OMNIUM GATHERUM

Otago Witness, Issue 2813, 12 February 1908, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM

At the sale of coins belonging to Mill. Osbome O'Hagan at Sotheby's recently. a pattern farthing, dated 1665, sold for £7. It is estimated that the Kaffirs in tho diamond mines of Krmbeiley, South Africa, steal £250 000 woith of diamonds in a \ear. A light breeze moves at about five miles an hour; a gale hurncs on at the rate of 3T or 40 milo^ ; a tine atorm at 50; and a huriicane at SO to 100. !\ou"*ie'-« -lie iav plentiful at Kartitu and Mo'-iuk 1 at iji>.=e:it. A party of Palir.eist.-on fuhermen had a catch Aji Tuesday evening laa£-

' " Boys between 12 and 16 give ihe icrv be=t ewdenco 1 lia\ c at inquests." said the Islington coioner in congiatulatina; an eriand-boy witness of 14. _ In the town of Klrgenberk. Cerman\ , taxes aie unknown, and la*t \car £10 was paid to every citizen from the profits of the municipal brickworks. An elephant works fiom the age of 12 to the age of 80. He ran haul 15 tons, lift half a ton, and carry three tons on his back without any tiouble. A fjmil\ of -iK in 13 months is too much for words Yot that it « hat Mis Alfred Hollow ay. of M.-uket Drayton, England, pi evented hoi husband with. I The pi we money for tug Champiojj Jusbji

on the second day of the Masterton A. and P. Show has been increased to £40 — £25 for the first, £10 second, and £5 third. Socialists on the West Ooa^ (says the Gie\ mouth correspondent of the Lyttelton. Times) aie organising a campaign, and will endeavour to form branches in c\ery township. The London County Council is considering the uesiral lity of adding critket, football, basket ball, hockey, tennis, swimming, and rounders to the cumcula of its schools. Taken by rail from Ballarat North to Melbourne, a collie appeared throe weeks later at its old home, having found its uay over 104- miles of load which it had never travelled before. The Imperial Government intended to call Parliament together on the last Tuesday in January, but miscalculated the date, .bejng under the impression that January 29 was a. Tuesday. Lord Fairfax, America's only peer, whose ancestors have lived in the United States since Cromwell's time, is about to becomo a British citizen, with a possible seat in the Home of Lords. In the opinion of Mr I. Hopkins, chief bee expert, the den»e smoke in districts where bush fire 3 are raging will have a prejudicial effect un the output of honey from those quarters. The railways of the United Kingdom carry infinitely more passengers than those of the United States, the figures for 1906 being: United Kingdom, 1,199,022.102; United States, 745.446,641. According to a Madiid telegram King Alfonso .has decided to present Queen Alexandra with the Castle of Oortegada. now m course of construction. The castle is near King Alfonso's own palace. The Riverton Natives are getting ready for the mutton-bird season, which commences in March, and are at present engaged in collecting kelp and totara baik for making kits to contain their catches. Although the sea covers three-fourths of the earths surface, it does not provide in the same proportion for man's wants. Only about 3 per cent, of the people of the world gain their living directly from the sea. People who live in vast and barren lands have the best eyesight. Eskimos will detect a white fox on the snow at a, great distance, while Arabs can pick out objects on the desert that are invisible to others. The reotor of Puileish. l'>sex. in searching the records of the parish, has di»co-\ered that George Washington was a descendant of a Purleigh clergyman, the Rev. Lawrence Washington, who was rector from 1633 to 1643. The influence of emironmpnt on intellectual manifestation was neatly illnstiated at the summer gala by the case of a vendoi of foft drinks who«o caravan flaunted a hand-written sign, "Summer diinks, Id a sla-«." ° Miss Marianne Henslev had a family paitv at Bath in celebration of her one hundred and second birthday. She is quite alert in intellect. She is able to lead and write and to keep her own accounts. Amputating a horse's leg at the fetlock joint. Professor Udri-ki. of the veterinary school at Bucharest, ha 3 replaced the lost portion with a leather artificial leg that enables the animal to walk about and take exercise. . Owing to the increased traffic not being sufficient to meet the increased expense in connection with band excursion trips to the seaside on week nights, the Christchurch Tramway Board has received to abandon them. "Show the incoirectness of the current u-e of the words ' jolly.' 'aggravating,' 'awfully,' 'chronic' and 'ripping'" wa-. a " poser " in an examination paper at a Chester girls' school. Half the candidates could give no answer. A Board of Trade return on wages issued recently shows that in the first six months of 1907 increases of pay wore Reported in all groups of trades in the United Kingdom, and that the increases were four times those of 1906. The hot weather which Melbourne experienced lately settled the mixed bathing question, t^iys an Australian paper. People did not bother whether it^ was right or wroncr They dressed appropriatolv, atl'l rushed the water together. "Ihe ministers are all against Sunday £»&eials," said, a member oj the Tiwajy*

