OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

If all the London pubhehous-es were placed side by side they would reach a distance of 75 miles.

Old-age pensions cost each person in the Dominion three halfpence per annum, states Mr Arnold, M.P.

The town of Orson, Sweden, is without taxes. The necessary revenues are derived from a forest reservation.

Loui6 XIV of France drank the fir3t cup of coffee made in Western Europe. Coffee was then worth £5 per lb.

At Masterton last week four memh»r-> i f one family, by ooneent, had prohibition orders taken out against them.

A number of old omnibuses were sold in London recently at prices ranging from a guinea and a-half to £3 ss. Algeria and the Argentine are the only countries in the world where the horses outnumber the human beings. If all the money in the world was equally divided among civilised people, every-per-son would get £6 as his share. Westcliff-on-Sea has spent nearly £500 in festooning the trees en the cliffs with electric glow lamps of many colours. The latest recruits to the subjects of the British Empire, to the mimber of 12, ha^"e their names set out in last week's Gazette.

The chief of police at Slan Franoi&co has enrolled a squad of mounted men, experts in the use of the lassoo, to capture automobile scorchers. Steam has by no means made sailing vessels obsolete." The total number of -the latter in the world is still 65,934, as against only 30,561 steamers. Mr A. E. Farrow, an electrical engineer at Windsor, ha 3 patented another invention for the purpose of doing away with the noise and" smell of motor cars.

Two of Raisuli's chiefs, who played a prominent part in the kidnapping of Kaid Mao Lean, have accepted an engagement to tour with a circus in the United Staes.

Between 30,000 and 40,000 breech-leading rifles and a large quantity of ammunition have been smuggled into Afghanistan from th» Mekran coast during the current year.

In the great Civil war in America there were used 12,000 tons of powder and tons of lead. With these supplies about 96,000 men were killed on the spot or mortally wounded. The practice of amateur oratorio choirs visiting gaols is increasing, and in one instance several prisoners are said to have objected on the ground that it was nob included in their sentence.

The roost northerly lighthouse in Great Britain, the north-west tower on the coast of Shetland, is built on a rock 200 ft high, the summit of which barely affords room for the necessary buildings.

Mr Gilruth's new appointment in Victoria is to be for five years, and in view of his scientific attainments it was recommended that he should bo offered tho position without calling for applications. Nearly 100 revolvers were taken from spectators and witnesses before they entered the court room at Houston, Texa-3, where bhe (rial of R. O. Kenly on a charge of killing County Attorney H. S. Robb took place. Tho Evening Post complains of rudeness by members of the Lower House to those who happen to be speaking. The lack of manners takes the form of au-dible yawning, rustling of papers, loud conversations, and so on.

A Cape paper says that Mr Burton, the Attorney-general in Cape Colony, intends to draw only half hia salary of £2000 a year, and it is quite possible the other Ministers will agree to a reduction of their salaries.

Preserved in the Cathedral at Bangor, Wales, is a nair of old "dog-tongs,"' which were used for ejecting quarrelsome _ dogs from church during t-ervico. A similar pail- is preserved at Llanynynys, Wales and bears numerous teethmarks.

Bears have made their appearance on the mountains around Lake Destaing, between the valleys of Cantereta and Azun, and have attacked the flocks. It is many years since they have been 6een on tho northern slopes of the Pyrenees. Most of the school children at Bluespur have caught the measles, and in consequence the school ha 3 been olosed for three weeks. There were only eight, pupils in the standard classes on asembling on Monday, and some of them were ailing.— Tuapeka Times.

Sixty telephone attendants in Paris post offices were dismissed for pocketing money paid by the public for extra " calls " after the expiry of the regulation three minutes, the fraud being discovered by post office inspectors posing as members of the public. The largest library in the world is the Na>t.kmail Librarj of France, founded by Louk XIV. It contains 1,400,000 books, 300,000 pamphlets, 175,000 manuscripts. 800.000 maps and charts, 150,000 coins and gold medab, 1,300,000 engravings, and 100,000 portraits. The figures relating to the musketry course among rifle clubs in Victoria for the year ended June 30 last show that there are now 21,813 riflemen enrolled, compared with 19,221 during 1906-7, and 4428 qualified as marksmen, a3 compared with 3992 dni ing the previous year. Ihe Birmingham haU-mavk io an anch-oi ;

that of London a leopard's head ; Chester is three wheat sheaves or a dagger ; Dublin has the figure of Hibern.ia; Edinburgh's hall-mark is a lion and castle; Exeter's a castle with two wings. Glasgow Newcastle-on-Tyne, Sheffield, and York all possess their respective hall-marks.

According to the testimony of a Maori witness at Rotorua, the keeping of timesheets is unknown in Maori contracting, but the " boss " carries everything in his head. At the end of the job he pays out according to the way he "fixes it up." This prehistoric method requires a little unravelling in a palceha court.

