OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

In the Magistrate’s Court at Wanganui a man named Toy was fined £5 for selling milk, a sample of which contained 20 per cent, of added water.

The Waimea County Council recently passed a motion to the effect that all overhanging hedges and trees in the county must be cut back. Among those to receive a notice is a councillor who helped to pass the resolution. The majority of the eleven remaining members of the Waimato Band have handed their resignations to the trustees, who are now collecting the instruments, etc., belonging to the band, preparatory to winding up the affairs. Applications for New Zealand war medals are still being received, and, in cases where satisfactory proof is shown, medals are being awarded. Amongst those to whom medals have been granted are a number of members of the Maori race.

Taking exception to some remarks made by two of the board members at a meeting, the matron of the Nelson Hospital banded in her resignation. She was requested to reconsider it, but has refused to do so, and the board has now accepted the resignation.

The Akaroa Mail states that the small birds nuisance has become somewhat acute this year, and more poisoned wheat .has been sold to Peninsula farmers this season than for many seasons past. Either there is a scarcity of berries and other natural food, or the birds are enlarging their population extensively. Mr Henry Midgloy, a resident of the Jubilee Institute for the Blind, Auckland, has been successful in gaining honours in the intermediate division at the recent Trinity Co'lcge examinations. Mr Midgley obtained 96 marks out of a maximum of 100, which, considering that he is blind, is regarded as a remarkable performance. The steamer Manaroa, which has been employed in the Wei!ington-Havelock trade for several years past, was offered for sale at Wellington by public auction last week. The bidding commenced at £SOO, and rose in bids of £25 till £775 was reached. She was then passed in, as the reserve price put upon her by the agents was not reached. The Clutha Free Press states that Mr J. Ramsay, Clutha County engineer, has been engaged for some time in experimenting with old vulcanised rubber, with the object of restoring tlie rubber to its original condition, and so making it a marketable commodity. Mr Ramsay hag now hit upon the process, and experts have pronounced samples of old tyres treated by him as good as the original rubber.

The settlers of Makuri (says the Wairarapa News) are tired of waiting for the harnessing of the Makuri River, and are utilising the small streams which feed it. One lias just had his house fitted throughout, with electric light and various laboursaving devices, and other settlers are contemplating doing the same. It lias been suggested that the butter factory building could bo easily converted into a [rowerhouse for electricity. A young woman, Hannah Dutton, 27 years of ago, who resides at the Thames Hotel, met with a painful accident on Wednesday' week (says the New Zealand Herald) .She was using benzine to clean clothes, when by some means the gloves that she was wearing—which were wet with the benzine —became ignited. Her hands and arms were badly burned, and she was admitted to the hospital. A person who for a number of years past has loomed largely in Wellington financial circles, is reported to bo missing (says the New Zealand Times). He is being inquired for by a number of wellknown Wellington business and professional men who arc alleged to have subscribed their signatures to negotiable pieces of paper, and are anxious to ascertain if they are to he called upon to liquidate the face value of these documents.

An accident at Te Karaka, on Tuesday, sth inst., resulted in the loss of a valuable draught horse owned by Constable Doyle. A -dray was passing the Council Chambers, behind the dray being tied a double-furrow plough, and two leader horses were tied behind the plough. On a motor ear approaching the two horses took fright, and one of them plunged forward and was impaled on the steering handle of the plough, which entered its breast to a depth of 2ft, killing it almost instantly. '1 he Hank of New Zealand safe, which went through the Te Karaka Hotel Ore, near Gisborne, shows clearly that the heat to which it was subjected was very intense. The safe, whicn had stood the tost splendidly, was opened, and on examination it was found that the documentary contents, although badly scorched, were still readable. The paint on the interior was completely burnt off, while the brass mountings, the brass surrounding the keyholes, and the brass handle had been molted, and had completely disappeared. A meeting of supporters of Mr H. H. Michel and the Reform Government was

held at Greymouth on Friday night to receive lists and arrange the form of the presentation to be made to Mr Michel. There was a crowded attendance, and the proceedings were most enthusiastic. A sum of £6OO has been subscribed, which will be presented to Mr Michel at a Reform demonstration to bo held tide week. The date is

fo bo arranged by tho committee. It was resolved by the meeting to ask any member of the Government able to do so 'to attend According to Mr C. M. Gray, who has just returned from a trip to the South Sea Islands, the importation of Indian coolies to work the sugar plantations of Fiji has resulted in an influx of rather undesirable immigrants. A big now gaol has just been' erected in Suva, especially to cope with the Indians, who are rather frequent lawbreakers. Two hundred and seventy-five cells were considered necessary by the Government for their accommodation. A few days before Mr Gray landed in Suva two Indian coolies and a Fijian were hanged for muidor.

