OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2809, 15 January 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Zoologists aay that all known species of ;nld are gradually decreasing in jize. A Saturday afternoon holiday was the custom, in England as far back as the thirteenth century. The- guinea pijj grows more quickly than any, -other quadruped, attaining- its full growth in six weeks. At Norwegian State balls the ladies who intend "to dance wear white; -those who do not usually appear in black. The wool on the back of a sheep is the shepherd's barometer. The curlier the wool the finer will be the weather. The Japanese release pigeons instead of Etna/hing a, bottle of wine on the stem of a «L.p which, is being launched. Bricks made of coal dust aTe used for p*ving in Russia. The coal dust is combined with molasses and resin. Last year upwards of 42,000,000 -gallons of water were used in washing the streets and courts In the city of London. There will be a meeting of bishops of the Anglican province of New Zealand nt Christchurch on the 29th inst. There stands at the foot of Mount Etna.

1a chestnut tree which is said to be 2000 y^ars old. It is 213 ft in circumference. 1 Hay fever is very common in Gisborne just now. This is a. very annoying- complaint, and very little can be done for it. The number of insane confined in asyluma in England last yea* was 117,199, or at the rate of 34.7 per 100,000 of the population. The Republic of Panama boaste of only one railway, 47 miles in length, thoug-Ji the area of the country ie 31,500 square miles ; Madrid is the most elevated city in. Europe. It is built on a mountain plain or plateau 2200 ft above the level of the 3ea~ The walking craze has reached Ekefcahuna. Last week" two ladies walked from Eketahuna to Woodville, a distance of 27 miles. Wellington business men consider the last Christmas season to have been the best for many years from- the retailers' viewpoint. A man who was fined 10s at the Yarmouth Police Court counted out the amount in coppers, and handed it to the clerk. , In Paris hair-dye is considered so detriJ mental to long life that one insurance com*

pany refuses to insure the lives of men who use it. Single eye-glasses are prohibited in thd German army. Even if a soldier has only one defective x eye 'he must use a pair of glasses. _ -^_ A man who was most abstemious, but ■who smoked a groat deal, has just died aged 111. He retained all his faculties to the last. _ While a woman was making jam in. a house at Branksome a swarm of bees came in at the window and took possession of the kitchen. An ordinary lighthouse without electrics light costs only £350 a year ; but a big lightehip, requiring a staff of 11 men, costs £1,350 per annum. The main wheel of a watch makes 1460 revolutions a year, the central wheel 8760, the third wheel 70,080, the fourth 525,600 and the escape wheel 4,731,960. The scorpion is the most pugnacious creature in the world. If you were to place a couple in the same box one would be stung to death within a few minutes. The fact that native cabbage-trees in Hawke's Bay are literally covered with blossom is regarded by natives as a forerunner of a. .period of drought. Finger-prints on a candle left behind Tesulted in Frederick Shaw being sentenced at Birmingham Assizes to five years' penal servitude for warehouse-breaking. Ostrich feathers can be taken every eight months. The plumes &Te not. as some suppose, pulled out, but are cut with a sharp knife. The stumps wither and fall out. Necklaces, rings, and trinkets were found in the offertory plate on the occasion of Father Bernard Vaughan's annual appeal at Farm street on behalf of the Uganda Mission. Probably the largest plsmt in the world is a species of seaweed, which often attains a length of 300 ft. The stems are -dried and used aa ropes by the South Sea Islanders. A picture post-card of a main street in Manchester, packed with people, shows , that more than 50 per cent, of the male ' pedestrians had their hands in their pockets. In Russia if a man marries an heiress he does not get the control of her money. There is a marriage settlement, and the wife controls her property as absolutely as the spinster. A cough-drop which was stuck on a pair^ of scales in the shop of a Brighouse tobacco-* nist and confectioner led to the shopkeeper being fined £5 "for having unjust scales in his possession " Mr R. C. O'Neill, better known as " Gert " O'Neill, on whose farm the Peace Convention at the end of the first Boer war was signed, has died at Majuba, at the age of 80 years. A telegram from Rome to the Petit Parisien announces that the Vatioan is causing to be printed and prepared in secret a history of the relations between France and Rome since the Revolution. The dog 3of Portugal are passionately" fond of grapes, and sticks are purposely fastened to the animals' necks to impede or prevent their entrance to the vineyards in search of the luscious fruit. General Booth says he works seven days a week, and has not had any day