OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3004, 11 October 1911, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The retail price of milk in the Belfast (Canterbury) district has been reduced from 4d per quart to 3d. There were 1756 fully-equipped first-aid men of the St. John Ambulance Association on duty along the route of the Coronation procession. T. Mann, of Tintaldra (Vic.) has just put up a rabbit-trapping record for that district. He caught 1102 rabbits in four days. With 115 traps he accounted for 399 rabbits in one night. The number of persons to an inhabited dwelling does hot vary much in New Zealand, as, according to the census returns, it is practically the same now as it was in 185 a That is 4.66

The Invercargill and Suburban Dairymen's Association has notified that the summer prices of milk (to take' effect from the first of the month) will be 2d per pint, 3d per quart, a<nd .Hd per gallon. It was reported at the annual meeting of the shareholders that the accident to an excursion train on the Great Southern and Western railway at Roscrea, Tipperary, in July last year, and in which 100 persons were injured, cost the company £526.756. . The demand for Federal currency notes has exceeded all anticipations. It was at first thought that about £5,000,000 worth would supply. the Commonwealth, but an. Executive Council order has now been passed putting the limit up~ to £12,000.000. Mayor Gaynor, of New York, has been presented by the citizens with a lo'ving cup five feet _ high to commemorate the first anniversary of his escape from death when ho was shot by James Gallagher in August of last year. Mr Samuel Vaile has again petitioned Parliament to order a trial of the Vaile system on the Te Hana-Rohorua rnihvay, a distance of 246 miles. _ Mr Vaile deserves a reward, if it is only for his consistency in hammering at the Government.

Some fishermen at Woollongong (N.S.W.) on September 23 captured a large shark of the grey nurse variety, and on opening it discovered the breast portion of a human body. Dr Kirkwood was of the opinion that tho shark had eaten it not sooner than the day before. Trooper D. M'Kay, of Temuka, has been compensated by the Defence Department for the accident that he met with while in camp in the Timaru show grounds. He will receive £2O, and a oension of £1 a week until such > time as he is able to pass a medical examination. ".

For telling his wife to say her prayers and get ready to die, or to take her chance of life on the spin of a coin, a man named Longstaff, of Bendigo, was fined 20s. The woman cried " Heads" and won., so her husband told her she could go back to bed again. Mrs Rose Keeling Hutchins fixed £l3 a

day ae the lowest figure on which a millionaire's wife could live properly. This figure was arrived at when Mrs Hutchins petitioned the Equity Court in Washington for consent to use her £2OO per month allowance for " pin money." There has been such a rush to buy the chairs that the peers and peeresses sat on at the Coronation in [ Westminster Abbey that the Office of W° r ks could have sold three times as many chairs as were actually in use.■•. Each chair that was sat on by a member ;.of the nobility was sold for -30 s. Two Orepuki residents travelling recently in the Lilburn Valley report having seen eight deer in two herds near the head _of the valley. The animals were in the pink of condition, and made a fine picture as they bounded up the slope. A stag with a magnificent spread of antlers was much admired. . •■

By the end of this month every horse 'bus of the great 'bus combino will have disappeared from the streets of London and been replaced by motors. The vehicles will be broken up for scrap iion and firewood, and the horses sold.. The vanishing quadrupeds are to return to the land and the simple life. There are no fewer than eight ex-Can-terbury farmers now settled in the Seward Moss district, Southland, the cheap land available there having no doubt proved an attraction. Mr Wm. Barker, who originally held 1800 acres, has since disposed of 1000 acres, so that now he has only 809 acres remaining. , Temporary lamps on the ends of the moles at the Wangaiiui Heads are to be replaced by the fine Wigham lamps. One has now been erected on the north breakwater, and this week will see one erected on the south mole. The lamps will burn for 16 days, and will be visible probably five or six miles out at sea.

Mr J. M. Henderson objected in the House of Commons to grants being made to Polar expeditions on the ground of cruelties inflicted on dogs used in the expeditions. . Mr Hobhouse did not believe persons engaged in Polar expeditions inflicted any "unnecessary hardships, and certainly not cruelty, on -dogs. In recognition of his action in saving the lives of four men at Mahanga Bay in November last Gunner F. A. Saunders, of the Alexandra Barracks, was presented with the Royal Humane Society's medal and certificate by Mr A. L. Herdman, M.P., at the Seamen's Institute at Wellington on Wednesday evening. Mr Hobhouse, Financial Secretary to the British Treasury, stated m the House of Commons that the average weekly number of persons in receipt of old-age pensions during' the first six months of 1911 .was 901,605. The estimated cost of old-age pensions in 1911-12 was £12,360,000 (exclusive of expenses of administration). There died the other day, at the age of 82, a hermit named Lewis, who for the last 20 years has existed on Shellfish arid lived in his covered trawler, beached at Lower Fishguard. He never varied his dietary, except- when shellfish was scarce, and then he substituted bread and cheese. To within two days of his death he was in robust health

