OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 25 August 1909, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

"Wireless' current transmitted & distance Ot five miles is feeing used to light «a electrical exhibition in Omafaa*. It is reported tihat some cows were struck by ligbbning in the Keponga district during the recent storms. There are in England about 150 packs of foxhounds, besides 13 packs of staghounds, headed by hi* Majesty's, the strongest of all being composed of 40 couples. Scarlet fever is again making its appearance in South Canterbury. There are at present seven patients in the Talbot Hospital. I

The Sunderland Guardians decided to give picnics to the workhouse inmates on July 26 and 27 by way of a -midsummer treat. The Acclimatisation Society at .Stratford imported 50 brace of pheasants this year, and has liberated tihe birds in various parts of the province. Powers will be sought m the next session of Parliament by the London County Council for dealing rigorously with the smoke nuisance in London. In a case at Wymondham (Norfolk) PoKco Court, it uas stated that a man had beeu

! 5 unable to obtain a house because "he had a family of nine children. If Japanese parents do not find matrimonial companions for their sons and daughters both paren-ts and children aye ! looked upon as disgraced. A cashier in one of the Dannevirke j banks picked out from his coins a sovereign dated "1817." It was in en excellent *tate of preservation. There is a good deal of scarlatina m Napier just now, and it is feared that it has been spread by failure to report some cases in their early stages. j It has been decided by the Lords of tha i Admiralty to increase the wages of estabi lisbed anip-riggere to 28e per week, and hired ship-riggers to 29$ 6d. The Pekin Gateette has been in existence 1000 years, and 17 of its editors have been beheaded. The paper is in a more flourishing condition now than ever it was. The world's ballooning record for distance belongs to Comte Henry de la Valk, who has travelled from Paris into Russia — ntarly 1200 miles — in 35j hours. Lord Avebury condemns « Mr Asquith's Budget as " waging an implacable war — not against poverty, but against energy and indtistry, confidence and thrift." In 25 years the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has befriended close upon a million ai>d a-balf children, and dealt with 700,000 offenders. The Wellington police have made-, a handsome donation to the unemployed relief fund.. Inspector EHisom has forwarded to the editor of the Times a cheque for £25. A Star reporter observed a man on the Auckl&nd wharf, sitting on a case, and calmly enjoying a smoke. The case waa marked, "Benzine — highly inflammable." A drinking fountain which has just been placed at t£e rear of St. Paul's Church, Westcliff, Southcnd-on-Sea, is an exact replica of the Well of the Virgin, at Nazareth. Naples is to have sea baths capable of acconunodatinig 40,000 persons. They are to be supplied with hot and cold water, 6O that they may be enjoyed at all times of the year. Asked by Mr Bishop as to his opinion of the value of anonymous letters, Sergeant Burke, of Wanganui, summed up the position by saying : " They are dangerous, but tbev are useful." The measles epidemic is travelling northward. The attendance at Raugiora School ie affected by this complaint, while the neighbouring school of Waikuku is closed on account of scarlet fever. The ancient and picturesque ceremony of the promulgation from Tynwal-d Hill of the new laws passed by the Legislature of the Isle of Man took place recently in the presence of 10,000 .people. A Birmingsh«um young lady has achieved a record by sending her brother a postcard on which she had written 1526 words, each spelt in full, and easily readable by an.> one with ordinariiy good eyesight. A defaulting but conscience-stricken tramway passemger has forwarded to the Christchurch Tramway Board the sum of 9d in stamps to cover the cost of a free trip he had from Plumpton 12 months ago. According to a Lancashire schoolmaster, in one village there are 100 houses in which bedrooms are used for weaving plush. The rooms are fitted with handloome, and children have to fake their share of the work. " There are some piles (for mooring) in the River Thames which were driven in during the reign of Charles I," said counsel in a navigation case at the City of London Court recently, " and they are still good." , A parade was recently called for a local Volunteer corps (states the New Zealand Times). A staff sergeant-major instructor was detailed for the duty of instructing the corps. There was not a soul on parade. Over 150 ambulaaices are provided in London foa- the transport of persons injured or suddenly taken ill in the streets. Four persons are killed weekly in the streets of the metropolis, and a score or two are injured. A physiological writer asserts that up to 20 a youtih needs nine hours' sleep, and an adult should have eight or nine. The neglect of this rule results in exhaustion, ■excitability, and physical and intellectual disorders. A black trib?, hitherto unknown, has just -been discovered on Mbrnington Island, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia. Although thin and emaciated, they are strong and agile, and show no signs of any disease. | Remarking that for a bishop of such : a large diocese a motor car wae not a ' luxury, tout a. neoessity, Lord I>arnlcj, at ! Beckenhatn, presented one to the Bishop j of Rochester, on behalf of a largo number of subscribers. j A young' Chinese hailing from Dunedin, i and who has been studying dentistry in England, returned to New Zealand by the Corinthic. He went through a full course of training at Home, and is now a duly qualified dentist. A new grand alpine railway over the Hohe Tavern mountains, costing over £12,500,000, has been opened by the Emperor Francis Joseph. The line shortens the journey between England and the Adriatic by 120 mile*. '

