OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2973, 8 March 1911, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM

A Waitara storekeeper hae been fined lQs and costs for soiling a pea rifle to a id, the latter being let off with a caution Cor purchasing it!. A French veteran, who a <s,llani deed of i'««roe a-fc Sedan, has just Wen decorated \vith the Cross of tho > mmr*mtmrmw*\

A paper-pulp plant that lias been grown by Mr «A. B. Wood, agricultural chemist, Mastcrton, has done remarkably well, and demonstrates clearly that it can be cultivated in New Zealand. The tender of Messrs Turnbull and Jones, electrical engineers, has been accepted for the construction of a complete electric lighting and pumping scheme for the Taihape Borough Council. Thxea Ihulndrod tand twenty-eight old people, whose ages ranged from 60 to 95, with an aggregate of 20,000 years, were entertained by the residents of Harlow, England, in the Victoiia Hall recently. A sheep that had become separated from a mob on th© road near Masterton attempted to jump through a wire fence. Its head struck the fence with such violence that it died within a few minutes'.

During the year ended March 31 last there were 798 Crown lanW defaulters in New Zealand, in respect of 'non-residence conditions. There were also 930 who failed to effect the improvements required under the act.

Mr George Burns, aged 25, of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, ha® eloped with his mother-in-law, whose age is nearly 50, as a sequel to the elopement a fortnight previously (of Mr is. Gneorge Burns with Mr Burns's father.

A grain merchant in Omaha, U.S.A., named John Trothers, advertised' for "oats" The word was printed "cats." He received some 5000, and at the lime of the despatch- of the last mail was still getting heavy supplies. Licenses to shoot fallow deer bucks in the Wanganui acclimatisation district from April 1 till May 15 are to be issued at £1 each. The total number of licenses will not exceed 30, and the kill is limited to two bucks per license. The Natives up north predict a severe winter, basing it upon the unusual quantity of wild berries about. Thfeir prophecy about a dry summer because of the unusual flowering of the flax in- the spring has not been far astray. In Vermont the bold experiment has been successfully tried of allowing prisoners to go outside the gaol alone. Eleven prisoners recentlv visited a circus. Fifteen minutes after the show was over every man was back in prison. Seven persons g-uiessed' correctly) the* weight (6971 b) of the bullock at the Masterton show the other day. There were so many correct guesses that the first prizje—a sewing machine—is to be ballotted for to decide the winner.

It is understood that his Excellency the Governor will have his first great public meeting with the Maori people at Greytown this month. The occasion will be the unveiling of the memorial to the late Wairarapa chief, Tamahau Mahupuku. " These; apples were not grown in New Zealand; they have been imported from America." This was the note attached by the \judge to an exhibit of apples at the horticultural and industrial exhibition, at Pahiatua. The entry was disqualified. One of the applicants at the Gisborne land ballot declared beforehand that if he drew the section which he had applied for he, would give £lO to the Salvation Army funds. Fortunately for the Army, the applicant referred to was successful. A start has been made with the excavations for the foundations for the new Hermitage at Mount Cook, and the site is also being cleared. It is proposed to complete the foundations this season, and to let a contract for the) "building next season.

Large quantities of oysters from the Bluff were condemned in Chrietchurch last month, and' weer sent to. the destructor, but the City Council's inspector reports that present supplies have been passed by the municipal officers as being wholesome.

A Tirnaru fisherman told a Herald reporter that h& had recently to pay £4O duty on an imported engine costing £3OO. He contrasted this amount with the low duty placed on motor cars procured for pleasure, while hisl engine was used to earn his bread.

claims to demonstrate that large eyes indicate a large brain. That 22 new dairy factories have started operations hi Otago and Southland during 1909 and 1910 would seem to indicate a prospective improved export trade. Th* total s&te takings at the Masterton show recently were £320, and luncheon and teas r«ali&ec £2l3i, Tusking l a. total of $539, 'His. is mora than £2OO over last year'* figures*

A man stated in the City of London Court the other day that he had for 17 years drunk four or five quarts of beer a day at 4d a quart—" the usual quantity consumed by navvies." A workmate described him as " Quiet Jim —quite ian ordinary drinker." The will of James Henderson, late of Remuera, New Zealand, has been filed in Melbourne for sealing purposes. Testator (says the Ag&) left estate in Victoria amounting to £2476 to his widow and children. His property in New Zealand amounted to £12,000. A new star lias been discovered by the Rev. T. H. Espin, of Towlaw, Durham, who describes it as a "red" star, in th© Milky Way, near the boundary line between Laoerta and Cepheus, and of such size that it can be seen by an expert observer with opera-glasses. Nelson is about to gather in it's hop crop. Already, in many instances, full arrangements Inavo blean mad© for the work to commence, and the hop-pickers are anxious to begin. The crop this year is on the light side. In the Tadmor and Riwaka districts it is heo/vier.

Tha Children's Hospital at Wellington, in th© raising of eubscriptions for which Mr Hugh Ward played such a biff part,

is now in a fair way to being commenced. A tender of £II,BOO for the construction of the building ha* been accepted by the Wellington Hospital and Charitable Aid Board.

The defendant in a judgment summons heard at the Wellington Magistrate's Court recently by Dr M'Arthur, S.M., was a middle-aged man, who said he was in receipt of a quarterly remittance of £4B. His wife had an income of £3OO a year. The judgment creditor was a grocer. Mr Gerald Latham, a Liverpool general broker, who died worth £9201, directed his trustees to see that his body was taken to its burial place "in M'Math's brake or a similar vehicle," but under no circumstances in a hearse. He left his interest in the goodwill of his business to his salesman.

