OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2811, 29 January 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

The vine attains a great ago, continuing fruitful for at least 400 yeare. It is supposed to be equal to the oak as regards 'longevity. The water-lilies in the New Plymouth Recreation Grounds are spreading into the lower lake. The lily-pond is a beauty spot^-just now. Owing to the appearance of rabbits in the Pohangina district it is probable that measures for their extermination will shortly be taken. A gunner of the Royal Artillery, in full uniform. and. wearing top boots, competed in a ploughing match, and won a. prize, at Shalfoid, Essex. During 1907 there were 228 arrivals at the Patea wharf. One vessel went ashore during the year. In the preceding year five were stranded. A gardener named Alfred Parfact las been sentenced by the Midhv^rst magistrates to a month's hard labour for stealing a penny packet of tea. Steam has 'by no means made sailing vessels, obsolete. The total number of the latter in the world is still 65,934, as against only 30,561 steamers. Two eagle's- eggs have been hatched by a hen owned by a Philadelphia farmer. Both eagles are being well cared for by their £roud foster-mother. The borough of Roxburgh is taking the necessary steps to raise a special loan of £800 for the purpose o£_ lighting the town by means of acetylene gas. Madrid stands higher than any other European capital, yet it 1$ not more healthful than other towne, probably because its system of sanitation is bad. Among the curios brought home from South Africa by tiie 16th (Queen's) Lancers, at Colchester, was a fine stork. It was installed as a- regimental pet. Experiments are proceeding at L'Orient with a shell which emits a. ray of light when it touches the ground for the purpose of assisting firing, at night. Chicago is gradually sinking, at the ra-te of nine inches every 100 years. A professor predicte that in about 1500 years' time the city will be inundated by Lake Michigan. Probably the best timekeeper in the world is the electrio clock in the Berlin observatory. It is enclosed in an airtight glass cylinder, and its deviation is practically •nil - In some German towns children are allowed to travel free on the local tramway cars if they are under a certain height, which is marked on the doors of the vehicle. The New Zealand Institute of Journalists hae donated £13 in aid of the fund for the widow and children of the late Mr Barratt, journalist, who met with a fatal accident at Levin. The weight of a man's brain has nothing to do with .hio" mental power. It is a question of climate, not of intellect. The colder the climate the greater the size of the brain. The Duke of Wellington v has many treasures of historic value, chief of them the service of plate which Portugal presented to his famous ancestor. It is said to be worth £200,000. _ Commander Grant, of the fishery protection boat Halcyon, said, at a banquet at Lowestoft that -the nets of the herring boats in the Nortih Sea covered an area of 160 square miles. The temperature of 4000deg or 5000deg can be produced only between carbon points of an electric aro light. The next hottest place in the world is the crucible of an electric furnace. While he was addressing an audience on the subject, "Are men honest?" and the which he affirmed, Mr Sydney Burcher, of Boston, Massachusetts, had his gold watch stolen from his pocket. Duke Carl Theodore of Bavaria is the only royal doctor.. He has just completed his five-thousandth operation for cataract. He takes a fee only from those patients who can easily afford it. A courtship which began, nearly half a oentury ago was renewed a few weeks back, and has been happily ended by the marriage, at Tiverton, of Mr John Manning with Mrs Sarah Williams. The Kanaekane Block, of 5296 acres of grazing- land in the Gisborne district, which ( is divided into seven sections ranging in area from 224 to 966 acres t will be open for selection in February. A Wanganui Chinaman t who has been vising his native land, says that the Chinese army has been, converted from a rabble to a well-equipped and efficient force. This by the aid of Japanese officers. Professor Chittenden, who has been devoting special etudy to veterinary science, assureg us that a dog will thrive just as well if it never gets a scrap of meat, though that is its natural food. Tho King has sent to the British Museum a collection of " passwords " U6ed tor the court and the city in 1812 and 1820 and signecj by George IV. Passwords are still used in the Tower of London. Persons who make hop beer tor sale are now required 7to take out a license to do so. The license fee is £1 but the Gazette notice that the license is required doee not say where the license is to bfl got*

I The enormous and palatial New York I skyscraper situated *at the north-west corner of Fifth avenue and Forty-second street has just been leased for a period of 21 years at the record rental of £300,000.'

