OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 3216, 3 November 1915, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

At Ohakune, for selling under-weignt bread, George Buckley was lined £7 10s and costs. Over 100 children are absent from the Hawera schools {says the Star) through measles. One of the interesting facts revealed by the British national register is that 471,000 people in live in flats. The. directors of the Masterton Dairy Company have decided to donate two boxes of butter per month to tho Belgian Food Fund. While walking in her garden at Temuka, Mrs Collins, who is over £0 years of age, fell, breaking her arm and dislocating her shoulder. A movement is afoot (says the Westport Times) to establish a Mechanics’ Union at Ngakawau, similar to the organisation at Millerton. A slight shock of earthquake was felt at Wanganui at half-past 7 on Sunday_ evening (says the Herald). A loud rumbling preceded the tremor. One hundred and seventy-nine women, all domestics, were assisted to obtain employment by the women’s branches of the Labour Department last month. A drunken man arrested at Greymouth had a Savings Bank pass book showing' a credit balance of £6OO and notes valued at £l3 on his person when taken in charge. Up to the 23rd ult. £l£67 17s 4d had been Collected towards the cost of a gift armed biplane from the people of Gisborne. Tho sum of £l7l 2s 8d is required to make up the total amount necessary. The evidence at tho inquest necessitated by the troop train tragedy at Taupiri, in which Private Magee was killed, shows that an element of tho danger of injury to passengers who lean out from trains always exists where there are tablet exchangers. For August the total exports of Now Zealand produce were valued at £2,388,353, as against only £722,628 for August of 1914. In the first eight months of this year the exports totalled £21,589,870, as compared with £19,891,560 for the corresponding period of 1914. Many of the sick and wounded soldiers who have returned from Gallipoli are loud in their praisee of the splendid work of former Boy Scouts. One young officer remarked that “it would have been better for many men had they received the same advantages of training as the Boy Scouts.” On the 23rd ult. the steamer Clyde wgs successfully lifted at Tuapeka Mouth (says the Olutha Leader). The method was similar to that which recently proved successful with tho Clutha. Last week the Clyde was given a cleaning-out, and all going well it is expected that she will be brought down to Balclutha by- the end of the week. The export of sawn timber during August amounted to 6,579,147 superficial feet, valued at £35,762, as compared with 4,749,800 superficial feet, valued at £26,307, for August of tho previous year. For tho first eight months of the present year, the export of sawn timber totalled 45,557,150 superficial feet, valued at £234,263, as against 57,004,410 superficial feet, valued at £292,467, for the first eight months of last year. An exceptionally good paddock of grass is to be seen (says the Balclutha Free Press) at Four-mile Creek. It is 24 acres in extent, covered with luxuriant new grass, which for some weeks has been carrying 552 sheep —23 sheep to tho acre. The owner finds that he will bo compelled to put more sheep on, as the grass is getting ahead of tho stock. This land has been twice in turnips lately, and before being sown down in grass was well limed. An opinion was expressed by Mr Veitch, M.P.j at a send-off social at Wanganui (says the Chronicle) that there should be a complete organisation • of New Zealand’s resources. He said that many ol New Zealand’s best women were chafing under restraint, and were anxious to do their part in carrying on the business of the country, and assisting, in the -absence of so many of the young men, and making sure that the products of tho dominion would bo maintained at the level of former years. Included in the passengers who arrived at Wellington from Sydney by the UHraaroa on Monday (says the Dominion of tho 27th ult.) were 25 expert fitters in the employ of the Sunshine Harvester Company, of Victoria. This firm has been doin" an extensive business in agricultural implements for some years past, and is now establishing fitting works at Bahia Blanca, where tho party now in Wellington is to be located. The fitters were to leave for Montevideo by the Arawa, on route to the South American port. As the six o’clock express from Oamaru t-o Dunedin passed Totara siding on tho 23rd ult. (says the North Otago Times) a man was soon to bo lying flat on top of the fourth carriage from the front of tho train. He was dressed in a dark coat and a white pair of trousers. As tho carriages wore rocking about going down the steep incline, tho man seemed to bo hanging on to one of the ventilators on tho roof of tho carriage. Those who saw him wondered if ho would bo observed before the train reached tho Otcpopo tunnel. No doubt ho was having a free ride. Tho Taumarunui paper says: —“Mrs F. T. Reece had a trying experience on Tuesday, 26th, in the dense bush above five or six miles from Raurimu. She was followed

