OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Being 1 80 years cf age, a man who filled *p an old-age pension form at Wellington, Bomoreefc, made a claim for 10 years' arrears.

There are generally' from 30 to 40 Tarietiea of fish on sale in the Honolulu markets. A largr* percentage of the natives m*Ju» thtir living by fishing. Oomrbj^ntß reach the Timaru Herald that 4xeak thieve* Are at work in the cemetery. Several £-ra! rrossee and wreaths have been stolen, and growing flowers taken off the tc "That rr.oji with one arm or one leg be c*cgagv><J, as far as possible, for night wajciHJien," r<*ads a recommendation winch the Henley Town Council has just adopted. I-fc is reported tliat ca-bbages »r-e a. f?^ u * in the Wellington market and are selling at 6d and Is per sack. About a month ago they could not be obtained for love or money. An ocean steamer of the first class, going lit full speed, cannot be brought to a halt in less than three minutes. In the meantime she will have traversed a distance of •bout half a mile. A Napier lady who recently returned from! a trip to the Old Country discovered on opening- up Jier luggage on arrival that in transit dresses to the value of *20 had been abstracted. Colonel Strong, chairman of the Peter-

borough Quarter Sessions sinoe 1875, ha» resigned. He liad. the unique power of passing the death •sentence, cwing to Peterborough's ancient privileges. The pien engaged in digging post holes in the main street of Man borough (Victoria) for the erection of telephones recently obtained a 6mall quantity of gold from several of the exca\ations, It was found that workmen** tickets between. Slough and London were being U6ed by all classes, and the Great Western Company has determined to i-ssue the tickets in future to workmen only. At its last meeting the Clutha River Board discussed at some length the waya and means as to securing funds for the purpose of acquiring a second steamer, but tio definite decision was aTrived at. Many church steeples in England are , covered with copper. One of these, in • Exeter, k covered with sheet copper, the metal being taken from the bottom of an old man-of-war broken up at Devonport. Bears have been sein. in unusual num. bers in the districts feurrouiidmg Vancouver. One was recently killed by touriete in the road at Alberm, the new Canadian Paoifio town on the west coa6t of Van jcouver. More China tea is being con=urr.o<3 in England. The Board of Trade returns for i the nine months to September 30. 1908, f rfiow that the amuunc eoi£ arued in Britain j