Fifty-four per cent, of the daily weather forecasts of the British Meteorological Office during the last current year were a complete- success, 37 per cent, a partial | success, 7 per cent, a partial failure, an<l 2- per cent, a complete, failure. The Coventry Corporation has decided' to grant pansions ranging from 6s to 12s weekly' to gasworkera of long service., New gasworks have juafc been completed at a cost of £200,000, and the installation includes much labour-saving machinery. A boat that was lost or stolen a year ago from a fisherman's hut at the mouth , of the Selwyn was found recently at ite old mWringe. Although the boat bad ! been repainted and otherwise altered, the owner, who built it, easily identified it. As Mr A. Martin was filling the benzine tank of hie motor car at Black's stabks at Oprmake recently the benzine suddenly caught nre, and before the flames could be extinguished part of the car and the j side of the stable were somewhat damaged. Miss Len-fchall has consented to serve ac rector's churchwarden at Besaelsleigh, Berkshire, in succession to her brother, who succeeded his fa*r«r in the office. t The owner of the Beeselsledgh ©state has b*een one of , tihe churchwardens of this parish for 150 i years. " ( There are vacancies for two or three boys on the Government training' ship Amqkura. Two or three lads w<ho heve completed their term, on 'the Amokura. have been unable to procure berths in the mercantile marine owing to the prevailing slump. Kuoies are for a time in disfavour with buyers of precious etoiies. Speaking at the general meeting of ,th% Burma Ruby Mines, ' Mr Carl Meyer, the chairman, said that the falling-off •in the. demand for coloured stones had affected the company's income. ( At a village near Le Maois the seven-year-old daughter of a farmer was 6ent into the field with her little sister, aged about three yeairs. The elder girl tied the baby to the cow's tail and then drove the cow all over tihe field. The baby was kicked to death. Dr Waldo, the London city coroner, said recently that he had iust viewed a body in the new Hirsoh apparatus for preserving the dead at the city mortuary, and alj though it had lain there for six week» ■ it was in as good a state of preservation as when first placed there. While playing golf recently at Helens- ! burgh, Mr Walter Lamont, of Cairnsmore, I dropped dead on the links. The deceased orentJeman v/as a tea planter, with large estates in Ceylon, which he had visited periodically for over 20 years. He was between 60 and 70 years of age. For the purpose of permanently endowing a professorship of German, the well-known firm of Messrs. J. Henry Schroder and Co. has offered to Cambridge University the sum of £20,000. It is proposed to connect the name of Schroder with the professorahip. Among the wreaths placed on the grave of Field-marshal Sir F. Haines, who waa recently buried at BrompitoD Cemetery, was one "Prom the bugler at Alma who g>ve you a drink on the battlefield, and whom you remembered 44 years a-fterwards, when he was overtaken by misfortune." As far as can be gathered the prospect in front of the sawmillera in the Wairarapa is not a particularly bright one. For about three months (s~ays the Wairarapa Daily Times) the trade hae been ptacti- ! cally at a. standstill, and as yet there are no indications of any improvement. The crematorium at the v Karori cemetery, Wellinp-ton, ia now practically ready for use, and when the necessary orders for the regulations have received the Government's approval — which is expected in the course of a few days — the crematorium will be ready to do its work. A lessee of one of the South Waimakariri River Board's reserves, who had 1600 ewes in one paddock, suffered heavy loss ona night recently owing to the depredations of clogs. No fewer than 600 sheep were badly knocked about and a large number of these had to be slaughtered to put them out of I their misery Regulations jpoveming the a-w&rd of the RoyaJ Naval Reserve service medals to "' seamen and stokers who complete 15 years' service, with characters never assessed below " very good." are to be gazetted shortly. The admiral commanding- is to deteormin* the validity or otherwise of each application for the medal. A noteworthy event occurred at a chrisj teninp ceremony at St. Mary's Church, , New Plymouth, on the 15th, five genera- | tions being represented at the ceermony. I The child was the infant daughter of Mr I and Mrs W. F. Shields, and Mre George i Sen, the great-greafc-grandmother of the child, was present at the ceremony. I While on her way hoqje from school at HunUy one evening last week, a little six* year-old girl named Rose Smith was rushed by a ferocious bull on the road, knocked down, and rolled about the ground. With <. clothes very bad'lv torn, and bleedinpr feJi{sihtly at nose and mouth, the child , managed to escape with a few bruises. I A dog lay down and died at Neutral Bay. Sydney, on unoccupied and unfenced land within a few inches of a public road. The local authority was asked to have the • corpso buried, but it was found that the

