OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2812, 5 February 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

A club has been started at Boston, U.S.A.. the members of which are pledged to drink nothing but milk after 8 p.m. Out of 125 marriages for which certificates were issued in New Plymouth last year 28 were performed Dy the registrar. In Abyssinia the wife is master. If her husband offends her she can turn him out, for the house and its belongings are hers. It is officially estimated that the damage caused by the ravages of the codlin moth* in the United States represents £2,800,000 annually. A curious fact has been noted by Arctic travellers — namely, that snow, when at a very low temperature, absorbs moisture and d.ies garments. There are in the United Kingdom 385,838 aliens who were borp abroad. This is an increase of 124,000 in 10 years, or 12.400 a year. Every Kaffir in Cape Colony must pay a labour tax of 10s a year unless he can prove that he has worked for three months of the year. In the course of a case at the City Summons Court a man said he delivered 4000 clean towels dai'y at stockbrokers' offices. Joseph Schmidt, a butcher, of Pittsburg, h?s bcerx granted a divorce because hi« ■wif_-> aniu^ed \isitors at his house by pelfoi r nn; skirt c!ance s . Iho nam<» races of New C alotlon'a «'.i numbeu <\ 78.0C0 in 1873. hu\f> been i<duced to 30 000. Leprosy and n diseas-cs arc said to bo re-ponsible for tinenoimous death rate. The Brussels Aluscum purchissd for £72 a

picture attributed to Teniers. It via- ascertained recently that the pictuie i-= by Rembrandt, and is worth £2000. | Napier has been compelled to take steps to conserve its water supply. During a einglo week recently 15.000,000 gallons of J water were pumped from the reseixoirs there — a record for the town During the past few weeks (states a Coro-mand-el correspondent) about 10,000 aires of j land have been applied for under tho ! Hauraki pastoral lease conditions. I On the municipal list of electors for the City of Wellington appears the name of Madame Dolores, who has a vote by virtue i of property she owns in Kelburne. The Home Secretary has directed the release from Parkhurst prison of Joseph Foster, who on May 30, 1890, was sentenced > to death for murder at Singapore. O/=r 100 children who have been deserted , by their parents were to ba sent to the J colonies by the Hackney guardians, unless they were claimed befoi-e January 1. After bewailing; the fact that nine of her chickens had been stolen during tho night a San Francisco woman picked up a pocket book containing £180 in notes and gold which the thief had dropped. The church of St. Alban, in Holborn. has a cross over 25ft in height, which is supposed to be the largest in England. It j v. a. given by the Duke of Newcastle. The" October Bntish Board of Trade retinis ■'how an mcifrpso of imports of £3/25 GOO in £57 035 000 and in increase in e^poits of £5,035.000 in £38,319.000. Baclona v hicli are often plentiful on .-iher coi-i« avo, it is said, never found on coius of copper, and artisans in copper j

works are immune from bacteual diioases. I Up to the end of October the oxpoits of coal from the C'nited Kingdom were 52.800,000 tons— fully 6.000 000 ton, more than in the same months of the pieNiou^ year. | * St Moritz, in Switzerland. ha= the biggest toboggan slide in the v\orlJ. It is three-quarters of a mile lonsj. an-d has been descended in a, whizz of only 71 seconds. PjrceU containing plum puddings posted from friends in England overwhelmed the Toronto Post Office recently. They aggregated two tons -in weight. The largest weighed 121b. An eminent physician states (hat the great majority of nervous diseases can be cured by the patient sleeping one hour in tho middle ot the day as well as eight hours at night. Amongst the men who applied to the Xuneaton guardians recently for out-relief was oin who, the relieving officer explained, had not been undressed or slept in a bed for threo years. A return compiled by a New York paper shows that although the season is not yet far advanced, 11 football player 3 have .ureidy been killed in the United States and 98 injured. An item that should forward competition at the horticultural show at Orepuki is the 10 in inures' parliamentary address for ladies and gentlemen, which should be a great draw. — Advocate. It is commonly .supposed that the casting of a shoe after a bride is one way of