrington youngsters, the son and daughter of a steeplejack, olimbed to the top of the steeple of Christ Church. Their father wae busy carrying out repairs to the structure. The custom has been introduced at weddings in Tunbridge Wells and district of erecting triumphal arches composed entirely of hopls and hop leaves for the bridal pair to pass under. _ There is an increasing number of disciples of the "no hat " idea in Masterton. Motorists, horsemen, and pedestrians are to be seen frequently now minus their head covering. Criminals in Buenos Aires, who are sentenced to long- terms of penal servitude, are frequently released on parole for certain hours each day so that their private business will not suffer. The ship's 'bell frem the Marguerite Mirabaud, which was presented to the borough of Milton by tho salvors, Messrs Geddes and Hopkins, has now been erected to do duty as a ftrebell. A gentleman at Featherston has just completed a, 13 days' fast, and states that it has improved him in health and made his hearing slightly better, he . being a sufferer from deafneee. Experts say thafc the buried oitv of Pompeii has not yet yielded up half of its artist-ie treasure; that a.t the present rate of progress 70 years will elapse before it is thoroughly unearthed. The Gil Bias, Paris, states that there is now living in Wurtemberg a landed proprietor named Kottman who has had no fewer than 11 lawful wives, all of whom have predeceased him. Recently someone broke into the Te Puna (Tauranga) schoolroom and removed a small wooden cross, used in connection with the Church of England services. The croas was cut out from the altar cloth. Mrs Long, a Pitteburg widow, has sold for £250 five and a-half barrels of postage stamps, which she had been collecting for many years. She has usea the money to 3iav off mortgages on her ptoperty. The average age of the seven ohildren of Mr William Brownell, who met recently at Northport, New Branewiok, ia 80 years 199 days. The oldest " child "is 90 yeaora of age, and the youngest is 71. A donation of £100 hae been made to the Seddon National Memorial Fund by an Eltha.m resident who deeires that his &ani§ should, got be made public. He

add 6 that he was not personally acquainted ■ with Mr Seddon. "At present I am battling under nine awards," said a builder before the Arbitration Court at Wellington. "I try to be a loyal citizen and do the best I can to bear up under them, but sometimes I can't tell exactly where I am." The Bruce Herald reports that the Kaitangata mine manager has notified his intention to dispense with 20 single young miners. j He points out that he has too many men I at present, and thinks single young men are ; in the best position to leave. I After placing a little girl, who had been run over in & street in Springfield, Mass., U.S. A., upon his operating table, and finding she was dead, a doctor looked at her face and niade the tragic discovery that she was his own daughter. A New Zealander who has just returned , from Canada states that the inhabitants of Fields have erected «> monument in honour of the late Sir James Hector, who discovered the pass through the mountains over which the Canadian-Pacific railway xuns. I Perhaps the most touching example of , misapplied ingenuity (says the Westminster Gazette) is the daily diligent search of our j Customhouse officials for the man who I would be guilty of smuggling tobacco from France. Obviously they have never ' smoked French tobacco. < One of the seven applicants for the posij tion of assistant electrician for the borough |of Patea at £70 a year mentioned that j he was 40 years of a^e, had had an English j public school and university education, had ! spent two years in Paris, and had studied ! electricity for two years. i A Carxerton business man, imbued with the spirit of Tanner, of "Tanner's Ark" fame, intends building a large raft of kerosene tins and going for a oruise down the Ruamahanga River in company with | several of his friends, all of whom, by the way, are good swimmers. "Lover of Fairplay" writes to the Wel1 lington Post commenting on the fining of I a Chinese for selling tobacco to a boy under 15 years of age. He asks why the police do not prosecute Europeans, both in town and country, who, he says, are breaking the law without any fear. Seven hundred dozen oysters, an average of two and a-half dozen per guest, were consumed at Clocliester oyster feast the other day. Skipper Richardson, of the corJ poration a steam dredg«PPyeneet, who has j the reputation of being able to open 250 ; oysters an hour, superintended the opening. ■ The New Plymouth News tell* of three bushwhackers who arrived in a certain town with cheques for their earnings since March last totalling £126 per each man. One of them spent £20 in a gorgeous outfit of clothes and has £100 in the bank. The others dissipated theirs, and have now only the memory of ft " glorious spree." "ThU i« something unique," said the chairman of the Waitotara, County Council the other morning, when an application was received from the Aramoho Progressive Association to have the Brunswick Riding revalued.* "I have often heard of xyersone wishing their valuations lowered, but not of a movement to have them raised." The hot weather ie bringing- sharks about in the Wellington Harbour. One 10ft long was seen quite close to the shore at Lowry Bay last week, and the other day a still bigger one appeared amongst some bathers at Evans Bay. A boat was obtained and an attempt made to harpoon the fish, but the attempt was unsuccessful. A Kaikoura man showed great presence of mind the other day. He was cycling with a lady, and they had just reached & newly-made drain. In trying to evade this the lady's wheel got among the shingle, and she was thrown. With great alacrity the younpt man dismounted and— picked up the bicyole. Detective Broberg and Constable Skinner (the well-known Wrestler) have been despatched to the north to resume the search,' for Mateaga, the Maori outlaw, who»s depredations in the early winter of iOO6 \n the bush country at the back of Poverty Bay and, between there and the East Cape, earned for him the reputation of being a veritable " wild man or th.c woods." Matsnga is said to have been in evidence lately in Poverty BayThomas Bradshaw, a burtrlar who was sentenced at the ClerJteawelJ Sessions ie-