Government would have ro be approached about it, and while this course, was being taken the body lay unburied for over a week. A curious sort of creature has been cap' tured alive by the Maoris at Mataroa beach, near Waihi. It is described by a writer in the Auckland Star as neither * walrus sea lion., nor seal. It is 9ft long, has fins and legs, claws on its feet, and a hsad like a sheep. Since its capture it has fed in the paddock. The Maoris are offering it for sale. The Wellington tramway system is not so liberally patronised as it was 12 months ago, with the result that fewer cars are being used during the day "Rush" hours see the cars well loaded, but at other times the traffic is comparatively " dead." For the four months ended July 31 the tramway returns showed a drop, of £1000 compared with the same neriod in ISOB. An ex-Aucklander who is-in a prosperous way of business in British Columbia h«t forwarded a oheque for £40 to the Reyl James Wilson • for the fund for the pur» chase of an 'organ in the East Street Hall, in memory of his late wife, who was an - ardent supporter of the Methodist Mission when the work was-- started ia ._ the Foresters' Hall six years ago. While, at the beginning, of the nineteenth century, French "was the first of European languages, it now stands only « fourth. Froncn at the present day is spoken by • 58,060,000 persons, German by 80,000,000, Russian by 85>000,000, and English by 116,000,0001 It is not that ■French >- has lest ground, but that other languages have gamed ground. A weH-knovi-n fruit vendor on the train between Woodside and Wellington has put up an interesting record in the way of railway travelling. He has been travelling on the line now for 25 years altogether. During the last 18 years he covered 194 miles per day," woi'king out at 1,214.440 miles for the period, or equal to about ten journeys to the Old Country and back. It has cost him £270 for fares. A lawyer's clerk earning £7 a month was sentenced rae»ntiy in Paris to two years' imprisonment for defrauding his employer. Ho was a methodical man, -and kept careful account of his expenses, .soiner of which for last year were as follow: — motor ear and chauffeur's salary, £6Q9; canoe for' the summer, £80 ; two shoots at £400 euch, £800: provision for the future, £320; losses on the Stock Exchange, £800. "Provision for the future" was an item which caused considerable amusement. _ 4 An outbreak of fire occurred in Wellington the other night which had a strange origin. A kerosene heater kept in a tobacconist's shop on the Courtenay place frontage of the Eg'nq^ Hotel to temper the chill evening air exploded, and in less than a minute the entire shop was afelaze. The brigade arrived at the scene, and in lees than two minutes from the time the first "lead was brought into action had the fire out. It was stated at the meetinsr of the Lyttelton Harbour Board on Wednesday that the present inner harbour at Lvfctei- . ton would, with the enlarging of No. 4 ' jetty (a work now in progress) and the building of three new wharves, be sufficient for a good many years to come to meet the ordinary requirements of > the port. Better landing facilities, we**}, however, badly wanted to expedite loading and unloading-. , A peculiar accident happened to Mr J. M'Laucnlan, of Blenheim, a day or two ago. He was partaking of his evening meal, when the clasp holding a plate of three or four artificial teeth became loosened. Tht? plate and teeth were swallowed. There was considerable p&in, and the doctor was immediately sent for and the sufferer removed to a private hospital. An operation was performed and the teeth removed. No serious results are anticipated.