Cemetery Boaid a few days ago. "but many people like to have funerals on SunI day. as it gives them a chance for a bigger display." — Timaru Herald. , After tra\elhng from Damaialand, Southwest Africa, to Russia, and thence to Philadelphia., to visit his mother, whom he had not seen for 25 years, Charles Langtry was killed by a, train when within ten minutes walk of his mother's house. i M. and Mdme Cardon celebrated the seventy-filth anniversary of their marriage in Paris recently. M. and Mdme Cardon have two children, both of whom are tinmarricd. The ages of all four to- , gether amount to 312 years. The largest quill toothpick factory in the world is near Paris, where there is an I annual product of 20 million quills. The ' lactory was started to make quill pens, but when these; went out of general use it was j concerted into a toothpick mill. I Three hundred pounds have been awarded to the dependents of an English farm labourer who died from sunstroke in the hay field. The judge awarded the com- , pensation on the ground that sunstroke is I a risk incidental to haymaking. I A Philadelphia paper says that if the American people will economise for a few j years, pay their debts, stay at home, and i save thair money instead of spending it I abroad, they will again soon be the richest and happiest people in the world. The use of penny-in-the-slot machines has resulted in the locking up of such vast j quantities of copper coins that the London Mint authorities were in December turn- I ing out seven tons of pennies per day to meet the extraordinary demand. Work ia proceeding at "high pressure in the German army clothing depots on the manufacture of the new grey-green uniform for tho Prus>ian army. The new tunic has a waist-belt and a turn-down collar, which, j when turned up, protects the ears. _ I While a boy named Mackay was carrying a bottle of disinfectant in the street at Singleton, N.S.W., he a-ccidentally broke i tho bottle, and tho contents poured over hia arm-s. body, and legs. He was severely burned, but is expected to recover. Mr Jay Gould, an American, believes that the dairy farm can be made the best place on earth on which to be born, educated, married from, and from which to add one's name to the honourable mention of earth's manhood and womanhood. A church of solid coral is a curio«tiy of the Isle of Mahe. This island, rising to 3000 ft. is the highest of the Seychelles group in the Indian Ocean; its buildings are all of square blocks b"«n from massive coral, and glisten like white marble. The famous Savoy Restaurant in the Strand has taken a postal -vote as to whether it shall continue to enforce its rule that those who have dinner or supper at the restaurant shall wear evening dress. Tho result is in faiour of evening dress. Money is no object with Westport ratepayers (says the Grey River Argus). Eighty-five votes out of 1500 were recorded i on the Borough Council's proposal to borrow £5000 for tho extension of the gasworks, the loan being carried by" 75 to 10. Di«cussing the wages question at the Tarnnaki County Council meeting. Councillor Adlam =aid it was not a case of earning a certain vage nowadays, but rather, '•We'll have it whether 'we earn it or not." More trouble for the much-hunted whale. I* has been discovered that the skin of the whale can be tanned into excellent leather for the u=o of covering automobile seats and other furniture. An average whale skin is paid to spiead out to an area of j 1500 square feet. _ I Good progress is being made with the ( erection of the city organ in His Majesty's j Theatre, Christchurch. It is expected that it will be completed about the end of ( next month or the beginning of April. Tire i committee intends arranging for a series T of popular recitals. Some workmen secured a fine snecimen of a. wallaby at Allanton bridge a few days ! ego. It was caught by chasing it up a tree and then throwing- a towel over it. The finder took the specimen into the city. How it found' its way to Allanton seems a mystery. — Taieri Advocate. _** Millionaires are privileged people, but it is extraordinary what freake they perpetrate. Mr Alfred Vanderbilt intends per-. *MiftUy to tfriifi 9- as&nh fe°ffl t&mo& to !