off for 17 years. " I shan't," he added, " get a day off until I get to Heaven, and then ; I shall ask for six months' furlough." ■ | Some bathers -at Waikouaiti on Saturday ' caw two or three sharks, each apparently about 15ft long- swimming close to the breakers. Sharks ar« said to be very numerous all along the coast at present. Astonishing prices Trore realised for some of the pamphlets Bold at Sotheby's ! during the sale of Lord Sheffield's library. ' A little pamphlet of ' only four leaves"; entitled *' Strange News from Virginia," printed in 1677, brought £99, or £27 5s a leaf.. The supply of water from pumps in Ashburton is said to be rapidly decreasing, in volume. As ±he tank supply is also limited, and the water -almost unfit for use, the position in the borough, ie becoming serious. The decree of the Emperor Menfelik announcing the construction of a Cabinet on European lines in Abyssinia begins: " The Lion of Judah nas prevailed," and goes on to give the names of the first Ministers, i Marken, in. £he Zuvder Zee, is one of

the most curious islands in the world. Horses and trees are unknown. The island produces one jrop — hay — and of this the women manage the growing and harvesting. In modern Greece the language of flowers is developed with such detail, and is so generally understood, that a lover and his sweetheart sometimes carry on an ideal correspondence by means of clusters of loose blossoms. At the annual presentation of prizes in connection with the Shag Point School a prize was presented to the boy with the " best and cleanest set of teeth." Dr Hislop acted as judge, and there' was keen competition for tho prize. The unity of churches at Feilding ws-s, further evidenced last week by a nightly prayer meeting in all the Protestant churches consecutively, including the Anglican Church, under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance. Mr W. S. Short, solicitor, Wellington, has been appointed commiseioner to hold an inquiry as. to the respective liability of the Tuapeka and Bruce counties in connection with the construction of the. Waita.-huna-Greenfield bridge. According to the New Zealand Times, the shortage in the supply of marine engineers of all grades which has existed for some time has now reached an acute stage. Last week there were a number of good positions going a-begging. At a meeting of the Timaru Education Board a discussion arose on technical education. One member startled the board by stating that he had a son. 2+ years old, who could not drive a. nail because he could not hit it on the head. Miss Elly Collins, aged 63, a teacher of English in Berlin, committed suioide by jumping out of her flat, three storeys above the courtyard of the house in Charlottenburg where she lived. Just before, she attacked her servant, who fled from the room. Sawmilling in pinus insignia plantations has been carried on for a few years in South Canterbury, and the timber finds ready sale, the best quality bringing from ' 8s per 100 ft. It is being largely used by farmers in the erection of sheds and outbuildings". At flic Boaler Street Evangelical Church, Liverpool, seven Chinese converts to Chris- . tianity — laundrymen — were baptised. All canae from Canton and formerly were Confucians. They stoically ondured the ordeal of being totally immersed in the extremely cold water. . - . It is said that the number of Chinese in the goldfields district of Otago is steadily decreasing, and that in a year or two there will be very few indeed where formerly tney were numerous.- In the goldfields towns there are now only about 200 Chinese. On behalf of Queen Liliuokaleni, formerly Queen of the Hawaiian Islands, her attorney has just published a letter to Prince Pala Salmon, of Tahiti, showing the arrangement ' whereby he accepted £352 to release her from her engagement to marry him. Miss Jeanes, a. wealthy Quakeress, who has just died at Philadelphia, has foffc to the, Quaker College at Sworthmore £600,000 on condition that in future the students refrain from partioipa'fcin'g in. intsr-collegi-ate athletics. It is probable that the legacy will be refused. _ According to Mr Clement Wragge, the present season is the commencement of another drought cycle, and until 1912 Australia is to have a severe time of it. If credence is given to Mr Wragge'e prediction it should prove a valuable guide to New '"Zealand farmers. Milk dealers, in Wellington are experiencing 1 some little difficulty in supplying the wants of fcheir customers. Owang to the long spell of dry weather the cows axe not givinig as much milk as during the spring, amd> a further shortage is expected as the summer goes on. A Cromwell visitor to Oamaru for the holidays states to the Argus that there was an enormous amount of drink about the town during the time he was there, and it was reported that a Dunedin" brewing firm had sent about 1000 small caaks, of five gallons each, just before Christmas. Some counterfeit half-crowns which were in circulation in Invereargill are composed of silver, and stand 1 the acid test. They. h«ve been mad© in, two halves, soft-