shows an increase of 70 per cent, over that of 1906. In Germany, w.hen the vote of the jury stands six again&t six, the prisoner ie acquitted. A vote of seven against five leaves the decision to the court, and in a vote of eight against four the prisoner is convicted. Munich is deserting the beverage for which it 13 famous. Dufring the period 1856-90 each inhabitant of the city drank on an average 105 gallons of beer per annum, but last year the figure was only 63 gallons. While a. lad was leading a hors» to a paddock near Auckland late on Friday night last the- animal broke away, and getting on to the tram line was knocked down and killed by a car. The horse was valued *t £20. The record of bankruptcies- in Waira-ra-pa so far for the. year (says the Age) is 21, being 11 more than for the corresponding_ pei'iod last year. Lt&st month four petitions were filed, as against two in November last year. In order to remedy the acoustic defects of the meeting room the Wellington Education s ßoard has draped the offending walls with a simple tapestry of common ec-rim. The effect is not unpleasant, and the expense must have been small. Less than half a pint of bser per head, or 14,768 gal in all, was consumed in Broadmoor Asylum last year, the Home Secretary toiid Mr Marfcham, M.P., who urged the substitution of piokles or jam, as many inmates were there through drink. Wihat must surely be a record in fungus growth has just been lifted from Mr Bottom's property on the Mangawhero road and taken to the Eltham Argus office. It measures over 6ft in diameter, and its other dimensions are in proportion!. A school for office boys has been opened in New York. The course extends through 21 weeks, and includes instruction in obedience, copying letters, doing up parcels, attending to the telephone, and keeping stamp and other small accounts. Tuition is free. In consequence of the prevalence of scarlet fever at Wyndham the school has been closed, and, owing to the proximity of the usual Christmas vacation, it is not proposed to reopen until after the usual holidays. The scarlet fever' ie of a mild form. It is calculated that between 30,000 and 40,000 breech-loading riflee and a lerge quantity of amnrunibion have been smuggled into Afghanistan from the Meckran coast during the ourrent year. Gun-running from South Persia and Eastern Arabia is also active. The New Zealand Times says traders and others will be wise to keep a watchful eye en what may be tendered as coin of the realm. Some spurious money is about Wellington in the shape of gilded farthings, and attempts have been made to pass them off as half-sovereigns. The Women's National Health Association of Ireland has been bracketed with New York at the International Health Congress in Wathington for first prize. The prize is £200 for the best voluntary association for th-e prevention of tuberculosis. The prize us therefore divided. At the Magistrate's Court, at Akaroa, on the 2nd inst., beforo Mr V. G. Day, S.M., John Armstrong was charged with throwing a rotten egg at Constable Jones on election night. A fine of 10a was inflicted, and defendant was ordered to pay costs of damage to uniform. Pastor Abbott, who was one of the pioneer missionaries of South Australia, died in Adelaide at the ago of 95 rears. He was one of a band of missionaries who arrived in the bhip John Remvick in 1836, and was engaged in active «ork until within the last 18 months. A musical watch on exhibition in St. Petersburg not only chants sacred mueic, but gives scenic d-splays. It ahows the tomb of the Saviour, with the Roman sentinels; the stone at the mouth of the tomb rolls away, ar.gels and holy women appear and enter the 6epulchre. Joseph Richardson, a plasterer, of Acax>ia road, Beckenham, who was sentenced by the Bromley magistrates to three months' hard labour for neglecting his five motherless children, reported to Scotland Yard for trespass a kind-hearted police sergeant who gave them food and drink. It is stated on the best authority that the- price paid to sawmillers by the Sawmillers' Association for good building timber in tha Eketahuna district is 8s 4d per 100 ft. The carriage to Wellington is Ss Bd, and the retail price to the City builders is 15s 6d upwards. It is very much feared that the tuatara, lizards which were in the ChrLtchurch Acclimatisation Society's gardens have either died or been killed. Five were placed in the rockery there some little time back, but the curator is unable now to find any traces of them. A paint which will indicate by a change In colour when the structure coated with it ft becoming dangerously hot has been prepared with a mixture of mercuric iodide and cupric oxide. When cool this paint is red, and when heated it beror.^s black, returning to red again on cooling.