" On asking for our bill after tea at the Exhibition," writes a correspondent of an Edinburgh contemporary, " our attention was drawn to the fact that the girl carried two bags. She explained that one was there for change, and the other was for 'onything ye like to gie us.'" Wellington continues to grow like a mushroom. During the 12 months just completed permite for 844 buildings were issued, of which 771 were dwellings, 11 shops and dwellings, 5 shops, 21 warehouses, and other business establishments, 3 churches and schools, 2 banks, and 9 hotels. The total value was £674,813.

Professor Watt, of the Presidency College, who committed suicide at Darjeeling, was a son of the late Mr William Watt, journalist, of Aberdeen. After a brilliant career at Aberdeen, he further distinguished himself at Cambridge University, where lie was Lecturer in Greek History and Assistant Professor of Greek. The Sydney Telegraph of the 3rd inst. says that the shire employees working on Brown Mountain, near Bega, a few days previously burst open a huge solid rock by the roadside, and found a live frog in a smooth round cavity. about a foot wide, in its centre. The frog hopped about for a little time, but died when exposed to the sunshine.

There were added to the Dominion Museum, Wellington, recently two frames containing- patterns which were most frequently used by the Poverty Bay Maoris in their decorative schemes for tho inside rafters of their buildings. These are replicas of the beet of the geometrical drawings and carvings in which the Maoris so greatly excelled. Work for the insane is a special study at the Villejuif Asylum. Paris. Painting, carving, sketching, and even tattooing are included, and recovery is often due to the employment. In other cases the condition of the patient's mind is mirrored in the work done, aiding the physician in his study of the case more than any long discussions or consultations.

A stock agent informed a Wairarapa Daily Times reporter last week that there were plenty of buyers for all kinds of stock in the- district juet now. Breeding ewes are selling well, and there is any amount of trade to be done in hoggets, only the vendors' prices are considered too high. Sheep all round have made a wonderful recovery during the past two months.

Trawlers make some curious " find^," but the haul which the Grimsby vessel Cardiff brought to port recently perhaps establishes a lecord in its line. Two bundles of London County Council tramway tickets were caught in the trawl nets whilst the ve3Bel was fishing in the North Sea. The tickets were dated 1906, and the print on them was perfectly legible.

The Hon. Mr M'Nab stated to a reporter the other clay that the publication of a further volume- of his work on the early history of New Zealand would take place early in the new year. The material was not vet quite ready, but arrangement^ had been" ma-dc with Messrs Whitcombo and Tombs to bring out the book promptly, directly it was finished— probably about May next. More money is paid for water in a single day than is "paid for Kquor in a week, though few purchasers are aware of the quantity of water they pay for. A 101b rurkey, for instance, is but 31b solids and 71b water, and there is 61b of water jn 10lb of pork, while the percentage of water in beef or mutton is about the same. Salmon and mackerel are but half water, though other fish contain a greater proportion of fluid".

A 'report has reached the Victorian Postmastei -general that the mails between Elphinstone and Svtton Grange, in Victoria are being carried by a woman 80 years' of age. About a week ago her horse dropped from exhaustion at the end" of the- journey. Next day she carried the mail on foot for nine miles. Since •then her neighbours have helped her. The Minister has ordered an inquiry into ilie matter. Very little paper is now made from rags ; vegetable substances, such as wood, alfalfa, and straw, are specially employed. But the use of furze, wild or cultivated, has not been thought of until recent-ly- After a boiling of five or 6ix hours, the pulp ie washed with water, aoidul»ted with sulphuric acid in suitable quantity, bleached with chloride of lime, and waahed thoroughly, when it is in a- auitabje state for employment in tho manufacture of paper. Tho immediate construction of the Amur line has been approved by treaty members