soldered together. From investigation^ made, the police have good reason to , bd* lieve that the coins came from the north. The United States Navy Department has decided to ask permission of the Cunarol Steamship Company to place two naval engineer officers on board the Lueitania £os a few weeks for the purpose of gathering information relative to the turbine machinery which oannot be obtainecr in. official reports. Because the officials would not add m-smoking-carriage to the train an which a. Mantamrtre tradesman was about to return to Paris ho lay down on the line in front of the engine, puffing the cigar which the nonsmoking passengers objected to. The train was delayed 10 minutes until the tradesman, was forcibly removed. Twenty thousand Germans recently marched through the streets of St. Louis '"a procession, with banners bearing the 'nocription, "Do your duty to the Old Country and the New," in commemoration of the first landing of Germans in America* that of the Mennonite settlers from Krefeld, on October 6, 1683. Recent letters from Uganda (says iiha. St. James's Gazette) show that there are no signs of abatement of -the- dreaded sleeping- sickness. One estimate gives the death., rate from this cause at 80 per diem, *n«l • it is probable that not less than 60,000: persons have died from this strange disease during the past four years. * ~ The Kaiser is a partisan of the simple life, and at the many official banquets afc which he is obliged to assist 'be never touches any of the more elaborate -dishes. His Majesty has a preference for the- more homely meal of supper to dinner, _ .and? jsrenemlly contents himself with a simple dish of grilled cutlets, -with huge cups of tea. There is at least one individual in Timaru who has mistaken conceptions of the duties of the Borough Council employees, for a few days ago Mr Gibson, the caretaker of Caroline Bay, found on the lawn tied up to the fence, a doff, and olose by was a note addressed to the caretaker and signed " Ratepayer," saying, " You may destroy this animal." It is stated that a man who had about £200 wrapped up in a handkerchief oa board the fei-ry boat at Auckland, left t in order to watch the rescue of a young lady who had fallen into the water. Suddenly bethinking him of the money, ha rushed hack #to find it. To- his immense relief he saw the valuable parcel had notr. been touched. At present there lies at Tupuaekura am immense- Maori canoe, 60ft long by 7ft beam (says the Rotorua Times)._ It is not yet finished, but an .attempt will be mads to get it completed and fit for work by carnival time. A huge canoe like that, paddled by a stalwart Maori crew, should? form a great attraction, and would be f a> good business investment. The balloon offers a new instrument to the physician, a'ecording to Dr Alberii Robin, the French" scientist, who suggests that a. balloon to ' take' the consumptive poor i into the upper regions of the air for as [ few hours each day would .do more good! than expensive trips for a few days intr> the country. He has "already conducted » series of experiments with consumptive i patients. 1 A patent has been 'applied for by Mri Francis Henry, a sawmiller, of Waik*'wi, 1 Invercargill, for an improved method n$ dressing flax. The method consists of firs* soaking the green, flax in a hot solution q£ water and chloride of lime, passing itt • between weighted rollers, and than, submitting the flax to the" action of steam pressure, and afterwards passing it through! an ordinary stripper. A man who was charged at the Gbriefr* church court asked the B»nch if it were no£' a breach of the bv-lftTf for a person to wheel, as well as ride, a bicycle .on a footpath. The constable who laid 1 th« information asffainat him wsur wheeling his cycle when he met defendant riding^ The subinspector remarked that even if half-ai> dozen others were breaking the by,-lo.w itr wss no reason for defendant v doing 1 : so.' W. Roy Swan ton, 18£. years, a promising! and successful 6tudent at the -Sydney Technical College electrical engineering department, was drowned while surf bathing afc Cronulla on the morning of December 25. It was stated that young Swanton wis nofe a very erood swimmer, and that he subV denlv collapsed when in about 9ft a of water. Dr O'Keefe, who made an examination of , the body, stated that, in his opinion, death was due to* heart failure. / The Wellington Harbour Board has plaoed an^ extensive order for hydraulic machinery with Messrs Andersons (Ltd). The m-iee is about £16.000. Nearly bal£ of this, it is estimated, will be exoenrted on labour in the Dominion. Hydraulic i cranes until recently have been free of duty, but they are now placed in the same category as steam ; and electric cranes — viz.,^ 20 per cent/ ' ' The colonial pnoes compared favourably. it is said, with those from the United Kingdom, exclusive of duty. Up to the present the Wellington Harbour Board has imported nearly aU its hydraulic cranes.