A novel epidemic- hias broken out at Bilbao. Since the citizen Chiquito won fame. aB a matador all the young men of th© town are deserting their homes to seek distinction in tine arena. Even schoolboys have caught the fever, and the police are kept busy pursuing the fugitives. -» About 12,000 oysters were eaten at the annual oyster feast at Colchester on October 20. The Chinese Ambassador said that the necessary qualification of a diplomat was to keep hi 6 mouth shut. As oysters had. a. similar habit the moral was always impressed upon him when he ate them. In referring to his Honor Mr Justice Edwards at the Supreme Court at Auckland a witness used the term "Your Lordship." He was quickly corrected by his Honor, who said : " ' Your »Honor,' here. We don't have lords here. We have left them all at Home in the Old Country." Slot machine typewriters are to be placed in the rooms of the leading hotels in America, so that guests can attend to their correspondence! The machines are the re6ult of a new invention by whioh a 10-cent. piece (fivepence) dtropped into a slot allowß lie nxaehin© to be used for half an hour. j The Oamaru Mail considers £he annual meeting of the Wautaki County Council was remarkable, owing to the deputy county clerk, who is a lady, presiding at the election of chairman. The Oroua County Council goes one better, for the county clerk who presided at the annual election there is also a. lxdy. Mr Justice Joyce has held that a bequest of £20,000 by the late Mr Alfred Beit to London University was conditional , upon the carrying out of a scheme for the ( establishment of an institute of medical I sciences. The scheme having been ftban- ' , doncd owing to lack of support, his Lordehip ordered the return of the money to Mr Beit's executors. In an application for a prohibition order by an old lady against her husband at Invercargill, the applicant explained that her husband was drunk two weeks out of three, and added that it took the other week to get over it. It was so bad that if she could not get a prohibition order she would have to get a separation. During November the 6elf-recardin'g in•trument at the office of the Press at Chrietohurch 'registered 263 hr 43m in of sunshine, a daily average oi Wax 47min 26sec. This ia a considerable improvement -on the sunshine recorded in November of 1907, when the sun shone for 205 hr smin, * doily average of 6hr 50min lOeec. The female artiste models of Paris have decided to form themselves into a trade union. The organising secretary is a handsome young woman of no more than 20. Mile. Solanige d'Helbeyre. The objects of the union are to demand higher rates of pay, and to establish a sick fund for distressed and disabled models. The United States Government Treasury (says the Argonaut) continues to run 'behind. September revenues fell about 3,000,000d0l behind thos© of a year ago, while expenditures were 4,400,000d0l larger. This turns a surplus for the month last year of about 3,000.000d0l into a present deficit of above 4,000,000d01. Durinar election day several ladies took up collections in the streets on behalf of the proposed Opotiki Cottage Hospital. The gross totals in the evening amounted to £64, which, with the Government subsidy, will amount to £140 16s, while £4 4s 3d was collected on the same day *t Waimana for a similar purpose. Marvellous reports of the discovery of water by means of the divining rod in the arid wastes of South-West Africa are made by Baron yon Uslar, who has returned to Germany after two years spent in the African colonies with a special commission from the Kaiser. His divining-rod located a whole 6eries of watercourses. The Rev. Gertrude yon Petzold, pastor of the Free Christian Church of Leicester, England, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Unitarian Church of Streator, Illinois. She is the first woman preacher appointed to any church in Great Britain, and was the first woman minister to officiate at a marriage in the country. A thougthful and kindly act was performed by six Masterton jurors engaged on the inquest concerning the fatal accident at the railway yards at Masterton. They unanimously decided to hand over tihe juror's fee (four shillings- each) to Sergeant Miller, to be paid to the widow of the deceased, Mrs Knight, who is left with" one child. A fearsome secret is said to have been disclosed by Dr Peter Gibbons, of New York, who makes this startling- declaration : "I\ot a murderer who ever went to the j?rave from the death chair in use in New York was killed by the electric current. Every one died from the dissecting; knives of the surgeons or was smothered in quicklime." It lias been left for the twentieth century to produce that almost inconceivable type of humanity, the child assassin. The ©or- j ruption of the youth of France and the in- j craase on juvenile criminality therefrom i arises (says a Paris -jourraal) purely from the ! abominable system of education imposed on the children of the country during the past I 25 years. I Believing that the world is to come to !

an end in December, a band of religiou* fanatics are building themselves an ark on an eminence in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains, in the southern part of Washington State. All the company are prosperous ranchers and farmers, who have been hoarding up their savings fo.r years in order to build the ark when the command came.

The feeß for treatment by means of Rongten-ray apparatus at Wellington Hospital have been decided upon, by the trustees. The charge for the first visit will in future be <xo^ guinea, and for each succeeding treatment half a. guinea. Previously no •cale had been in existence, but the new one is on somewhat the came basis as the, fees previously changed.

A terrific hailstorm occurred at Mitta-' gong, N.S.W.J on November 23. The whole district was and in places tho hail was* 15in deep. Much destruction was caused to orchards and gardens, and it in feared that the whole- of the cherry crop, which was just .ready, for pulling, has been ruined. Numerous poultry were killed by the hail. EhgJwb niulway stations " are now so eoiothered with advertisements that, it is said, -'the old name-boards have long been regarded as useless ior the purpose they are supposed to serve. The companies 'have begun to distinguish the name of the station by a conspicuous red disc, across _ which runs the name of the station," in white letters on a blue panel.

Some of the many trials and hardships : of a country clergyman were exemplified at the Nelson Anglican Synod by the Rev. J Mr Dart, of Westport, in describing the J difficulties with wliiob tfce^worjt was carried ' on in the Karamea district. A walk of ovecil , 20 miles bad to be made to reach some' of the places, and in bad weather over . rough OQimtry it was an exceedingly hard • L txial.

-A member of the Registered Nurses' Sceiety, the headquarters of which are in Oxford street, London, has received official notification that she has been, left £30,000 under the will of a young man whom she had devotedly nursed under a painful illnee* that lasted seven years. A little time ago another member of the same sooiety received a legacy of £1000 and an annuity of £300 from a patient to whom she had given lon.g attendance. The Pope has granted a special audience to the members of the Montreal Gymnastic Society as a mark of his interest in sons of the Dominion who have come so great a distance to take part in the international athletic contests. His Holiness warmly congratulated the Canadians on having won the first prize in the gymnastic competition and carried off six medals for other events. He presented the Canadians with two large boxes of fine Havana cigars. R. E Phillips, the young Victorian who has started on a walking tour -round the world, arrived at Sydney on November 23, in company^ with J. E. M'Cannee, who has joined him in the enterprise. The distance" from Albury was covered in 13 actual walking days — an average oi 30 rhiles a day. Both youths appeared to be in perfect healthy They will rest in Sydney for 10 days, and will then take the steamer for New Zealand.

I Vienna has a school for waiters, where i in a tihr-ee-y ears' course pupils are taught the same subjects they would learn in ordinary elementary schools, but French ia added to the programme. In addition, there is a technical training, wQiioh includes cookery in all its branches, the composition of a correctly spelt menu, the laying of tables, the folding of serviettes, and last, but not least, the art of deportment. The rector of Rayne, near Dunmow (the Rev. C. E. Hutchinson) has social meet- , ings with his parishioners in the autumn and winter evenings (cays the Standard). They meet in an old timbered malthouse, where they drink beer, smoke tobacco, and enjoy music and conversation. Men of all ranks mix freely, and exchange views;' and although some have expressed surprise at Mr Hutchinson's methods, it is felt that a lot of good is being done. Something very familiar in a "chanty" which was sung on the Nimrod when leaving Lyttelton caused the many onlookers to listen carefully. The crew were singing that wonderfully popular ditty V We parted on the shore." Appropriately enough (says the Lyttelton Times) the song made an excellent chanty, and it is probably more than its originators and " creators " ever expected that sailors should \sing- it as they left port. \

Some days ago news reached Sydney of a plague of small ants at a point near the Blayney- Harden line. Later came ' complaints of houses in Darlinghurst andjj Maeleay street invaded by ewarms of tinVa white sugar ants. It would he highly"?! discomforting (aays the Sydney Morning"! Herald) if the list that begins with rabbits^ briar, lantana, and ends with moths, grass- il hoppers, water hyacinth, and house flies 2= were to be added the hitherto harmless A sugar ant. . ' ,^i Reviving an old custom, the Lord Mayor and city councillors of Melbourne arranged to mark the commencement of the civic year by collectively attending church on November 22. Of the 32 councillors about 15 were present at matins at St. Paul's Cathedral. No formality was observed, councillors making their entry in groups, but otherwise unceremoniously, while the Lord Mayor was not distinguished from % the others by any official , robes. v^ Mr S. Spielrogel. of Bendigo, recentljtj purchased a pair of ducks, paying 3s 7cfl for them (says a Melbourne telegram to adi Sydney paper). When the second bird wads killed some shining 6peoks were noticed in;^ the crop, which also' contained some frag- ~ ments of gravel and food. Curiosity led * to an examination of the shining material, - with the result thai it was found to be gold. Altogether gold to the value of 12s was obtained. The dock must have picked up the precious metal when picking; amongst the gravel.

Buddhism ie reckoned to have 455,000,000 axQiererrfce.- • *A'4i« nnmericflL strength o£ Christianity is 421,000,000 ; Mahommedanism, 215,000,000; Brahmanism, 775,000,000;) Confucianism, 80,000,000; and Shintoism, 14,000,000.

Back up a sewer and you will poisoia the whole neighbourhood ; clog up the liver and bowels, and your system is full of un.digeatsd food, which sours ' and ferments. This means Indigestion, Headache, BadJ Breath, Yellow, Skin, and everything that is horrible. Chamberlain's Stomach and Liver Tablets quickly stop fermentation ia the, stomach, and they make the.liver lively, tone up the bowels, and set the whoi« machinery going. For sale e\ erj where.