OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Great Britain owns more than one-half of the world's ocean shipping. Montenegro is about half the size of Wales, and contains but one railway. Excessive smoking of cigarettes is now blamed foi causing people to lapse from the paths of honesty. Southland still expprts i'irom the Dominion about one-fourth of the cheese shipped to the English markets. Of the sawmills in the Western District, two are reported to have closed down for a time. The others are kept fully employed. In .1906 there were 194 owners of property of the value of £50,000 or over in New Zealand. Three years later the number had increased to 240. An Order-in-Council appears in the Gazette licensing the Waikawa Sawmilling , Company to construct a wharf on the foreshore cf Waikawa. Harbour. , There has been a veritable plague o; j moths i:: Hawera during the past month probably due to the almost continuous hot weather that has been experienced: Mr William South worth, one. of the oldest engine-drivers on the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway', has driven his engine over 2,000,000 miles without accident ; 'I At Otautau several defaulters were j charged with failincr to clear their proper- j ties of noxious weeds—ragwort and Canadian j thistle. Fines ranging up to £7 were im- ; ' edition of "Don Quixote," printed! entirely on cork, ha* vecently bsen issued (

at Barcelona. The edition is limited to six copies, and therefore lays no claim to the largest circulation. Mr R. Irving, jun., intends to try to introduce a system of electric lighting in Clinton, and is at present having a survey and estimates made, after which he will submit an offer to light the town. Mre Maria Ludlam spent her one hundred and first Christmas Day at Oadby, near Leicester. She has never' been in a train, and has, indeed, only been away from the village on one occasion. The Wyoming, the largest wooden sailing ship in the world—a six-masted schooner, 327 ft long, with three decks and complete telephone system throughout—has just been launched at Bath, Maine. Three thousand six hundred poor children, who were entertained at dinner at Leicester by the local lodges of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes, sent New Year wishes to the King and Queen. The loss of vessels from all flags is reported by Lloyd's Register as varying greatly. It wa6 for the last quarter 0.30 per cent, of the tonnage owned in the United Kingdom', and 0!81 per cent, of that of Norway. \' " '*"' At Rotorua visitors have to pay Is each time they visit the Whakarewarewa reserve, or 2s 6d for a month's ticket. Residents of Rotorua, who are also free from payment of rates, can obtain a ticket for a year for Is. In a sanguinary battle at Acoyapa, in Nicaragua, which is undergoing one of its revolutions, it is reported that the machine