wishing her good luck. This is not true. The ; custom really signifies that the patents gho ; up all right to their daughter. _ I For (ho family dinner party at Pand i ingham on Ohristmas day the principal dishes were to be sucking pig. roast turkey, tou-l o\ Knots, a bear's head, barons of j Kef, and a huge Christmas pudding. j A stait has been made to ihe ttele' l e- i phone viirc from Tuotapere to Pnysegur j lighthouse. Presenafion Inlet, a distance of o\cr 80 miles. A large gang of men are en~plo\ed at the work. — Western Star. Tho Chicago and Groat Western Railroad Company has made arrangements to inu a special honeymoon train from ('hicas-o to California. Tiiev onnonce ilvit the tiam will be reserved e\clu»i\civ for bi trial couples. _ ' It i= leported that bad Tui]f-=o-i ereigns are u\ cnculation in Hamilton. The conn forfeit is an exact reprosentat.on of the centime one. but being marie of brass, is ( he-lit in -weight, and lack-- the l ma; of the | 1 gpiiiiiii'- 1 article. | A coitiact ha= been let to Me«rs Sander Bros foi the erection of the new chamber- of the Union Bank of Au«tialia, Wpl-lina-fon at a cost of about £33,000. The \\ oi-l: or erection is expected to occupy about 21 months. The -wew is expressed by the Taranaki Herald that if the New Plymouth Harbour were enlarged and made suitable for the larger intercolonial steamers it would be , made the first and last port of call for Australian traders. The American newspapers state that Lord Fairfax, who is the only American holding j a British peerage, is now on his way to ' London to become a naturalised British subject, prior to taking his seat in the House of Lords. " The mind of the average English j worker is so absolutely absorbed with sports in general, and football in particular, "that we can hardly_ expect him to find time for tho more serious pursuit of business." — I Pftll Mall Gazette. The Hawena County Council on the 18rh inst. had its bank account o%erdrawn £7600, and accounte amounting to £2000 to be passed for payment. To add to its difficulties, the main roa>ds require a very la rare expenditure. When a person dies in Switzerland his relatives put outside the hou^e a little black table. co-\ orod with a blark cloth, and having on it a black jar. Into this jar friends and acquaintances d^op blackederod -visiting cards. The Safety Board of Toledo. Ohio, has confrriGu polite uowers on the i\otnen of tl-i? Daucono-" Home in that form. The women -v^no wear badgpi, are posted in all the local railuav station- in older to protect women ti-rvel'oi Tho number of \i-iloi- to Cambridge (Ins suuiinov (svntes a corresponded rf j the N.Z. lli.rald) has been c-ou?Jdciably j

larger than in previous years, and all have been gioatlv pleased with the surroundings of the town and district. : Experiments are now being made in New York with a. new type of steamer to zun 60 miles an hour. The keel is practically one huge propeller, with flanges working up and down, enabling the \essel to tia^el at a great speed. Among the things which are banned by members of the Philoeahan Club, a new club for women, which has been formed in New York, are the low-necked gown, the peek-a-boo blouse, the cocktail, the hansom, and the after-theatre supn«r. The Wangamii School Committee intends trstinn the question as to whether or not it has the right to arrange, for religious instruction in school hours, and, to that end, hab intimated an intention of •«ferving a writ on the Education Board. Thp South Eastern a-nd Chatham Railway Company has issued a notice cautioning pa-songers against playing cards with strangerb in trains. A copy is handed to each pa^seng-er whenever cardsharpers are noticed to be travelling by a train. Journalists ought to have fairly easy times in the Polar cncle. where the papers are 1 only issued once per annum. There are , three or four of these. One of them is ' the Eskimo Bul'etin, edited near Cape Prince of Wales, on Behring Straits. The rate of wages for unskilled labour in New Zealand has risen greatly of late year*. A few years ago the wages offered to farm hands varied from 15s to £1 per week, while at present from £1 5s to £3 j 10s is given for exactly similar work. i The 280 kegs of gunpowder procured by j the New Plymouth Harbour Board for blasting at the Fishing Rock at Moturoa we -e used in one .blast. The blast wa3 very successful. Thousands of tons of ex- ] cel'ent strne are now available for use. j