by wild cattle, and to escape them she went off the beaten track and lost her way in the bush. As she failed to return home at 11 p.m., a search party was organised, and .every effort was made during the night to find the missing woman. Mrs Reese, however, found her way homo safe and sound next day.” It is the quaint custom in tho Cook Islands for tho boys who attend tho boarding school at Tukufia to take enough food to last them the whole week. At the end of the week they go home, and then start again each Monday with another week’s supply. Owing to the devastation wrought by the last hurricane, and the consequent shortage of food, the number of scholars had been reduced, states Dr Pomare, who recently visited there, because parents had not been able to give their children sufficient e-upplies. At Rotorua last week a curious case was decided by Mr R. W. Dyer, S.M., at the Magistrate’s Court. Wikiriwhi Te Tuahu, chairman of the Arawa _ Maori Council, charged Timi Ratewa with desecrating a grave. It appeared that the defendant had dug up four skeletons, with the object of getting a valuable tiki that had been buried with them. A great deal of evidence dealing with Maori customs was given, and the magistrate decided that the defendant had been guilty of an offence, and fined him £2, remarking that he had made the fine light on account of the heavy costs, which amounted to £ls 7s sd. Owing to the slackness of shipping at Oamaru, which has for some time past been very pronounced, the wharf labourers are having a very bad time (says tho North Otago Times). There are at present between 50 and 60 men on the list, which means, with the little amount of cargo being handled, that the wages per man are at a very low average. Indeed it is doubtful if, taking the earnings for the year, any man is now averaging 30s per week. A good number of the men, however, are not wholly dependent upon the shipping of the port, only filling in time at the wharf during the period when the Pukeuri meat works are closed. A respectably-dressed, refined-looking young woman, 25 years old, appeared before Mr 8. E. M'Carthy, S.M., at Hastings on tho 22nd ult, charged with, on October 15, attempting to commit suicide. Sergeant Hogan said that the girl had become melancholy, and, owing to lier neculiar behaviour, she had received notice from her employer. She attempted to take carbolic acid, but the glass containing the poison was taken from her by one of her fellow-servants. After she recovered her normal condition she expressed sorrow for her action. Tho girl’s mother said she would take charge of her. His Worship admonished the girl, convicted, and ordered her to come up for sentence when called upon. Some time ago there was an outcry against what appeared to be the extermination of the opossum, but the opposite vein was taken by those whose farms were adjacent to th« bush localities set apart as a sort of sanctuary for the animal. The fear was expressed by many farmers that unless measures were taken to keep them from increasing they would soon be forced to look out for a "larger area than that sot apart for them in order to obtain food. This fear has evidently been realised (says the Mataura Ensign), as on Sunday, while driving near the Kaiwera School, a resident disturbed an opossum on tho roadside. It is believed that it had escaped from the head of the Wyndham -Valley, where the animals are fairly plentiful. A kerosene tin jammed in a culvert on the Steward Settlement water-race, near the Waitaki River, transmogrified the landscape in the vicinity completely on Monday evening (says the Oamaru Mail). The race is above tho level of the road at this point, and the water backed up against the railway embankment, forming lagoons on either side of the race that inundated tho North road to a depth of several feet. One motorist in the reliability tests was held up in the midst of the lake for a large part of tho night, and had to be dragged out in the morning. Advantage was taken of the water by two young ladies, who were discovered nonchalantly swimming there. The tin was extracted, and all was right on Tuesday. This is not the first time that tins have caused trouble in the Steward race, and inquiries are being made.