Mr. Henry Evans, goods manager of the Midland Railway Company, objects fo his clerks wearing caps, breeches, and leggings, and has issued an order that they shall , wear bowler hats and trousers in future. ; Another big building to be let on the flat syste.ni is nearing completion in London. The rent for a flat is to be about £2000 a year, and for that the tenant will have four large reception rooms and 10 bedrooms. ! A well-known figure in Leeds (John 1 Jowett Hall), who formerly practised as a solicitor, and who came to be known as the " Poor Man's Solicitor," died «ecently in the Leeds Workhouse. He was about 70 years of age. The vicar of Sheffield has inaugurated a short service, beginning at 10 a.m., in order to give mothers an opportunity of getting home from church in sufficient time on Sunday mornings to prepare hot dinners for their families. i ' The sand-pump * dredge Jupiter, which ; has recently been extensively altered, was ] given a trial on the Newcastle Harbour bar 1 recently. Set to work in 24ft of water the pumps filled the" hqppdrs •with 760 tons of g&nd in 35- minutes. ' ,~~ ' r

A Horopito correspondent writes to the Taihape Times: We have now ten hop beer shops all doing a roaring trade. The last two opened about a fortnight ago. A few make it rather strong, which has affected 1 the heads of many. Commander Simpson, of the Aberdeen . liner Moravian, -which arrived at Sydney from on January, 9, that_ ' clouds of 'dust, whicH had come -from Aus-

' tralia, could he seen for nearly a thousand , miles from the land.

A man named Geissler sent an old arm- , chair, which he had bought at a sale in ! Paris 'for 10s, to be reupholstered_. He was •; informed that £40 in French gold pieces ' had been found in the horsehair with" which , the seat was stuffed.

The Newcastle Cathedral,, which is said to have suffered through the recent earth creep, i was recently supplied with a, fine three1 manual organ (costing £2000), by Messrs Norman and Beard, who built the Wellington Town Hall organ. Several West find hatters have decided to increase- the height of the silk hat, which has been stable for some years. They are now being made 6ln deep in small sizes and about 6iin in the largest, so that they can only grow taller again. A donkey in a. field at Ruan Minor was feeding with two cows, when it began chasing them. On getting close to one of them it seized its tail between its teeth and. bit it off oloee to the body, leaving only a short, lacerated stump. 4~ There ?s no - danger (says Canada) that Socialism in. its extreme form will ever become a, factor 1 of first-rate importance in Canadian ' politics ; so large^ a proporlion of the people of the Dominion^ pwn land, houses, and" personal property.'The surviving native officers of Hodson's Horse 7 arrived at Lueknow on the anniversary of his death bearing a wreath for Major Hodson's grave in Martiniere Park. The wreath was inscribed: "In memoriam, from his comrades-in-arms, 1857-1907." Over 35,000 declarations were received- for exemption from vaccination .under the act which came into operation in South Australia, in October last, giving parents up till December 31 to claim exemption from vaccination in resptect of their, children.. The present position of the finances' of Stratford borough is not yet satisfactory, and (says the Post) it has been decided that the present arrangements with the manager of the abattoirs be -terminated and that the town clerk assume his duties.

On the occasion of his Excellency th« Governor opening a bridge at Cambridge the local newspaper (the Waikato Independent), run. by Mr R. A. Pyke (formerly of Clyde and Milton), celebrated the occasion by printing four of its pages in gold.

A railway porter, Norman Allen, who had been missing' from his camp at Miriam. Vale, near, Gladstone, Queensland, for some days, was found dead within 100 yards of his bent. There 'was a bullet wound through his breast and a rifle by his side. The Sultan of Turkey does not drink from the ordinary water supply of the palace, but has sealed barrels brought specially for hie own. use every morning from a distant spring well. They are closely guarded to prevent any attempt at poisoning. After listening to lectures on manliness, straightforwardness, erectness, moral character, and the like, a Stratford youngster sneaked out of the school building and let down the tyres of all the bicycles he could find, and took away the fitings to prevent re-inflation. - "If all the unsightly, Insanitary houses of the West Coast (of the South Island) were, condemned and demolished *ft°^ c •would not be much of the Coast left, la tto opinion of & competent Wellington oritio who has just returned from a -visit; to that part. According to the teachers' superannuation financial report iot iU«r quarter ending