cently, is known as the " Oat." He wan expert climber of stackpoles, and has on several occasions ascended to a great height by this means in order to reach) windows. Once he stripped *. not o£ ii^ tiles to gain entry to * bouse* The Dominion school medals-, for whicH Messrs Moller and Sola are the auccesaful tenderers, will be of magnalitn» h ft whifcev light metal allied to aluminium, v«y nan! and durable. It will be necessary for th«l tenderers to cable Home fox t&e meta? rq« quired for the medafo. Tn«e ar» to* Ba delivered to the GoTernment by Faßruarjf 28, and it is hopd to distribute 6&em dor th 6 children of the publfo and private sc&ools of the Dominion some time in MarolL The Bruce Herald understands fc&afc considerable apathy is displayed by members of the Labourers' Union. The aecxetarw (Mr Jos. R. Lynch) is therefore inclined to " throw up the sponge," and unless tßa workers rou«e themselves there m every reason to believe that a request will be? made that the regdstration of the Otago Labourers' Union be cancelled. The Southland Presbytery has placed on record ite strong disapproval of the rvo& ning of boats on the Lakes by the Tourist Department on Sundays. The Rsr. G. A. Gray reported also that a great deal of Sabbath desecration took place in Rivertoa by week-endere from Invercargill and elsewhere, ■ who hired launches and turned the place into a Sunday pleasure reeorfc. ■ The. unusual sight of a swarm o£ bees located at the top of a verandah post in Oaroaru was presented on Monday. Bute they did not romain there long, fox a Wi named Robbing, who went about hfe tasfi: in a -business-like manner, secured them in a box and triumphantly bore them away, much to the admiration -of a small throng endowed with considerable caution. jCk. duck-billed platypus was picked up» on tue New Plymouth beach on Sunday evening. The finder has decided to offer it to the Wellington City Council to be placed in the Newtown Aquarium. The platypus is a rarity nowadays, and is a stranger to New Zealand. How this little chap came upon this coast is a mystery \**-J* the) News), but the theory is advanced that h« has drifted across from Tasmania. * The New South Wales Railway Deportment has received an unsigned and undated letter in the following terms: — "It baa occurred to me that in refunding ma freight to the amount of 10s, somo fiva years ago, it is possible that there Jaay have been some mistake. As I oannot bs certain about the matter, I return you postal note for 10s." The note is c "Victorian one, and the letter was posted at Melbourne. An agitation has been afoot in the Wyndham district for the last few months, tho object of which has been the establishment, of a distriot hiffh school *&t Wjnd&am. \ petition was forwarded to the Board of Education, and Inspector Wyllie was asked to report on the matter. His report stated that the school would probably open with not more than 20 pupils, and thai railway facilities enabled pupils to attend tha Goro School. The board therefore did nothing. There seems to be a season for surgical operations. Most people may nqtt know this, but it is co, according to tha Bon*. C. M. Luke, who stated at a meeting of the Wellington Hospital Trustees a few days ago that the number of patients in the Wellington Hospital during the part mentis wae much less than in the previous month. It was the custom, he eaid, to put off until after the holidays all cases of operation* in which urgency was not of paramount importance. ■ Native Constable Pratt, of the Southland police force, underwent an operation last week, when five lead shots were removed from his arm, which had been embedded there for 21 years. In 1886 the constable met with a shooting accident at Riverton. When pulling out a muule-loadtnfr gun from a stump the firearm exploded, and tha charge entered his left arm about the armpit. All but five of tho pellets wera removed at the time, and these bad given no inconvenience until recently. A gentleman who has just returned to Bathurat (New South Wales) from a trip to the far west tell a doleful tale of the damage done by grasshopper*. Wetfe of Dubbo, and along the Bogan to its confluence with the Darling, grasshoppers are to be found in immense numbers, and storekeepers and residents of several small towns have been at their wit's end to keep the pest out of their chops and homes. In many places the insects have had to be shovelled out of the houses, and sheep dip has been freely used. Since the death, of the Rev. J. C. Andrew^, a number of stories about him have been set afloat. One of them tells how his station received the name of Ie», through his almost undecipherable writing-. The reverend gentlemen's initials were J. C. A., and, shortly after he purchased bis farm, some goods were forwarded to I. C* A., Tenui, by a Wellington merchant firm, which had made a guess at the initials of Mr Andrew's business order, and wee only a letter out. The chance name was adopted by Mr Andrew, and thereafter the station was known as lea.