OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The Kaikoura Star reports that petroleum has been struck by the Government in a certain locality of Marlborough. The site and particulars are not available for publication.

Mr Jacob Marx, of Maagatoki, has offered through- the Mayor of Bltham (Mr B. Dive), the sum of £IOO to assist any men of the district who have offered for service and who may need assistance between the time of offering and the time of going into camp.

Beginning with £3O in hand only six years ago, the Wellington Presbyterian Orphanage now has a site and buildings at Bcrhampore worth £6OOO, and a debt only of £I6OO (says the Post). From the T. G. M'Carthy Board of Trustees the committee has received another grant of £l9O. Amounts placed in the Post Office Savings Bank on deposit by trustees of any fund approved by the Governor under section 2 of the War Contributions Valuation Act, will receive Interest at the rate of 3| per cent, up to £3OO, and 3 per cent, on sums above that amount (says the Wellington Post). A correspondent of the Wellington Post wr.tes: —“April 28 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of the first white girl in New Zealand. This event took place gt the. Bay of Islands, the father being Mr William Hall, a shipbuilder, who, with his wife, was brought to New Zealand by the Rov. Samuel Marsdcn. An analysis of the applications from women in England for war work shows that out of a total of between 23,000 and 25.000 sent in, about 3500 women wish io b'- employed on armament work. One of the applicants, who is most eager to make shells, is a Scarborough laundress whose place was destroyed by the German cruisers in the East Coast raid. The question of the bonus for the discovery of phosphate deposit® in the dominion was considered by the Board of Agriculture recently, in conjunction with a valuable report from the director of geological survey on the occurrence of phosphate rook in certain localities in New Zealand. It was decided (says the Wellington Post) to recommnd that a larger bonus bo offered. A iStoke fruitgrower informs the Nelson Colonist that a large quantity of good fruit is going to waste in the orchards in that district, and suggests that, if arrangements could he ’ made to send it to Trentham. it would prove very acceptable to the soldiers in camp there. A considerable number of cases of apples have been collected in the Motuoka. district and sent to Trent ham. Speaking at the Farmers’ Conference at Christchurch on Thursday (says the Lyttelton Times), Mr G. Gardner, of Medbury, referred to the Agricultural Board, and remarked that the Farmers’ Union had not been invited to nominate any members for that board, and personally tie was very disappointed in the board. The union could have nominated a hotter board than the Government had done. During the hearing of the judgment summonses at the Napier Court on Wednesday morning a ease was called in which the defendant was a Hastings fruitgrower (says thc~Hawkc’s Bay Tribune). The defendant stated that ho had 23 acres of land in Hastings. His gross return for the last year was £99 5s lOd. Ho paid about £l7O interest on the land. He would pay the money as soon as he could. The proceedings were not continued. “For the past seven years, the sum of £102,000 has been spent by way of capital expenditure out of ordinary rates,” stated the Mayor of Wellington on Thursday night (says the Post), referring to the cost of acquiring properties in the course of streetwidening operations. A councillor_ had asked if the council proposed to dispose of certain of these properties. The Mayor said that the question would have to bo considered, but the present was not a favourable time for felling or otherwise disposing' of the properties. The Lake County Council has reason to congratulate itself on the generous treatment meted out to it by the Government in respect of monetary assistance for the renovating of the TCawarau Bridge (says the Lake Wakatipn Mail). Through the instrumentality of the member for the district, Hon. Wm. Fraser, it has boon agreed to give the council a straight out grant of £250 for the purpose instead of a subsidy of pound for pound. The work has already boon put in hand by the contractors. On Thursday morning, between the hours of 4 and 6. five straw stacks belonging to Mr Hugh M'Kenzie, of Mabel Bush, were destroyed by fire (says the Southland Nows). The owner states that ho was in bed when the outbreak occurred, and his attention was attracted by the glare. A suspicious circumstance which he then noted was that the stacks appeared all to ho on fire to the same extent, which y»ould suggesf that there had boon simultaneous outbreaks. The stacks contained between three and four tons each, and were covered by insurance amounting to £BO. “All things come to those who wait,’’ wrote the Chitha County clerk to a Waipalii resident a few days ago,, when returning a cheque (long since replaced) dated September, 1911 (says the Mntnura Ensign). A postal box, fitted to the old railway and post office

at Ma.'pahi in its later years, and designed to deliver the goods, failed slightly in its duties, and some 15 letters and postcards were lound between the raised bottom of the box’and the floor of the building on its removal. One missive had served five years’ imprisonment, and will perhaps be nearly as old as the box. Many of the volunteers for service at the front find themselves in peculiar positions as regards rank when they get into the army. An instance of this is shown in the fact that one man found it necessary to salute his younger brother. But a more extreme case existed in the Trentham camp recently. A certain man carried on- an important business in private life, but forsook this to serve the Empire. On arrival at Trentham the duties assigned to him wore those of an orderly to a lieutenant. This in itself was all right, hut the lieutenant proved to be a young man who was a junior in the orderly’s office before joining the forces.