guns used by the force under the Government were worked by Englishmen, two of whom were captured. Residents who have taken a leading part in seeking to have a permanent branch of the New South Wales Bank opened in Otautau have received intelligence' that the bank cannot at present see its way to open a branch in Otautau. At the end of last year the total number of juveniles under detention in the reformatory a w nd industrial schools of Great Britain was 26,254, of whom 21,244 were boys and 5010 girls. This is a net increase of 62 boys and 26 girls, as compared with 1907. On January 14 a gang of 40 Chinese robbers attacked the village of Tangka, on the borders of Johore, Malacca; killed one and wounded nine, carried'off hundreds of dollars and some police rifles . and ammunition, and escaped into Malacca. According to an official return, the net rateable valu.i of city property in the "pariah of the city of London" is £5,479,579. In addition, the net rateable values of the Middle Temple and the Inner Temple are respectively £14,399 and £25.243. Another of the (rreat prizes of the British hotelkeeping world ha.s fallen t-o the all-con-quering foreigner. M. Raymond Slanz, who succeeds M. Krcell as manager of the j Berkelpy Hotel, obtained fame in Paris ! some 15 years ago as a mixer of " American drinks." A party of 20 workers and sailors went out to the cemetery at Karori (Wellington) on Saturday to attend to the graves of seamen lying far from home. Some 30 graves were put in order, and many plants, which had been kindly given, were planted. The Czar, who already possesses a large palace at Yalta, in the Crimea, has decided to have the old one pulled down and a new palace ■erected in its place in the Italian 1 style. It is expected that the new palace . will cost 1,800,000 roubles, or about £190,000 Girl students at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, have given an order for 1000 blouses to be made at the projected cooperative factory which Miss Anne Morgan has offered to equip and finance on boll»If of the Now York girl blouse-makers who are on strike. Rear-admiral Leutzo ■ called at the White House of Washington 47 years ago and thanked President Lincoln for appointing him to the Naval Academy. He called on President Taft on New Year's Day and told him . of his White House recention of years ago. The Wakatiau Mail understands that the Government has purchased the peninsula opposite the Ouecnstown Park. It is the intention of the Tourist Department to utilise it as a golfing ground. Much greater attraction will thereby be given to the place in the future. A triple wedding ceremony was performed p* the narish church of Zittau, Germany, when 1 Hevr Buttwig, a widower, of 72. was mar»,{*d to his fourth wife; his daughter. Frau Hausnach. hged 46. wen married to her second husband; and her daughter, aged 20, was married for the first, time. A university student at Prague, who wa« arrested for setting fire to a barn, declared that, he had done so for certain high ohiloPODhical reasons which were beyond the comprehension "of the magistrate. This, however, did not deter his Honor from imposing an appropriate sentence. A lecture by some man. eminent in letters, science, or art, to be delivered annually in the Lent Term, has been established at Queen's Collece. Harley street. The Queen, who is patron of the college, has graciously allowed it to be called "The Queen's Lecture." Professor W. - A. Herdman. Ljvcrnool University, lecturing recentlv at the Roval Institution, said that a single ovster could produce 16 million young. Millions, however, never lived, but man was now able to rear a. la.rge number, and in certain nortions of France 98 per cent, of the eggs had beer reared. A nooHac« which once • belonged to Queen Isabella of Spain w»s sold for £3700 at a sale of native State jewellerv in Calcutta. How this rare jewel found its wav to India is not clear. Another historical iewol sold was the Eugenie star, reported to have belonged to the 'Rmpress Eugenie, M«hed n<">rl" Tb-° Giornale di SJnilia state= that during the vear ended December 28 no fewer than 543 earthquake shocks wore regipte«>d bv the observatories of Sicily, of vhieh 130 occurred on the first day, and 192 in the month of January. Th*> smallest number was in the month of November, when only seven were registered. A Broken Hill harbor. T-°d Grimm, attempted to lower the world's record for «ha.vin£. and succeeded in shaving- 18 men •" 14min 3sec. an average of 46seo each. This was not eoua 1: however, to the record, which is believed to be : 3 7 --t!w»> per m»n. Only on* slight cut was inflicted, and this was due to the man moving his head. Mount Egmont was never so clear of snow at this time of the vear as it is at present (eays the Taranaki News). The onlv snow visible is in the crater. La*t week the earet-tker discovered a blow-hole on the side of the crater. He intends to visit the spot again with ropes and a torch

in order to ascertain the extent of the hole. About 50 men from the steamer Papanui, which struck a rock on her last voyage and is now lying in Hobson's Bay, have arrived at Lyttelton. The men are, it is understood, anxious to return to England, and many .of them intend to go. back as passengers, while' the rest will take the first billet that offers on a Home-going ship. ! At .a Balclutha Sunday school on the 13th (says the Free Press) a teacher was reading the chapter from the Bible containing the passage, " Blessed are the peacemakers," and for the enlightenment of the class asked a pupil what a "peacemaker" meant. He was rather taken aback when the child replied, " Please, sir, a baker." The sergeant of polios at the Christchurch. Magistrate's Court stated that '» man charged with being idle and disorderly was a "lighthouse-keeper." " What is a lighthouse-keeper?" inquired Mr Donnelly, and the court was enlightened by the statement that a " light-house-keeper" was a man who .stood on a corner with a bottle and dispensed sly grog to customers. The steamer Clyde is busy bringing grain down the Molyneux River, and full loads will be the order of the day for some months. The river (says the Clutha Leader) has been very ' high lately, : almost blocking-way for the steamer under the Balclutha traffic, bridge. There was only an inch or two to spare under the high span at the north side, and she had to be pulled up and down by means of the wire rope. Mr J.. Shewan. who wa's responsible--for the catering at the Orari Gorge sale, took with him (says the Timaru Herald) the folowing supplies:—l7s dozen rneat p : es, 125 loaves cut into sandwiches, 7001 b of meat, 2cwt of cake, 60 dozen- small cakes, 201 b of butter. 1801 b of cheese. 40 gallons of milk, 201 b of tea, 36 gallons of ginger beer, 12 dozen quarts of lemonade, 20 gallons of cider. 196 gallons of beer, and 18 bottles of whisky. It is not generally known that C L - one Lime, some 20 years ago. Invereargill and suburbs had 34 licensed hotels, five of which were closed voluntarily, for the reason that th a y did hot pay. The 29 remaining were doing business when the first reduction vote was carried. Then 25 par cent, were closed, leaving 22. and at a subsequent poll a similar reduction brc'>>hfc tlie number to 17, at which it stood when no-license was carried.