OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2928, 27 April 1910, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

< The typhoid fever epidemic has now die- i Appeared from Timaru, there being lest jtlhan a dozen oases altogether. 1 The recent North Island band oontett Ijeld at Wanganui resulted in a profit of $205. The gross receipts totalled £953. _ The unsurveved land in Taranaki available for future settlement is 92,000 acres, sjid the Maori land awaiting settlement .480,000 acres. During the currency of the heavy thunderstorm experienced at Eltham last week fourteen telephones in the town were ren. j flered inoperative by lightning. The work of widening Fleet street, tlf / j

great newspaper artery of London, is now to be actively pressed forward. No loss a sum than £400,000 is to be expended. The smallest thing with a backbone is 4he sinaraipan, a little fish recently discovered by scientists in the Philippine Islands. It measures about half-an-inch in length. Mr Overton, who accidentally shot Michael Quirke during the Powelka chase, had a horse nominated for the Timaru races, but under the circumstances it was withdrawn, j The takings of the Wanganui ■ ■‘■ion baths for the season just closed are j a record. Over 100 school children and 50

adults have been taught to swim during the sea.son. During the last quarter building permits were issued in Wanganui for buildings having a total value as follows: —January, £5877; February, £7018; March, £5509; total, £18,404. A fund opened in Willesden for the omnibus drivers and conductors thrown out of work by the discontinuance of the horseomnibus services has received an anonymous gift of £IOO. Flossie Wilding, a scholar at Bardweil Voluntary School, is to receive a watch from the West Suffolk Education Committee for her record of 10 yeai-s 10 months of perfect attendance. Jack I, a four-year-old English starling, belonging to Mr T. H. Ferrar, of Gunnersbury, has quite an extensive vocabulary. The bird can also whistle several tunes, including a few bars of " Killiecrankie." The question of who will receive the reward of £IOO offered by the Government for the capture of Powelka has yet to be decided by the Government. The £IOO does not go automatically to the police. At Sydney the other day a master bilker named Gattrell was fined £55 for having sold on his premises loaves of bread that were light weight to the tune of 2206 z. The penalty representee! a fine of 5s for every ounce deficient. The police at the Thames brought a case last week against a local hotelkeeper for selling beer bottled by him, and not having the words " bottled in New Zealand" plainly printed on the labels. The minimum fine of £2O was inflicted. Lord Burnham, presiding at the annual meeting of the Newspaper Press Fund, said that the grants and pensions disbursed in 1909 had amounted to £3779. Of this £IOOO had been paid in pensions to 17 members and .to 17 widows of members. Mrs Mary Connery, aged 92 years, was admitted to the Bendigo (Vic), Hospital from Axedale a few days ago, with her right thigh fractured. Notwithstanding he" great age, she was racing some of her people on horseback when she fell off. Slavery was recently abolished in Zanzibar and 10,000 slaves were liberated, at a cost of £40,000 to the British Government. Of all the great cities of the world, Palmyra had the shortest life. Its prosperity extended only from 117 a.d to 273 a.d. The Sydney police have been informed that a number "of sweated sovereigns are being paid into several city banks. It is said that some of these coins, which were received at the Government Savings Bank, had decreased in value to the extent of 4s 6i. It is stated that Powelka, who is now in custody at the Wellington Gaol, is in a state of great dejection, and is also in very weak health after the excitement of his recent escape. He eats and sleeps very little, and a warder remains by him day and night; . Mr George Swinburne, M.L.A., and formerly Minister of Agriculture, Victoria, out of the amount received by him from the Age in the recent action for libel, is distributing the sum of £2250 among the various public and charitable institutions in Melbourne. Some of the settlers at Mild Miki (North Island** are liberating numbers of cats on such f their sections as are infested with rabbits, and so far the experiment has proved successful, the cats taking possession of the burrows, and thus driving the rabbits further back. One can form an idea of the severitv of the weather experienced at Riversdale during the 15th inst. (says the Ensign), when it is stated that several sheep died in the yards. It is said that of a flock of 1400 eheeo left near the "Finger Post" on the 16th some 300 are missing. During the hearing of the evidence at Raeitihi Court recently it was elicited that a person (a carter) who would have been a.n important witness had he been present had left the coutnry, having been benefited by a windfall amounting to some thousands of pounds. At the annual meeting of the Royal United Service Institution it was announced that there had been discovered in the library two copies of an ancient and interesting atlas which was valued in the market at £lB4. The existence of these copies had been unknown. The making of biograph pictures involves a great deal of hardship and actual danger for the actors engaged. A recent accident resulted in the death of' " Foolshead," one of the clever comedians employed by the Paths Company, who was drowned while enacting a scene for a new film. Bee-keepers in the far north have been sorely troubled with the depredations of kingfishers. These birds have devoured whole colonies of bees, and it is a common sight to see kingfishers perched in proximity to hives make sudden swoops and devour bees whilst they are on the wing. The Canterbury Acclimatisation Society has been successful in breeding American 1 wood ducks. Six have been bred and' reared during the past season, making a total of 18 of these attractive birds ,npw in the possession of the society. Canadian geese have also been successfully bred." A full-grown penguin was found on the lfath by some boys in the rubble at the north end of Caroline Bay beach, at Timaru.