There arc 26,600 French in Great Britain i and Ireland, more than three-fourths of the I i Lumber being in London. The business ! • most followed among these is cookery. As j ' Krslibi; laundresses are prized in France, i -o French cooks are va'ued in England. I 1 The Lyttelton Times has boon hoaxed j li\ a bogun marriage notice. In Wednes- . day's i=sue .appears an advertisement I stating thai the 6ignatorv is not only not married to the lady whose name was used, i I b'ir [hat she io absolutely unknown to him. Fhe prisoners were sent from Lvttelioti •on Tuesday to work at the prison camp al , Hanmer, but on arrhing at Culverden two ) ' refused to go farther, and a warder, aiceom- i j panied by Constable Bird, had to take them J back to Chriotclmreh by the afternoon tram. A goldfish of extraordinary proportions was taken by Mr George Bullerwell, of Winlaton. in Northumberland, from a pond upon his farm. The fish, which was liberated in the pond 10 years ago, weiffhed lib 6oz. It was despatched to a local i mu«eum. j A site has been taken at the Garden j City, Letehworth. for the erection of ent- i lages with a central cooking- hall. I.m, | object is io save wives the "worry an l expense of preparing meals," and to gi^ •■ serv<inN " greater freedom and jlip'v dignity." Clarence K. Young, an expert 'n ilie , Bureau of Engraving and Prinn g -it I Washington, U.S.A.. has accomplish" •' .' feat of engraving the alphabet t\\ ie his name and the date of comp'ci on > a pin-head less than one-sixtee'ith, ' inch in diameter M> F Black, electrical engineer, ■>) ing at the Eltliam County Council trail w*discussion last* week with referent e •■> j stream.? for water power, said that -i i ■ ( garded the rivers of Taranaki ge^f fly they urfcrfunately were "very small ttrcju^ , and of little use. ■ There is a good deal of opposition in h i Awaterc district. Mil thorough, to the -ug , pestion that the Dumgree. prison tanr' should bo removed from Seddon to Him mer. A petition with 400 sitrnatut . - '= said to have been despatched to Wellinsrrn in opposition to tho proposal. A minister sneaking at the recent P' "- byterian Assembly complained that, l i <. " nection with the northern section of ( '.o f'lrmcn. a certain home missionary's dvw'liner w?s described in a report as a " ooi ifortalile cnilnse manse." In reality t \\a--a <'\o-roomed galvanised -iron hut. It is not generally known that the Jf< i i Jaincs Can oil, Xathe Minister, wat boi^i l

under the shades of a. cabbage tree on at farm m Northern Wairoa, Hawke's Bay, at present owned by Mr J. H. Smythe, a wellknown pioneer of the district. The owner has presented the plot to Mr Carroll. The new halfpenny post-cards that aro being issued by the Postal Department for circulation within the Dominion are finding favour with the public, and tb« number sold since tho beginning of the year is considerably in excess of the number of penny cards that would have been sold within the same period. , Conductor O'Donnell, one of the last two military n^utiny veterans remaining in Lueknow, has died, and an impressive military funeral service was held there. O'Donnell made the bonfire on the top o£ Martiniere which first flashed the news to the beleaguered garrison that relief was on the way. i With a view to the further development of oceangoing trade the Kaitangata Coal Company has chartered the Clutha River Board's s.s. Clyde- in order that accurate soundings may be taken from the river mouth to the wharf by a qualified surveyor" from Dunedin. The work will be commenced shortly. An important change in the bask of membership of the Wanganui Baptist Church was made laet week. Some four weeks ago the church apDroved the prin* ciple of admitting to membership any sincere Christian, though unimmersed, and last week the alteration of constitution was confirmed. A contemporary calculates that the son and heir of the Duke of Westminster will possibly havo an income of something like a sovereign a minute. The duke's income is stated to be £250,000 peV annum, but when the leases of his property in Belgravia fall in this income will probably be at least doubled. Some people appear io imagine that New Zealand is the benefactor of the world (says the Evening Post). The other day the Hon. Jas. M'Gowan received a letter from an elderly female resident in England asking him to use his best endeavours to get her the old-age pension ! She had never been in New Zealand. The