December 31, the net accumulations during that , time were ,£6OOO. The statement showed that £55,000 stood to the credi^ of the fund. Nearly 3000 teachers are rov* contributing to the fund. At a private boardinghouse in Palmerston the other day (says ait exchange), one o£ the boarders was qjxmt to have a bath, and! had turned on the water tap in preparation 1 .. To his astonishment, not only did the water come, but also an eel, about 12 inches long! and the -tniclcness of a finger.. The Oullinan diamond, the birthday gifS to the Kinjj from the Transvaal,' is to bo sent to Amsterdam or Antwerp for catting) and polishing. The work iriSL take nearly two years. The eton 6is kept in a massive! burglar and fireproof safej tied round witS red tape, and watched by detectives. Major B. F. S. v Baden-Powell, president of the Aeronautical Society, in addressing the Bradford Philosophical- Society, said! that there seemed no reason why small flying machines should not travel at leasfi 100 miles an hour. They would probably be as safe in a general way as motor oars. Perha-ps the oddest' of names may be seen during a drive through the Hundred! of Hoo in Kent. Outside a country inn you may see the landlord's name painted! — Time of Day — and a reference to the parliamentary register will disclose thai? extraordinary name on' the list of -rotera. - A motorist declares in .the Paris . Gaulok that more than half the motor accidents which occur are caused ,by the moustache.) Men who have neither the' inclination noji the capacity to become cbauffenrs do soy' he says, simply because in that capacity they will not be compelled to shave, ' at* are all other servants.

Recent letters from Uganda, fsays the Sfe, 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, and it is probable that; not -less - thau, 60,000' persons have' died from thfs" strange*diseas# during the past four jeers. According to the New 'Zealand Times ai flaxmiller found his hemp on inspection irji Wellington the other day in suob. a dis# appointing state, 'owing io careless worfe by his mill staff, that he at once wired back to the manager to close down that mill. He expects when he starts toe milt again to get better work done.

Early on the morning of the 9th- inst.» the Bowden railway station, South Aus» tralia, was entered by burglars, who blew) K>pen the safe with dynamite, and got awajp with four sovereigns. The contents off the office were thrown about in great confusion. Although a policeman was on thet spot four minutes aftefihe explosion, the thieves escaped. - ; '

As evidence of his "wonderful forgetfuf* ness," Arthur Brock, under examination! at Ipswich Bankruptcy. .Court, declared! that- on " one occasion "he had to - ask 1 - •% friend, "Do I owe you any money?" — i (Laughter'c> His- friend- -replied- "-No."— i (Laughter.} " And. I suppose 1 »ou could a£ that time- hardly-belieTe 'him, • commented! the official receiver. "I really 'forget, sir," answered the debtor. ' •

Denmark's kings for centuries have all been named ,Ohrifltiap.'or c Fredenbk. ' T&'a is not the result of accident. , It is the law! of Denmark that Christian .must be- succeeded by Frederick, and Frederick by; Christian. Tg^attain^ thif, andl v without, th<* changing oFnames; in case of deaih' or b'tne» reason, every Danish prince, no matter what; other names he -may receive, always includes Christian ami Frederick among thenfc. The Jefferson Davis memorial association of New Orleans . is planning to commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the birth ofi Mr Davis, on June 3 , next, by breaking! ground for the erection of an imposing monument to the only President of the-Con-federacy. Mr. Davis died at the home of! ' Judge Fenner in New Orleans, 'and his firs'li wife is- buried at Bayou Sara, in Louisiana*. There is talk of removing her .emains tot New Orleans.

The Tourist, \ Department . ii recognised! throughout the 'Bominion as a very- 'useful l institution fou directing "" travellers and! giving information about health -.resorts* but some people- must thiifk tihat its yea?* satility'ie illimitable. One anxious inquire.^ telephoned! the- local .office recently J and in? quired, "Can you tell me what date Easter], Monday will fall on this year?" The de-i partment answered the question satisfacU torily. A form, of tuberculin, which is said_ t-01 considerably assist medical Men in comingf to a decision as to the existence^ of consumption in a^patient, has been discovered] by Da- Calmatte, director of the Pasteurt Institute at Lille. It is obtained from" the*' tubercular bacilli, and when dropped into!., the eye of a person suspected to be suffering) from the malady/ will indicate if disease is present. Dr Mason, Chief Health Officer^ has sent to France for a supply of the ne\Vt tuberculin. # _ < Fronr'information lodged with the policd at Walgett (New South Wales} it appear^ that George Wood, an employee' , at Danj* galear Station, and a well-known' amateur! rider, was accidentally shot while in thet act of crossing over ' to his room, _-^r<?m_ » room where he had „ been .convere^ngf _witqf one of the ojher,.. station hands. -At, tiha# juncture the manager was firing at a do# tha* had been' distunbinsr sheep. Deceased^ •who was in the Line of fire, was fatalljt wounded, being struck on the shoulder? and head. An inquest was_ subsequently held, when a verdict of acidental deathi was recorded.