OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3020, 31 January 1912, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Tho number of civil oases dealt with at the Hastings Magistrate’s Court one morning last week (102) created a record. The Kaikoura Star reports that a number of scurrilous anonymous letters have been received bv local residents lately. Petono will soon be a deserted village at tho present rate of depopulation. Ihero aro considerably over 100 empty houses there now. Labour in parts of the Manawatu district is stated to be very scarce this season. Mon engaged in grass seed cutting aro receiving as much as 15s per day. Tho Stratford correspondent of the Taranaki Herald, states that considerably more than £20,000 will be distributed through the Stratford banks for December milk. The clothing factory recently established by the Commonwealth Defence Department has become in two weeks the largest of the Federal manufacturing enterprises. According to the report of the New South Wales Bush Missionary Society, Missionary Mailer travelled 2069 miles, visited 413 homes, and held 64 services during tho past year. It is stated that one fisherman in Picton h;rs averaged £2B per week for tho past five or six weeks, mainly fren hapuka fishing. This fish fetches good prices is Wellington at present. Tho New Plymouth Borough Council has been notified by the Under- Secretary for Justice that its application that Marshland Hill reserve bo kept clean by prison labour has been approved.

The wot season at Geraldine has been responsible for an abnormal growth in radishes. Mr B. Kennington has a radish in his garden, which measures by tape exactly 18in in circumference. There ought to bo a big future before the condensed milk industry in this Dominion. During last year Great Britain bought from Switzerland 256 609 cwt of condensed milk, valued at £648,012.

A heavy raid was made upon the west coast tohcroas or mussels (says the Dargavillo Times) by a party of inland Maoris, who, by means of 23 horses, conveyed some two tons of the shellfish to their homes at Mangaka hia. Mr W. Platt, of Masterton, who has been very successful with the divining rod. claims to bo able to divine the presence of oil as well at water. He intends to proceed to Taranaki at an early date, and offer his services to some of the syndicates. A New Plymouth minister remarked a few days ago that marriages had boon very plentiful of late. Ho had had to deal with nine or 10 cases in a month. Ono curious point ho noted was that in all but two of these tho brido was older than the bridegroom. Steps have been taken by tho Premier of Victoria (Mr Murray) to pnt h stop to tho friction which ha.s occurred as a result of the peculiar methods being pursued by

some of the State land tax assessors in collecting- information from property-holders for valuation purposes. Tire secretary to the Cdmmonweialth Treasury has made arrangements with the Sueensland National Bank and Bank of ew South Wales for 'tfio destruction of •worn-out Australian notes.. When this system is in full operation £6OOO worth of notes will bo destroyed daily. Whitebait have 'been in evidence in the Mimiihau for the past week, and- they are very numerous art; present. A local angler saw a shoal of them near the bank, and, setting his net below them, he succeeded in throwing out anything from 100 to 1000. The trout are having a good time. In excavating the foundation of New York municipal building a new record has been made for depth. At the southern end of the structure, which will house between 5000 and 8000 city employees when finished, the “ sandhogs ” went down 139 ft below the kerbstone, or 107 ft below sea level.

The Western Star states that during the past week the local fishing boats have been securing splendid catches of blue cod at Escape Reef At what is known as “ The Old Man Rock ” on Friday, a schna.ppor some three feet long was hauled up. These fish are seldom caught so far south

In the 12 months ended September 30 last 10,078 bicycles, valued at £31,208, and parts and material for bicycles, valued at £200,575, were landed at the four chief ports of New Zealand. Both totals are ponsidorably larger than for the preceding 12 months, Tho Customs duty amounted to £13,361. Tho year 1911 -vyas an exceptionally busy one for tho port of Gisborne. During the 12 months 549 steamers visited Gisborne, the total net tonnage of which amounted to 660,757. Tho number of vessels show's an Increase of 30 compared with the figures for 1910, while the tonnage that year amounted to 618,633.

A clergyman at Keokuk. lowa, while waiting for a train at a railway station, was accosted by a couple who requested him to marry them. He saw his train approaching, and ho married the couple in the following brief manner:—“Ho you want one another?’’ Both replied “Yes.” “ Well, then, have one another.” A young lady named Ethel Bull, employed at the Grand Vue Private Hotel, Rotorua, met with a serious accident while moving a case of lemonade which wee without a cover. A bottle burst, the broken glass striking her on the nose and cheek. Several ugly wounds were inflicted, and a doctor put in 10 or 12 stitches.

The Wellington Carpenters and Joiners’ Union issues cards to all provincial members. Builders would save much trouble if, when engaging men, they insisted on such cards being produced, as it has been hold that the more fact of a man saying that he is a member of the union is not sufficient excuse for a breach of tho award. The Masterton Hibernian Society has put up what is considered to be a local record, at least, in the number of young men it has elected as office-bearers. Out of six members holding office only one has has reached the ago of 30 —and he is what might be termed a “continuous officer,” having been re-elected to the position several times-

The Financial Times, investigating the fortunes of the roller skating companies floated during the late boom, considers that fully 80 per cent, are now defunct. It reports that the aggregate liquidations to date since the beginning of 1910 numbers 127, involving a capital of £1,244,000. There must be nearly as many more which have gunk into oblivion without formal obsequies. An Aucklander, who has just returned after a lengthy absence, regards the change that has lately taken place in the amtoarance of the city as wonderful. “ Where paddocks and cows were to be seen round about Ensom and Onchiinga when I went

I away,” 110 remarked, ‘‘l now find streets, | house's, and shops. The progress that has j been made in four yeans is nothing 6 hort of I phenomenal.” i It is not generally known (says the Waihi ] Telegraph) that 30 years ago curfew law obtained in Aratapu. and at 8 p.rn. all lights in the various residences were supposed to he extinguished. Those were the days whi n j the rights of individual workers received no consideration, when the truck system swayed the district, and when the mill hands dared lo approach the hotel only on pain of dismissal. ! “ There is no township in the North , Island that is increasing more rapidly than iTo Kuiti. Buildings are springing up in I all directions, and the land is being rapidly I brought into profit ” .Such is the opinion expressed by a visitor lo To Kuiti. A new j dairy factory was opened during December, and this will draw the whole of its supplies from home separators, the factory sending , its carts out to collect the cream. I Judging by the statement of an express-

man. a judgment, debtor in a case called at the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington on Tuesday, the palmy days of expressmen in Wellington have passed. . Defendant, in answer to counsel’s query as to his financial position stated that his weekly takings averaged about £3 per week, and of tin’s amount from 10s to 15s per week was swallowed up in horse feed. An impecunious Chinaman is a somewhat rara avis in the Dominion, but such a one figured among the judgment debtors at the Magistrate’s Court at Wellington

ora ' the He owed an amount of £9 odd for shop fittings, but stated that he had had no money for a year, and consequently could not pay up. “When I get money I pay,” was all counsel could get out of him. No order was made.