They got it cut to the beach, and tried to make it take to the water, but (says the Herald) it did not seem inclined for it, desiring rather to have a_ rest on shore. The Telegraph Cflice authorities advise that an office will be opened at the Addington Saleyards every Wednesday, commencing from Wednesdav last, for the transaction of telegraph and telephone business. There will be a regular delivery of messages between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Having missed the tender at Queenstown, a married couple, in order to catch the Cunard liner Ivernia, for Boston, commissioned five boatmen for a large sum to row them out at full speed. The Ivernia slackened speed when she became aware of the chase, and the couple were safely embarked The Presbyterian Manse at Temuka, the "newer" portion of which is about 30 years old, is practically destroyed by the white pine borer (reports the Timaru Herald), and at a congregational meeting last week it was decided to erect a new one, on the same site, in brick, at a cost of about 31200 It is stated by the Melbourne Age that an Order-in-Council has been issued providing that persons holding engine-drivers' certificates which have been issued in the other Australian States or New Zealand will be granted the same grade certificates in Victoria under the Mines Act and the Coal Mines Regulation Act. The official figures for the last general election in Great Britain show that the cost was £1,666,858. The cost per vote varied immensely, and was high in exceptional cases. The average cost per vote cast was 4s. lid, and the highest average was 4s 6d per vote in Scotland, the lowest average being that of 3s Bjd in Ireland. The Magistrate's Court at Balolutha was in session from 11 a.m. till nearly 11 p.m. on Wednesday. In addition to the long list of cases the magistrate dealt with 30 claims under the Old-age Pensions Act. It would be much better for all concerned (says the Free Press) if the stipendiary magistrate could visit there fortnightly in pla«e of monthly as at present. The Hon. A. R. Guinness has received a telegram from the Prime Minister (says the Grey Star) stating that a tender had been accepted for the erection of a police gaol in Greymouth. This will cause all prisoners sentenced for short terms of imprisonment and others awaiting their trial to remain at Greymouth instead of being sent to Hokitika. A man in Central Otago (Clyde) made £6O per square chain oft a big strawberry patch last year. His strawberries came early, and he packed them into glass jars for the Dunedin markets. Thus the fruiterer was able to deliver to customers absolutely unbruised fruit. The bottles were returned to the grower, who netted an average price for his crop of not less than 2s 9d per pound. The late storm removed an old landmark of New Plymouth—a sail windmill erected in 1879. _ The tower of the mill, built of Baltic pine with corner studs of oak, is in a sp&.ndid state of preservaiton. The machinery and belting, made in England, are also in an excellent condition, but the sails and surrounding gear of the mill had been so knocked about by the storm that the windmill has to go. In the Perth (W.A.) Criminal Court last week Mr Justice Burnside, in passing sentence on Walter Beaumont Clarke, who pleaded guilty to stealing 107 bags of wheat, said the prisoner had put in a statement which was false from start _to finish. It was a bad thing to try to deceive a judge. The prisoner was sentenced to seven years imprisonment. Between 600 and 700 seekers after land have already made application at the District Lands Office, Auckland (says the Herald), for poster plans of the Hauraki Plains Settlement, which is to be thrown open for selection on the occupation with right of purchase tenure on May 13. The ballot is to take place at Thames on May 18. Altogether 104 first and second-class sections are offered, comprising 16,700 acres. Railway travellers have probably noticed (states the New Zealand Times) that the big pocketful of printed matter which the Railway Department calls its official timetable, and sold for a penny, now costs threepence. It seems extraordinary that a publication so crammed with advertisements should not " pay," even at a penny, but it does not return its cost ©yen at 3d, for the actual charge to the Railway Department is 4d per copy The Sydney Harbour Trust Commissioners are maintaining their activity towards minimsiing the further pollution of the port. In this regard it may be of interest to learn that no fewer than 1114 dogs, 375 cats, 946 fats, 63 fowls, 3 goats, 125 bags of fish, 239 bags of meat, 18 pigs', § sheep, 20 rabbits and hares, arid a sun fish were recovered'and removed from'the port by the commissioners' scavenging plant between October 1 and March 31. • : / T--I On Friday, 15th inst., when the ra ; n cora ; jnenced. to fall, one Pareora farmer left his bed and Went out into a paddock to Cover up Some grain sacks he had left lying there. It was a few hours before sunrise, states a contemporary, and the countryman failed

to disocv r his p> for a <."■:•-idc-.-able time. r L:un he bfi'n ;ht himself of an original roheni •.:■>' a ' •' to an mij oent straw stack, wnich ■ I sight ever t,: darkness, and incidental .y ftao rcspoi -ibie for' the ringing of the Timaru firebeli.