As a protest against indiscriminate deer stalking in the district, about a dozen settlers on the East Coast intend (says the Te Wharau correspondent of the Carterton News) warning deer-stalkers off their properties for the coming season. It will mean the closing of about 20,000 acres of deer country..

A German who spends 10 years outside the limits of the German Empire without registering his name at the German Con- ■ sulate in the country where he resides forfeits his nationality. Hitherto a fee of 3s has been charged at the Consulate in London for this registration. The fee has just been abolished. Co vent Garden Market lately received its first shipment of Russian eating apples. The fruit was splendid, but in consequence of the plentiful supply of apples from other sources, the price realised—8s a barrel of slightly over one bushel—was unsatisfactory. Four Natives, who were fined 10s each for failing to destroy rabbits on their land over on the east coast of the North Island, endeavoured to excuse themselves for their neglect by explaining that their failure to comply with the requirement of the act was due To. their absence from home attending tangis. In their eagerness to break loose from a military prison at Algiers two men by some means secured a crucible, a mould, and other coining implements, stole- all the metal buttons they could find, and set to work to make enough money to carry out their scheme of escape. Their plan was discovered, however, before it reached ■ fruition. i More than 60 years a-go an apprentice in Vienna, by calling twice at a bank for a Christmas box, cheated it of a florin. Last Chr.istmas the manager of the bank j received from America, whither the boy j emigrated. -65 " <sonscie.neo money," repre- '! senting the original florin with interest. j The bank manager has given the money to 1 a charity. i What is considered to be a remarkable performance took place iii connection with the death of Mr D. M'Lachlan, who was killed at Waiapu recently by falling off a dray. After the driver fell, the horses continued on, and succeeded in reaching home, a distance of four mile®, without j mishap, the sharp corners and steep hills being safely negotiated.

A very large number of people are picking blackberries this year, and sending them in tins to the Wellington market. Every day about 20 kerosene tins arrive. _ Every tin contains 301 bof the wild fruit. The price obtained at the auctions is to 2id per lb, which is equal to 5s 7jd to 6s 3d per tin. One woman's cheques have amounted to £6 a week. Owing to the prevailing drought, work at the Mataura JPaper Mills has been, very slack for the past few days, there being not enough water in the race to drive the machinery, and consequently it has been found Tiecessarv to put some of the bands off for a while. The race is at present half-full, and old hands state that they have not seen the river so low for a long time.

A rather remarkable occurrence is recorded in the Marton paper. A contractor has sunk a. gravel pit in connection with a metalling contract which he has in hand. The pit is put down in the bed of a creek, and although only some 10ft deep water is continually forcmg its way up through the bottom, while the country all round and the creek bed as well are as dry and hard as a brick. A handsome nugget weighing 2oz 6£dwt was picked up in working of the Arrow River Gold Mining Company in a paddock they are sluicing on the Billy Creek on February 20. The spot is highly thought thought of by local mining authorities, and a good wash-up is expected at the end of by local a>uthorities. The nugget, which is watorworn, is fla.t, and contains a very small proportion of quartz. While trying to catch a rabbit in a hollow log at Dimboola (Vic.) two ypung fanners named Hermann found a quantity of jewellery valued at about £7O. Th'j "plant" included watches, bracelets, muff chains and necklets, all of which have been identified as the property of John M'Laren, watchmaker, of Dimboola, the window of whose shop was broken and property valued at £2OO extracted about two years ago, A gentleman resident in Hastings has ' received a cutting from a. Dutch paper

published in the Transvaal, where it ifi recorded that five ostrich chicks were sold at £lO5 each. The gentleman, who is interested in ostrich breeding, said the climate of the Dominion is in every way suitable for ostrich rearing, but our birds are inferior, and re, in the case of sheep and cattle, a good strain would have to bo introduced before success would be attained. One of the features of Bishop Ayerill's tour in the north will be the dedication of a new chancel at the Opotiki Church. This church, more commonly known as Volkner's Church, has associated with it a great deal of sentiment on account of the historic significance attaching to the building. It was here, that early settlers took refuge from the Natives during the Hauhau rising, and it is over the grave of the Rev. Carl Sylvius Volkner, who met his death at the hands of the Natives, that the chancel is erected. At the Police Court, Palmerston North, a man and a women who had been living in a tent on the bank of the Manawatu River, at Awapuni, were brought up on a charge of vagrancy. The woman stated that she was the daughter of a duke, and had £IOOO a year pocketmoney. A hardhearted bench, however, separated the pair by sending the woman to Wangnnui Gaol for a. month, and the man for a similar period to Wellington Gaol. The illicit "dropping" of liquor is apparently attended, with considerable profit. Recently (says the Wairarapa Daily Times) the members of the "Droppers' Union" purchased a second-hand motor car as a means of conveying liquor from place to place. The oar 'was somewhat out of date, and inclined to be noisy, and did not altogether meet requirements; hence it was disposed of, and it is stated that the members are now negotiating for the purchase of another arid' better car with which to ply their risky calling. At the . ballot for the Mackenzie runs at Timaru two marbles were drawn, the first being the winner, the second the runnerup, who would take the run in case the winner did not pay up. In no case was the "runner-up" successful, as _ the "winner" was always ready with his or her cheque for "the deposit money. In this connection an employee of the Harbour Board had an anxious 10 minutes. He was a runner-up, and had his cheque ready, when the breathless winner (a Timaru hotelkeeper) came along, and gladly sealed his bargain. The British Medical Journal says that an international congress for the organisation of measures for the suppression of the opium traffic will be held at The Hague on May 30. ' Among the nations which will take part are Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Japan, China, and Siam. Great Britain will propose that morphine and cocaine shall be included together with opium in the prohibitive enactment, and this proposal will, it is said, be supported by the United States.