Shearing operations in the Poverty Bay district have 'commenced exceptionally early this season, says tho Poverty Bay Herald. On Wednesday morning the New Zealand Shipping Company received 14 bales from Mr J. Murphy's Reyongaere station, and a further load from the same place was expected to come to hand oh the following day. Dr Arnold Knapp, the famous eye specialist of New York, performed an operation recently on Dr H. D. Chapin, of Cleveland, that "none of the experts of Europe would undertake. Dr Chapin lost his sjight seven years ago: Dr Knapp cut down into the corner of the eye, removed superfluous matter, and restored the afflicted man's 6ight. Judging by the large amount of money expended in motor cars in Ashburton . and district during the past six months (says the Ashburton Guardian) the district is in a very prosperous state. Business in motors has been exceedingly brisk for the period mentioned, Ashburton firms supplying oars to local and district" customers to the value, approximately, of £12,500. If a new police gaol is not erected in Westport there is a probability of local prisoners having to be sent to Greymouth for safe keeping. With 80 to 80 prisoners a year to be dealt with, the expense would amount to a considerable sum. It is suggested that the member for the district should endeavour to get a vote passed this season for a new gaol building.

Mr John Redimond, says the Manchester Guardian, has received from Tasmania a gift of historic interest to the Irish party in • the »-hape of a brick taken from the cottage in which John Mitchel, editor of the United Irishman, one of the leaders of the Young Ireland movement in the 'forties, lived on parole while under sentence of 14 years transportation. The Mexican Postal. Department has a novel method of informing the public of the weather bulletins given out by the weather bureau. Every letter which passes through the office is now stamped with the indication for the next 24 hours. This stamping is done at the same time as the postage stamps on the letter are cancelled and the receiving &tamp fixed.

The mortality among stock in the Manawatu district is reported to be rather serious. Cattle have been dying in consider-

able numbers, some through getting into gullies where tutu was growing, while others had died through eating more dry grass and coarse fern, than they could digest. Many sheep have died through lack of feed, "settlers having, been rather overstocked'. ? The following tenders were received by the Public Works Department for the erection of a bridge over the Waiau River at Tuatapere:—Everett and Hefferman (Seatoun), £3844 Is; Hamlyn and Baird (East Invercargill). £6264 10s; P. A. Lyders (Dumedin), £6370; Rhodes and Son (Dunedin), £6586 13s 4d; and J. Walker (Invercargill), £6842 2s. The tender of Everett and Hefferman has been accepted. The multiplicity of local bodies was referred to iby Mr H. D. Acland ; n the course of a political address in Christchurch. He said that he had recently counted uno the local bodies in Ashburton County as far as he could 1 remember them. There were nine road boards, ore county council, one river board, two town boards, one borough council, one charitable aid board, and several dbmain boaroa. The sneak-thief made his unwelcome presence felt at_ tli© Wanganui Jockey Club's spring meeting. A lady in the grand stand had her purse, containing over £7, on the seat beside her for a moment, and, on turning round, was astonished to find it was missing. A careful search revealed no sign of either purse or money, and the owner was forced to arrive at the con-clusion-that she had been the victim" of a particularly impertinent theft. Speaking to a Napier Telegraph reporter, on trawling matters, Mr J. J. Niven stated that the fishing industry in England was subsidised for many years by the British Government. No such encouragement had been given in New Zealand, although it had in otJher industries, markedly to fruit and butter. As it was given to this branch of trade, he did not understand ..why it should not be given to trawlers.

_ Seven hundred and eight marriage certificates have been issued by the registrar at Christchurch during the nine months ended September 30, ard 151 marriages have been celebrated by the registrar during the same period, no fewer than four taking place on one afternoon last month. No better year for the " marriage business " has been exrierienced since the International Exhibition gave the market an exceptional "boom." The amount of beer duty collected in Southland during the month of September was £136 10s od, a decrease of £9 4s 6d frorn the return for September last year. Expressed in terms of beer brewed, the decrease is 738 gallons. FSr the nine months, January to September, of the present year the total excise duty : has amounted to £1194 6s 6d, as against £I3OB 5s 9d for. the corresponding period last year. The difference represents a dacrease of 9080 gallons in the output of Southland-brewed beer.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Craigellaohie-Glenlivet Distillery Company, at Glasgow, on August 18, Mr P. Jeffrey Mackie, the chairman, said: " The Australian Government has passed a law requiring shippers of whisky on this side to give a certificate of age from the Government or Customs authorities at port of shipment. The law comes into force on January 1, and no whisky will be allowed to be consumed in Australia under .two years of age. This is a just and fair law. When this law was mooted a year ago the various firms interested in the shipping of Scotch whisky to Australia approached the Treasury to see if they Jsvould grant the. necessary certificate, but they put us off. The law has now been passed, and we are willing to pay for the certificate, and the matter is now under the consideration of tho Government. Now there is no reason why this age certificate for Australia should Hot be panted. The conditions under which it is asked are just and reasonable."