OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3215, 27 October 1915, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Several oases of diphtheria are reported at Eoxton. It is stated that only one single young man is left in Ruakituri (near Wairoa), and he is an invalid. The lienees at the Wellington Zoo gave birth to four cubs on the 16th (says the Dominion). The lioness is the one borrowed from Mr J. J. Boyd’s Zoo at Onehunga some six months ago. A v,’omen’s mock court, held in His Majesty’s Theatre at Auckland the other day, resulted in nearly £IOOO being obtained on behalf of the Soldiers’ Queen. When an application was being heard for the granting of a prohibition order at Foxton last week it was stated that the person concerned had spent nearly £4O in a few days, A man named Thomas Farroley has been missing at Whangarei for more than four weeks, and is believed to have been drowned, his coat having been found in the water near the wharf. Of hops, 237,8591 b were exported last August, the total value being £7748; whereas in August, 1914, the figures were 31,02&1b, of a total value of £1761. For +he first eight months of 1915 the export of hops w-~ 383,4961 b, valued at £15,018; but in the fi. , eight months of 1914 a smaller export, 305,0431 b, brought a greater return, £16,952. During the voyage of the Niagara from Vancouver to Auckland the passengers raised £l5O for Red Cross work, principally through the energy of Mr E. Nordon, of Christchurch. Before the Niagara reached Auckland the passengers presented Mr Nordon with a gold wristlet watch, in recognition of his services as reed Gross organiser. At a meeting of the __ Wallace County Council on the 15th Inst. Mr James Fullerton, county clerk and treasurer, said that in over 34 years’ service he had only had one fortnight’s holiday. Ho asked the council to relieve him from duty and appoint a successor. The council (says the Southland News) went into committee to consider the matter. The lambing returns for the Waiau district show (says the correspondent of tho Lyttelton Times) that there has • been an average lambing, and whilst some farms have had to record the death of some ewes, there has been no great loss. Shearing has commenced on a lew places, and wool has come forward from Kaiwara. It is anticipated that there will be a shortage of shearers, which will have the effect of prolonging the season. It is not often that a owe gives birth to a quintet of iambs, but such a record goes down to the credit of a ewo on Mr A. Henderson’s farm at Isla Bank (says the Otuutau Standard). The mother is an ordinary crossbred flock owe. Four of tho lambs were produced alive, and tho fifth was still-born. Three of the quintet are now thriving well, the fourth, a weakly lamb, having been knocked on the head. Lambing percentages in the district are everywhere expected to rule high. The El Cordobes, a cargo boat from Liverpool, which arrived at Brisbane last week, claims to be tho first isritish deep sea vessel to try the experiment of substituting woman service for man service <n respect to some of the lighter occupations on a vessel. A correspondent of a Sydney paper states that while women arc considered to bo a success for short voyages, the opinion is held that the experiment on deep sea going vessels, so far as it has been tried, has not proved a complete success. The Government Orchard Instructor in Soutli Canterbury, who has returned from a v.sifc of inspection of the Ashburton district, states (says the Tirnaru Post) that the orchards there are looking well, and there is every prospect of a good fruit season. Tho experimental farm instituted by the Government is progressing favourably. This farm has an area of about 160 acres, tho greater part of which is laid down in cereals, but a section has been set apart for fruit planting, and next year planting operations will begin. Owing to a falling off m the fishing industry tire Now Zealand Trawling Company is considering the advisability of disposing of its fleet (says the Hawke’s Bav Herald). Mr H. S. Alward stated on the 16lh that tuero had been a doc.(led falling oil in the industry, and there was not enough encouragement to warrant the trade cent hitting. The Wellington demand had practically closed, that city drawing most of its supplies now from Auckland. Mr Alward expressed the opin’on that the fishing industry, as far as Napier was concerned, was dead. Tho Hon. G. W. Russell (Minister of Public Health) has stated (says the Lyttelton Times) that the Government was going to take over the Townlcy Maternity Hospital at Gisborne. The hospital, he said, was established some years ago and named after Mrs Townley, tho wife of Mr John Townley, who was well known in the Gisborne district. There had been for some time friction between tho authorities of tho hospital and tho Gisborne Hospital Board, and the Government had decided to take over tho hospital and add it to tho national maternity hospital system. A love romance arising out of tho Lusitania disaster has been recorded. _ Two passengers on board the ill-fated ship, Miss Gerta Ncilson and Mr John Welsh, have lately been married at a Manchester registry

office. They met on the liner, and became friends on the voyage. When the ship was torpedoed, Mr Weisn brought Miss Neilson a lifebelt and helped her into a boat, but she fell into the water, and he dived in after her and rescued her. The bridal pair had lost nearly everything they possessed in the wreck, Mr Welsh’s savings —a sum of £2OO0 —being among some of his luggage that went down with the ship. Visitors at Bluff, whether irora Invercargill or from the passenger steamers, are in raptures over the advanced growth in Bluff gardens as a result of the remarkable summer-like weather experienced for months past. It is an established fact that Bluff was always about three weeks ahead of Invercargill, horticulturally, the difference being duo to port having a more equable climate through being on the sea coast. St swart Island : s similarly situated. A Stewart Islander, exemplifying the remarkable growth in vegetables, stated to a reporter (says the Southland News) that he lifted one shaw of 21 potatoes, which weighed 9lb exactly.