Brighton daily from May 1 to June 1& ?M He will take to London _ for the purpotid ~~jß 40 picked American trotting horses. «^fl The famous Ashburton collection of pie* "3 tures has been sold to four firms of art* *^& dealers — Messrs Agnew, Wertheimeiv D&\ia, and Sulley— for £130,000. Som^- <J of the most important pictures are Corretf-' *™ gio'a "Four Sainte," Rubena'e "Wolj Hunt," and a portrait of Rembrandt by! 19 himself. Tho Korean never cuts his hair oar beard* '^J| To do so is considered a mark of dishonour .y to his parents, whom he strongly reverences-, jz* Any hairs that may happen to oome oufr, Vand even the parings of Tiis finger-nails, ard --'3 carefully saved and put into the coffin, witfa! 2 him in order that he may go back to mothei.l -™ earth intact. J The recent fires in the Manawatu Gorge J have played havoc with the beautiful M scenery for which the gorge is noted. Thd 9 Manawatu Standard is informed that A % well-known resident of Aehhursfc is willing} to provide men to replant the localities ' r M injured, provided the Government supply, -"J the necessary seed. One of the two windmills purchased by thd "J| Palmerston Borough Council seven, year^l' "t| ago at a cost of £400 for the purpose of^ J|| pumping the town's water supply was (say3~" *3 the local Times) sold last week for £10The other windmill was presented to- thai _^ Palmerston Fire Brigade and is now being utilised as a firebell tower. * Jsj The enormous development 6f tho herrfngi ~-^B industry at Great Yarmouth was* attested .-^a this season by the opening of another marked expressly for Scotch fishermen, buyers, and) ~*jfl curers, wheie the selling will be conducted, ~^l according to the Scotch system, bjj .-^j sample. There is now a Scottish colony) 3 in the town estimated at 10,000. Jfl The Prime Minister has been approachedl *^ by Mr Hornsby, M.P., on a point con-> jM neoted with the amended Railway Classifi* M sation Act of last session. The act pro* -^8 vides that every married man is to get (6 'jB minimum . c a.lary of £130 a year, and thd ~^S question is whether this is to apply t<* '^ both the first and second division. "~ 3 It is reported that a number of those wha * assisted in fighting the bush fires in the "^ Forty Mile Bush district have been ren- J dered partially blind by the ashes and) Jj smoke (sa>s the Taranaki Herald). So serf- 4 ously were the eyes of Mr Bradstock, o£ -jjl Rongokokako, affected that he lias had to -JB 1 go to Wellington to consult a specialist. Mr Alexander Smith -told the South '^3 Staffordshire and Warwickshire mining engineers at Birmingham that the availabla 19 ccal in the district was sufficient to last for* *3 1100 years. No doubt when the period ofi "3 1 the coal's exhaustion approached the tides? gM or wind would be harnessed and the sun's ]3 rays concentrated, or heat generated ir» ,jj some other way. _ _ J3 One of the oldest buildings _in Christ- "^k church has been sold for removal. It was "3 situated at the corner of Golucester street S and Oxford terrace, and waa built in 1849 -4g by Mr F. Gibb, a baker. The shop was feuilfc of V.D.L. timber from Tasmania. Though -* so old, the building is etill in a fair state -J( 1 of repair, and much of the timber has escaped dry rot. • 1 By the jKaikoura leaving Wellington. 1 on the 13th inst.. Mr James Whinray, of Gisborne, is shipping to the Franco-British 1 Exhibition, through the Industries and 1 Commerce Department, a sideboard or New Zealand woods. No timber is grown either in America or England that carries such a beautiful shade of sunny hue of orange colouring. It is stated in the Dominion that tnera is woe in one of the Government Departments because of an ultimatum to the effect I that the employees are not to appear in i the office in_knickerbockers, a style of dress j which has come into favour, firstly on the score of economy, and secondly because a number of the clerks are residing at tha seaside during the summer months. - . " Anticipating a scarcity of unskilled i labour," writes a correspondent, "I in* j serted an advertisement in the "Wellington '• Post ' for the services of a handy man oc youth. Before the first edition of tha paper could have been published 10 minutea a stream of applicants commenced an energetic campaign for engagement. And* they talk about a paucity of labour ! j A large number of base coins of various denominations are being put into circulation in Queensland. Although the coins! are turning up at widely-separated places* it is evident that they are manufactured! I with one set of moulds, and circumstances seem to point to the fact that there is a central gang manufacturing the coins, with) widely spread agencies for their distribution. George Martin, a schoolmaster, waa charged at the Brisbane Central Summons! Court on tho 12th ult. with having assaulted Roy S)parke3. aged 10 years, a pupil at the Hamilton State School. The evidence showed that the boy was chastised! with a cane, and there were several marks) on his legs. Defendant was fined le, and £3 5s 6d costs. Notice of apneal was) given. The cinders from the waste burned lri English municipal destroying plants ara made into building material by cruahjnß', -= mixing with cement, and moulding into great wall slabs. Theee have door and win- -, dow openings, and even an interior iron ; framework for holding them in place, and some weigh as much as 11 tons. Tha; JJ frames are bolted together, the jointe being closed with cement. , „ . In the time of Catherine de Medici and her famous daughter, Marguerite of Valois 1 , J the face was covered at night with a find linen cloth dipped in milk, into which slices of lemon and orange, with sugar and alum, 1 had been laid, or into a distillation o| snails and lemons ; but the beauties of tha court of Charles II of England went fury ther and applied crude quiokeilver tq then? skin so that a new one might come in ital place. Strange as it may seem, a lot of moneyi is made out of policemen's cast-off uniform*. Quantities are bought by African trader* , and exported to various parts of the "Dark) j Continent," where they are exchanged fo«! ' palm oil, ivory, skins, and other merchan* j disc. It is by no means an uncommorl sight to 6ee a swarthy savage dressed ill the uniform of a London policeman and! I wearing the regulation helmet of th.4 p-force. A returned tripper stated lo the Soutlpi land Times that .great inconvenience i$ I being caused to tourists just now by reason! of the breakdown of the machinery on th4l Government steamer on Lake Jdanapourcp The machinery has been running badly fort some time, and the olimax was reached last week when part of the engines ha<| to be shipped to Invercargill. The resulc ia that people interested in the tourtefi troffip abciut Majjapouri are considerably 1 tfest«&