of the Committee of the Upper House of the Rus?ian Duma. Seventeen members abstained from toting. Count Witte^ who led the Opposition, has issued a memorandum wherein he attacks the scheme on strategical and eoonomio grounds. He declares that 1500 miles of railway along the Chinese frontier wUI only stimulate Chines© migration nortiti ward. Count Benekendorff, Russian Ambassador; in London, through General Yermaloff; Military Attache, by special order of thet Empress Marie Feodorovna, president of the Imperial Russian Red Cross Society,, has presented Major Richardeon, the yrellknown war and police dog trainer, with tho war medal of the society, together with a." letter conveying the heartfelt thanks of the society for the services of hia ambulance* dogs in -Manchuria during the Russo-Japa* nese War. At Friday's meeting of the Southland' Education Board a letter was received! from a parent who wanted to know to wha€ extent her sou was eligible as a scholarship candidate. The mother (says the Southland Times) had lived in Riverton, but was at the present time in Dunedin. The son was attending school in Invercargill. X was resolved to reply that the boy was eligible to compete for a town scholarship, not, in the circumstances, for a. country scholarship. A large" undertaking In connection with the Wellington Corporation tramways ia now practically complete, and in consequence there are much greater facilities for the working of such difficult' sections those that run through Kilbirnie tunnel (says the Post). The undertaking referred to was the laying of a power supply cable, which work involved the expenditure o£ some £30,000. There was a total of 5,114-,628 units of electricity generated in the tramways power-house last year. A telegram from Charolles, a small town 30 miles from Macon, France, recently reported that the neighbourhood had been visited by a shower of sulphur. The roofs, gardens, fields, vineyards, rivers, and ponds were covered with a yellow dust, and for some time the peasants in the fields were troubled by a sulphurous biting odour which made breathing difficult. Several scientists at loons have concluded that the sulphur shower is due to the renewed eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Darwin estimates that there are 100,000 earthworms quietly at work for the advantage of the upper six feet of every acre. They continually turn over the soil, and fertilise the ground, so that necessary air can readh the roots that spread and grow. The little village of Llanymvnecn, on the borders of Wales, boaste an "inn which is t partly in England and partly in Wales. Thus, one half of the building is subject to the Welsh Sunday Closing Act, while the other is amenable to English law. ~ Owing to the prevalence of stoats and weasels in the Longwood Ranges tho native birds will soon become a thing of the pa3t. Quite recently one of the racemen of the Round Hill Mining Company informed the Western Star of an unequal contest between a stoat and a pigeon, and that it was now quite a common eight to 6ee a dead kaka or pigeon lying on the ground with a small hole in £h-Q back of its neck from which tho. bloodl had been sucked by this vermin. South Wairarapa appears to be rather; difficult to please in the master of Presbyterian ministers. Five candidates haver been heard, but the congregation has beeni unable to agree on any one of them. Rev. J. M'Caw (Martinborough) informed the Wellington Presbytery that he had received an offex from Rev. J. Paterson_ to supply, and also to help the congregation, to find a suitable minister. This offer Mr M.Caw though? should be accepted. The Presbytery agreed to the proposal made by Mr M'Oaw. Some teachers of the Invercargill schools appear to still have trouble with truants, and some are of the incorrigible class, and! the delinquents are not all dullards, somo being amongst the brightest in their respective classes. The other day (the News 6ays) one of these latter while the teacher's back was turned jumped out of a window in his class-room, and played truant for the remainder of the day. This was by no means his first offence, and his frequeno absences had led to the discovery that hie parents sent him regularly to school. The Times reports that a. National Women's Anti-Suffrage Association is being formed, and a circular setting forth its objects has been widely issued, and has elicited numerous promises of support.Among the signatories of the circular are Julia Marchioness of Tweeddalo. Lady] Jersey, Lad/ Haversham, Lady Weardale, Lady Evans, Mrs Humphry Ward, Mrs Max Muller, Lords Dunraven, HelmsJey, Rothschild, and James of Hereford, Mr Hicks Beach, M.P., Mr J. Massie, M.P., Mr C. Wason, M.P., and Mr R. C. Lehxnann, M.P. A resident of Wellington has invented a; new machine for knitting socks, which ho olaims ha 3 several special advantages. Iti wastes no wool, is ball-bearing throughout, so that it runs with special eaae, and is claimed to have three times the power or production of the ordinary hand machine. The inventor is using the invention in hia own factory, and in four hours turned ou6 28 socks by its means, winding his own wool. With pomeone else to wind the wool» ho claims that he can manufacture four 1 dozen pairs of socks a day by means of the machine.

The Commonwealth Minister for Defence proposes to place an item on the Eeetimatea for the purpose of providing trophies foi? pigeon homing competitions, so as to en~ courage owners to breed the very besfi descriptions of carriers. He states thai there are 20,000 of these birds in tha CommomvealTli. He is convinced that ife would be gTeatly to the advantage of the forces io have the use of homing 1 pigeons^ and will endeavour to follow the examplor of some of the Great Powere by arrajjtrinjg -with private owners of the birds to place? them at the dispocal of the Government when required. \ A party of Palmerston gentlemen who' were returning home from a social at Goodwood about 1 a.m. on Tuesday found (says the Palmerston Times) a bicycle lying mi the middle of the road near Mount Royal.. A man's hat was picked up a few "yards distant from the bicycle, and althougtt a thorough search was made no trace could} be found of the owner of the articles "men* tioned. The bicycle was taken io Palmereton, and on the following morning the; owner of the machine turned up to clainji it. His explanation of the affair was th&fi while riding down Mount Royal hill he) had fallen off his bicycle, and had walked! back to Palmereton in & dazed conditioij, forgetting all about hie bicycle and nji head gear.