The right of sports bodies to interfere in matters political is onen to cjuostion, but the Poverty Bay Rugby League evidently feels so strongly on the matter of the Grey election that it has decided to challenge criticism, and at a meeting last Friday unanimously passed the following resolution: —“ That we regret that a Red Flag Socialist secured the scat for Grey, and desire to place on record the fact that not one of us sports is a Red Flag Socialist, and decidedly object to any such being a member of Parliament.”

The introduction of a deadly nest called tile ‘rhinoceros fly” into Tonga is causing the authorities of the group considerable alarm. Hie fly, which is said to he in Samoa at the present time, attacks the copra, the dried kernel of the cocoariut, which is the principal article of export from the group. The most vigorous precautions are being taken to keep the fly out, the measures taken in this connection including the burning of any mats which visiting natives may bring with them. The fly attacks the cocoanut tree from the ton, and. were it to secure a hold in the group, the results would, it is feared, he most disastrous.

The th.roo-class coastal passenger liner is somewhat of a novelty in New Zealand waters, although found to bo working well in Australia. It is, however, about to be introduced by the Huddnrt-Parlcer liner Riverina, and at present by that ship only. Ihe Riverina has the necessary accommodation, and she will ho in the •Sydney-New Zealand run. The first-class and steerage fares will remain as at present, hut the new second-class will provide accommodation better than the third, if less luxurious than the first-class, but at a material reduction on the existing first-class tariff.

The Auckland syndicate which, with an out-of-date outfit, comnicnced boring for oil in the Whangarei High School reserve (says the Poverty Bay Herald) and struck a highly inflammable gas and an oily liquid at the bottom of the boro, has succeeded in interesting a London syndicate to put up £IO,OOO, and its representative, Mr Isaac Coates, who went to the Old Country for the purpose-, cables that the syndicate will put up £50,000 if further exploration finds payable oil The Minister of Mims has promised <d get the Order-in-Cmincil hurried through so that operations may be recommenced on the field with an improved plant. The statistics of the borough of Oarnaru (says the North Otago Times) show that at the present time there are more tenanted houses in the place than at any period during its history. At the time of the construction of the railway works and the waterworks there was a population of over 6000 in Oamarn, and yet the number of houses was not so .great as now. Now there is not a sufficiency, and no one is building houses to let. It is, they say, an unprofitable speculation, it may be so, and the only escape from the position is for those who want houses to built] for themselves. That may ho riot always convenient, hut there is no alternative unless that of taking up lodgings. While there are unprotected railway crossings and people to drive over them, ail the automatic alarms imaginable will not prevent accidents (remarks the Stratford Post). A case in point occurred a few days ago. A young woman drove in a gig' from Broadway into Teuton street as unconcerned about the railway crossing in her path as if she were in a one-hundred acre paddock. She looked everywhere except in front of her, and it took several shouts of warning from two pedestrians on the sidewalk before she reined in the horse within a few yards of the outgoing mail train. All the time the warning hell had been ringing, and the whistles of the engine must have been heard a mile away. The latest and best story from outback has to do with an incident which (the Tcilding .Star says occurred only a few days ago on a farm not more than 101 miles from, say. To Arakura. A young farmer, noticing the cows were eating and destroying some .mangolds he had heaped up in a small paddock for lus pigs in the winter, decided at once to go to work and mend the fence. Yoking up his horse and cart, and putting what wire and tools he needed into the cart, he drove through the gap in the troublesome and started in real earnest to v,.-. Imagine his disgust when, having finished i his four hours of wire-tightening, plus j-i.tr- I hole digging, fitting, etc., he found that j ho had no way of getting the horse and ! cart out of the paddock. There was tin ■ gate. He had to pull down the fence he I had just put up.