British Loca.l Government Board recently issued a return on the operation of the Unemployed Workmen Act for the year ended March 31. In London 28,181 , applications were received under the act, and 13.070 were entertained, while in tho i provinces 47,346 applications were enteri tamed out of 58 820 received. The " doll army" in the" Paris Army Museum contains 19,000 figures of soldiers about 2iii high in five great cases. The armour and uniform of every militar*braneh are represented with the utmost exactitude. The r>ir< -tps-iup work oeeupiad ihe lifetime of an old Alsatian, who fought under the "Little Corpoial." It is stated that it is the intention of fho Japanese to establish a fishing fleet within two years. Several Japanese have— been following- the fleet this season to the West of England, to Scotland, and to Lowestoft, and studying the industry. It is their intention to snpply Rnssia with her~ rinors by the Manchurian railway. 1 The experiment of having no arallery for the public for next session of ParliaI inert may. stated the." Hon. R. M'Nab at j Gisborne to a Herald renortor, "have coni sidcra-ble effect in the designing of the plans for the new buildino*. The innova< tion may lead to a cutting down of the laree amount of accommodation previously made for the public. The " bisreost cannon ball ever made weighed 26001b5. and was manufactured at the Krupp -works, Es^en, for the Govern - Tient of the Czar. Tho gun from which this projectile was fired n also the largest gun in the world, and is placed in the fortifications of E"-ronstadt. This gun haa I a range of 12 miles, and it has been esti-/ I mated that each shot costs £300. j It is an unusual circumstance that this 1 year no Legislative Council appointments (• will expire by effluxion of time. Usually | there are several instances, and it will be so | in 1909. when the appointments of the I Hons. James Holmes (Wcetland). George Jones (Otasro), James Marshall (W(«rrland), R. H. J. Reeves (Nelson), and William C. Smith (Hawke's Bay) will terminate. At Tonbridge Police Court a man wa3 j summoned for not stopping a traction ' encine when requested to do so by the ! police. Serjeant Eaglen said he did nofc | run after the engine, as it was going at a ' rate of five miles an hour, and he only | wa^ed at tl <" rate of two. "It would 1 be impropei " ho oonHn-ned, "for a sergeant to run up tho High street in uniform." At a Lcconr meetrig of tho Brisbane OhambfM of Comme ac a 'etter was read from the V.inrou\<?> Boil d of Trade on ' the of the r'.-^iralrlity of bringing: i about ;• .-r=tein of improved press informaI tion of an inter-Imperial nature for i Canada The president paid he did nofc s»p whnt action th/> Brisbane Chamber* eor.'rl tiiko. and the matter was allowed to diop. T\( trulau'oins *W the manufacture of m. bvlo'tfl sp,,-iK under "The Methy- ',>(<-<! Soirit- A, t, 1907." appear in the • Gazerfe Stres* is laid upon the strength. j of -wood or mineral naphtha used im I merhvlation. so as to ensure that the ) nau^oii'tp-s of the spirit vill render ifc j m^npihlp of ! u*ed as a beverare, or of b.-'ina- i'"\ed with palatable spirits off an v hi n . I In 1~92 the death-rate amonsr ohi'dren. untie- f"*'" 1 years of age in New York nJ.-sn J .-s u»« %2 per thousand. In that year I "Sat 1 1 in v rraus opened depots for the <=ale I ' , -ised milk to the poor at a friflthe dea(h-rate promptly go*- down ii 1903. Now Straus suggests pro- '( tutors to ffive free advice to mothers c-'-rert feeding, especially preparing ' foi children. a t' vn not 100 miles from Palmerstert i' a stranger walked into a ehemM'a <-L<>,> ''i^ other day and asked for a " pickui ".r "' On tendering the money, he rem.irkM "There goes the last of £80. I i. ,do i '"0 last winter, and -when the remain •• - £20 is knocked down I'll tackle p .Mi - .f t again at the iaxmills. I've had • 2-,->,i- ''me this Christmas, but it's beens <- t stl " c remarked, as he passed out of tli.- It-ip. ') i Ti :aerial decree that all opium dens in C . ma must be closed has been followed! }>y a omarkable bonfire at Ha-ngeho-w, >' '_> r-it city of South China. In tha c'nef square of the city two pyramids wie built. The^o piles consisted entirely ■»f t'-i. opium pipes and tray 3 collected •iom +hf> dens closed in the city in accord! vith li Tjiorial command. The pyramid o£ r ip^ = v, j., six feet eouare at the base. Though only seveja feet higu> it contained o\er ii r ,CJO pipe^«