OMNIUM GATHERUM.

Otago Witness, Issue 2894, 1 September 1909, Page 4

OMNIUM GATHERUM.

in Hongkong and Shanghai there is no ! duty on spirits, almost the only thing im- j ported free. As a result of the dearth of fish on the Scottish coast, many fishermen, have become golf caddies. This year it ie estimated that in the United Kingdom alone 3,500,000 children celebrated Empire Day. Marcel Prevost, the French author, has been elected a member of the Academy, in succession to the late Victorien Sardou. Deaf bicycle riders in England are said to carry a sign at the rear of their wheels to safeguard them against automobilists. j The world's gold production last year j was the largest ever known, £81,800,000 | against £80,000,000 ia. 1907 and £78,000,0(30 in 1906. Orders have been issued from the War Office to enlist only, bona fide Scotemea for' the Seaforth Highlanders and Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. Mrs Emma Louise Wright, of Harley Gardens, Kensington, who obtained a divorce recently, was" deserted by her husband 20 days after her marriage. In the little town of Columbus, Kentucky, recently, five brothers led five sisters simultaneously to the altar. The five best men were all brothers and the five bridesmaids all sisters. Inhabitants of the little town of Groningen, Holland, were surprised on a

recent Sunday morning to hear the bells [ of the parish church pealing forth the "Merry Widow" waltz. Moscow has a cabdiiver who is daily to j be seen at his post, although he is 103 years of age. His license was taken out 80 year 3 ago, when he was 23 years old. He plies his calling daily in all weathers. The Church Army has acquired a big ! brewery building at Marylebone, and is con\erting it into an institution and workshops for the social derelicts of the Embankment and '"star" offenders. During the year ended June 30 the traffic of the port of Liverpool showed a decrease, the number of vessels paying dues being 940 fewer than in the previous year, and the receipts £28,713 less. At the War Office Athletic C3ub sports ; at Burton Court, Chelsea, R. Barrett, aged 1 76, an ■ Tiwlfon mutiny veteran, won the Chelsea Pensioners' 75 Yard Race.. He bad 9£ yards' start, and won easily. ] Mr Dobson, city surveyor, Chrigtchurch, reports to his council that wood paving with Australian hardwood would cost 17s 6d per square yard and Neuchatel asphalt 20s per yard — both on concrete foundation. A Wood Green boy scout was ordered to take a despatch and elude the attempts of the other scouts to capture him. He put on his sister's dress, and, band-in-hand with his mother, walked through the enemy. A Bluff firm of fish merchants is experimenting with a plant for canning oysters,

which are preserved in their own liquor. The experiments are, it is reported, being carried out with considerable prospect of success. A bill has been placed on the table of the Paris .Chamber making _it.,a punishable offence on the part of landlords to refuse to accept or to send away tenants from- dwellings because of their having children. Catching seagulls with fish-hooks and selling them to people who like to have them in their gardens is a practice which has come under the notice of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Wellington. Appointments as special constables have been conferred upon the superintendent and keepers of the Newtown Jsoo, to enable them more effectively to guard from interfpFenw and harm the animals placed in • their charge. Mrs Whitelaw Reid, wife of the American Ambassador in London, has presented to the Red Cross Guild Hospital in the • city of San Mateo radium valued at £2000 for experimental purposes. The radium was purchased in London. Imports of Italian wines into the United Kino-dom for the first, six months of this year amounted to 132,590 gallons, as compared with 109,188 gallons for the corresponding period in 1908, thus showing an increase of 23,402 . gallons. At a dinner in Blakesley, Northamptonshire, there sat down two grandfathers, three fathers, three sons, two grandsons, and one great- grandson — all .of the name of John Grantham. Four of the John Granthams ' represented four generations. -Cuba's- population is rapidly increasing. Nine years ago the isla/nd'a inhabitants numbered 1,631,637: according to the census just taken, they have passed the 2,000,000 mark, Seventy per cent, of the people are classed as. " pure white." A bewildered Maori debtor at Rotorua wanted the cbun-t to explain how it was that a debt for £4- odd had grown to £6 after he had paid 24«. The" bench explained that the oftener a debt was brought before the court tihe bigger it grew. A dog has as much right to be on the road as a motorist, said the judge at Ripon County Court, in giving ju-dgmeint against a motorist for killing a dog-. "You should have pulled up," he added, "and given the doe the option of getting out of tie way." According to an American consular report, the teeth- of the women and children of the great mass of working people at Sheffield are in worse condition than those of the men, owing to the fact that the women and children drink inoro water than the men. Masons of Indiana have dedicated the n&w £150,000 Masonic temple in Indianopolis, which they declare is the finest building devoted to Masonry in the world. The temple contains two restaurants and many private dining-rooms, and is topped by a roof garden. • A new type of steam dredger for use up I the White Nile by the Irrigation Department in Khartoum has three legs, one at each corner of the fore end and one in | the centre of -the stern. The vessel thus gains a stability which mooring' by cables could never givje. ! Tbe original "MS- in Burns'e handwritings of the well-known song "Ay Waukin 'O " was sold for £110 at Christie's recently. Miss Craig, for whom the song was -written, 1 went to Australia . taking the MS. with her, and it remained there until a few years ago. General Booth has iust reassumod pos- j session of a book which he lent to a friend over 3D years ago. It was found in the penny box at a shop in Liverpool by a Salvation Army officer, and it bore an inscription that it was presented to tho General in 1873. A boy named Stone, at Konini, the other day picked up a detonator in a paddock. He started to convert this into a whistle, when it exploded, blowing off some of the fingers of both hands and injuring his face. The unfortunate boy was taken to the Pahiatua Hospital. I A seal about Bft in length came ashore on the New Brighton Beach on Sunday about three miles north of the rjier. Some men who found it state that it was in a dying condition, and they., dragged it down to the water's, edge to see whether it would revive, but it was too far gone. .Great Britain (writes ajn American paper) has, a r ter many begrudging concession's, fixed the cost of a patent at £100. A workman in Belgium can patent any improvement of which he thinks for the nominal sum of 10 francs. The exact equivalent of this in British money is 7s lljd. A diamond which has reached a London firm of jewellers from Brazil, and is two and a-quarter carats in weight and o* brilliant lustre, has a rich crimson colour between that of the ruby and a jacinth. It is an old family jewel, set in a splitshank ring, and is valued at £3000. The CShristohurch inspector for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals visited Aehiburton last week aecoimpanied by a police constable. He ordered to be suspended from work 20 farm horses that were stated to be unfit for use, reports the Lyttelton Times. Th<» jubilee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce ie apnroaching, the dato being the 27th inst. It is intended 10 hold j

a, meeting commemorative of the event, [•ax ""which an address will be given by Mr H. P. Murray-Aynsley, one of the survivI inj»°©rigmal members of the chamber. A shadow on a . bliijdrrrfche shadow of a' woman struggling for life — was described «i^l*eeds Assizes, when "Mark Green was seht&nced to 10 years 1 - penal servitude for the murder of his wife. A policeman who saw the shadow forced his way into the house, but was too late to save the woman's life. The exDea-ieace of being shot at while m flight is not relished by baUooniets. The balloon New York encountered some bul-, lets while passing over Morgan County, in Alabama.. Mr Glidden had a similar experience while floating above a Vermont town, and the gunner was Arrested and < dealt with by the court. Gifts of four keas and -six kiwis have been made to tihe^ Emperor, of Austria by the Tourist Department! The birds are ' for. the Bmp«ror T s private "aoo" at Sehoen brun-n, and they will" be ready for j 'shipment in a fortnight. They are being given in return for some chamois given by the Emperor some time ago. Racing is now in a more critical state in Johannesburg tfcan-fin Now York. The Government has'nbw.' lr siopped the publication of all betting, news,- and ho betting of* any description is allowed except on the racecourse, and in addition it has been dedided that .racing can only take place on Saturdays and piiblic. 'holidays. ~ - A Washington Baptist Church pastor has introduced into his church a moving: picture, to illustrate his seranons. Tie edifice is "packed to overflowing at every service: , The aninister, preaches on inteEfflrJ;1 ing Biblical , eV-en*s, J "'andr engtagjes ' amateur actors to' perform -fine parte' under' has* own direction before a oinematograpb cameira. ' • -~ A bolt that had been washed ashore from the Elginshire was brought into the Tinwu Post office on Wednesday morning. It is slightly rusted, but still preeeg-ves an appearance of (Strength, though the in1 ferenoe is that if these' bolte continue ! coming ashore the plates of the vessel will first fall off, and then the framework will collapse. The resignation of the Rev. f\ W. ScottMoncrieff, warden of St. John's College, Auckland, came about from his having [ joined the Theosophical Society. This having been adjudged by certain- friends incompatible with his position as warden, he put his resignation in the hands of the board for it to judge the point, and it unanimously at a full meeting accepted it. The peanut crop of the Unitdti States for the Dast year was valued at £2,000,000, a large total for a humble growth. Yet the " aroober," as the peanut is affectionately known in some southern sections of the country, has become of importance only within 40 years. To-day it is grown in all of the southern States, and in some of them makes a more profitable crop than cotton. ' A strange haul was recently made by the crew of a North Sea steam trawler. While fishing off the Dogger Bank, they brought up it: their nets a butt of _wine, whio'a they landed at Boston. The cask was found to contain 120 gallons of claret in excellent condition.- It is /believed to- b»' part of the cargo of same, vessel .wrecked in -the -recent galeg in -the North. Sea, Recently a cask of cjarefe was washed aahojre, at Sooderlaod The Dundas Street Primitive Methodist Church will shortly hold a carnival, and in this connection it is having a church choir competition. The judge (Mr W. Paget Gale) has decided on the following scale of marks : — