OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

In the more prosperous parts of London g) mistresses of households out of every 100 have domestic help. In tho East End Dnly five families in each 100 can afford household assistance. While shooting near Paris, a. gamekeeppr j placed his gun on the ground in order to , take a hare that his dog had retrieved. . The dosr trod on the trigger, and his I master wa3 shot dead. "Seconds"' coal is now being sold in the East End of London at tha rate of eeven pounds for a penny farthing, or £1 15s 4d a ton. This is 63 a ton more than the ordinary price of the best coal. The municipality of Tunis is offering a ' rewai>d of 2£d for every cat skin brought to the authorities, owing to the number of Stray cats; and the, householders are all , complaining of cat-stealers. It -would apoear tiiat South Canterbury | is pretty free from infections disease, for at tbe present time the Talbofc Hospital, in 'Jimaru (erected for infectious diseases only) has not a patient in it. Camels, mules, and donkeys exi.«t in , large numbers, and are the only means of transportation throughout the whole of Morocco. Railway train?, and even carts, have yet to make their appearance. At a service of thanksgiving for the har- • vest of the sea at Port Isaac Ohurch tho waUa fiom end to end wero draped with fishing nets, while lobster pots and packing barrels occupied the window spaces. 1 It has been estimated that there are at- I

i tachcd to Portsmouth no fewer than 45,0C0 eailors and soidiere, of whom Letvreen 10,000 and 15 000 ore frequently eulmr in barracks or on the ships in the harbour. In the coiiicry township of Walk-Jen, near Manchester, there is not only a female sexton, buc .iUc a female " knocker-up.'" ] She rises at 5 o'clock each morning to commence her rounds awakening clients. I The Taranaki Automobile Association has decided that in all club runs the speed must no: exceed 18 miles an hour, the members I having a due regard for the convenience of the other users of the King's highway. A musician named Panvell broke the piano-playing record of a rival at Auckland recently by thumping tho keys continuously fpr 52br lmin. During that period he piaycd over 1500 separate items. The Pen'i.-.ylvania Railroad Company has decided to electi-' f y its lir.es "between Philadelphia and Now York, and' expects it will be able to reduce the running- time for the ■distance of 100 miles from tv. o houi-s to cno. During the past thiee months 458 anima'g have Leen added to the collection of the London Zceiogical Gardens, including 38 that were bc*n in the gardens. "Visitors to the gardens during that time numbered 346,151. At the marriege of Mr A. M. P. Lyle, of Murthly. Perthshire, and Dorothy, daughter of Sir James de Hoghton. at The parish church, Preston, 20 tiny school girls, i atth-ed as Lancashire witches, followed the bridesmaids.

Although only about 25 years of age, Ruby D&llimore, who was before the Fitzroy (Melbourne) bench the other day, has 'succeeded in piling up an awful list of 76 Police Court convictions. Sixty-five of these are for drunkenness. Herbert Fayle, a member of the Australian Light" Horse, was riding to his home at Mudgee (N.S.W.), on Christmas Eve, when lie collided with the shafts of a sulky, sustaining dreadful injuries, from which he died. It ia explained that the new Russian battleships are to cost three millions sterling instead of £2,100,000. as estimated for originally, because they are to be built in R-useia. Their principal a.rraeunent is to consist of 12in guns. Although the brass discs on railway eeats are by no m-aans ne.v things, it docs not yet seem to be generally known that passengers on the long-distance runs on the New Zealand railways may, by paying fid, have their seats reserved for them. The body of James Nugent, a farmer, aged 55 years.-was found floating in a dam at Murwillumbah (N.S.W.) last month. It is surmised that Nugent, in taking a short cut some time in the night, during a heavy storm, accidentally fell into the dam. Newbury Guardians were informed the other day that the tramps in the workhouse became so mutinous that they were given food and allowed to leave without doing any work. The tramps complained that they did not receive sufficient food. At a meeting of the Yarmouth Guardians, at which the appointment of a probationer nurse was made, the majority of the board were accused by a member of voting for the successful candidate because she was the beat-looking of the three applicants-. At a sale of l'are postage stamps recently in London a New Zealand 1868 one shillinggreen fetched £13 10s. Other high prices were a perforated Victorian orange of the 1860-1862 issue, which realised £11, and a New South Wales Id red, 1851, £7 ss. Included in 450 lots of derelict goods laft in the racks of Great Western railway trains, or not " cleared " in. the company's goods departments, which weire sold by auction recently were a skull, a maypole, an elephant's foot, and two artificial legs. A telegram from Ipswich, Queensland, states that Mrs Littls, wife of a cabdriver at Ipswich, was picnicking at Kholo, Oil 1 lie Brisbane River, when her child fell into ihe water. Mrs Little jumped in and saved the child, but was drowned herself. The Piince of Wales probably holds the longest-distance record as a traveller. He went round the world on the Bacchante, eo\ered thousands of miles as a naval officer, travelled 33,000 on the Ophir trip, and ha* been all over India as well a ih<-' bargain. Jfiau Siegmund Fleischer, whoso propei iy ia estimated to be worth a million e.erling, died of ctanation in Budapest recently -while consulting her .solicitor. She li\ed m a garret, in the poorest quarter of tho city, and had not eaten anything for so \ oral day* 3 . The Rojal Worcester Porcelain works me tho oldest in England, having been founded in the year 1751. " Old Chelsea " china i-« a deep claret red in co'out. The earliest mark on Sevres china is two cross capital L's, which stand for Louis XV, who founded the works. | " In former days if a bricklayer cut liis ; thumb he used to put a bit of rag round it and go on with his work," said a barrister at the Wandsworth County Court. " Now i that there is a Workmen's Compensation Act lie i« tempted to make much of the cut instead of working." Ui.der tLo provisions of the Teachers' Superannuation Act it will bo necessary for the contributors in each island to elect two representatives to the board in March next. The election is fixed by statute to take place on March 1, and i.ominaticna I t-lo^e 20 day« earlior, about February 8. I A company has been formed to bore another tunnel connecting Switzerland and Italy. This tunnel will run through Mount Blanc, starting at Martingly, in Switzerland, and coming out at Courrnav^ur, Italy. It will bo 23 miles long, and it is expected that it will be comolcted in three years. It is understood that the central mental hospital for the North Island will probably be erected on a Crown area- at Kihikihi. | aboat four miles from Te Awarnulu. on the j Main Trunk railway. The institution will , consist of several detached buildings, and is so planned for purposes of classification. Mr H. W. Bishop, S.M.. in hearing a ! maintenance case at Ohristchurch. where a j man ."aid his oarn.in<r« were £2 & a week j and he was willing- that ar. order for 203 j a week should be made, said : '' Under the | economic in-dep^n-dence of the aex-e-s i;owi- I days 20s an-d 28s seems a very fair division." The land ballot is nothing if it is not a fair indication of what we are prono to j call luck (says the Dannevirke Pre«s). At > the last ballot there were dozens of anpli- j cants in for sections 23 and 22 nt Piri Piri. | and yet two brothers (the Messrs Rule) | were successful in drawing the two hold- i ings. I Mr John Bucknuasior, late organising ( muster of the South Kensington eeienca ai A .irt c!a^-e<3, stated in his will: "I wish ■ my fureral to be of the simplest a>nd , p!ai:.c»t tic c-i pticn, and I do rot v. ant mj

■ relatives or friends to be miserable at my ■ departure, as I have finished the work I '■ had to do." Dt Hornby, the medical officer of health for Shaftesbury, Dorset, commen'trn.g on a fatal case of diphtheria in the village of Hunifcingfo'rd, stated that the father of 1 the child affected was found by him at hoe : usual occupation of milking, a.nd a La>rg>e quantity of cheese was stored in an adjacent room to the sickroom. The island of North Uist, in the Outer Hebrides, was put up for sale at Tokenhouse Yard in November, and did not obtain a bid. The island has belonged to the family of Sir A. J. Campbell Orde for three generations, has an area of approximately 145 equare miles, and in a rental of more than £5000 a year. According to history, Henry 111, in 1216, was crowned' with a golden circlet because the crown of King John, with all his baggage, was lost in the Waah. Mr W. H Hope, in recalling thus before the Cambridge Antiquarian Society, concluded that. it lay under the fields east and west of ' Button Bridge, and oould be recovered. With questionable taste Ministers still continue to send information on public affairs -to their defeated candidates instead of to successful Opposition members of Parliament, says the Rangitikei Advocate. Ministers apparently do not yet realise that the defeated are politically defunct, and thnt some courtesy is due to their successor*. The other day an Alexandra, business firm received remittance of an account amounting to a fair sum .that had (says the Herald) been owing for' the past 18 years. A note accompanying the cheque stated that although the debtor, had not forgotten the debt he had been previously unable to remit same owing to forced circumstances. On Mason's beach on the eaet coast of Stewart Island there was picked up the other day a. bottle containing a slip of paper on which was written the following:— V Barqu9 Helen, 24th October, 1908. — Latitude, 45deg 40 S. ; longitude, 61deg 20 E. ; weather fine, overcast ; wind W.N.W. ; bar. 29.58. If found please report.— H. J. Ford." , The Kaiser receives about £750,000 c. year as King of Prussia, but nothing as German Emperor. He has also an enor--1 mous private income, derived from mines, fisheries, and estates, of which he owns more than any other man in Prussia. The King of Bavaria receives £270,000 a year, the King of Saxony £175,000, and the Grand Duke of Baden £80,000. At a recent race meeting one of the cam- , peritora in the hurdle race was named • Freehold. During the race the animal fell, cm which a Ciown Minister leaned across and remarked to a leading member of the Opposition: "Well, Freehold has oome to grief." " Yes." said the Oppositionist, who is a staunch freeholder, '' but he was rkklan by a Government supporter." A New Zealander who recently returned from n, tour round the world states that the slowest train service he encountered was in Japan. On the horse tramway up the Fuji mountain it took five hours to covor nine mile*, and the fare, collected at the end of each section, totalled about 12s. | The return journey was supposed to be i done by gravitation, but coolies had to get out and push the oar. The latest issue of the Lee-Metford rifles - — cased in 'wood from butt to barrel end — is still coming to hand, and the Government armourers are preparing them for issue. Practically the whole of the mounted infantry corps in the South Island are now armed with the new weapon says the Post), and it is likely that the North Island companies will be eimilaa-lv circumstanced a.t a comparatively early date. A visitor to Oamaru spent a few hours the ot/her afternoon in the gardens, where he loft his bicycle while h© walked round on a tour of inspection. The gardens came in for admiring coaMnenit, of course (says the North Otago Times), but tho youth of Oamaru less favourably impressed tlie visitor, for he found, on returning to his bicycle, tha-t the tyres had been slashed with a knife in several places. Dame Fortune has been unkind to a Stratford resident magistrate since the beginning of the year. His troubles began (says the local paper) by tho loss through an accident of a greyhound pup, which he expected to do big things. Next he was forced to destroy his milking cow, and as if that wore not enough bad luck, a horse in hi 3 stable contracted blood-poisoning and dipd. Nor was his cup yet full, for On going to the paddock to get another horse to replace the defunct one, he discovered that the animal he was after had broken its leg. A cas? of theft is reported by the Timaru Herald to have occurred in Waimate recently. The proceeds of the Caledonian sports and oj^eia had been deposited by the treasurer in tho rtronpc room of a mercantile house in town. A few day a later the treasurer went to the bank with the greater portion of the money, leaving an amount in the strong room with which to p<»y over the prizo money to com;->ofrito vo . On returning and counting the ba jn c '.■> I found £3 missinsr. The matter \^h- if- . poitcd to Con:tab!e Quiim, v.ho ix e cr '

than an hour had secured a . confession from one of the firm's junior employees. _ Some striking figures are contained in a report upon the destruction of rabbits prepared by the chief inspector of vermin in Victoria. During the last five-yearly period 41,423,000 frozen rabbits were exported from that State, and 98,242,000 skins, while 5,000,000 skins went into local consumption, making a total of 103,242,000. Allowing for the imported rabbitskins required for certain special manufacturing purposes, the net total of exported skins for five years has been 67,838,000, or a yearly average of 13,567,000 skins, which, it is estimated, represent rabbits that would consume as much grass as 1,500,000 sheep.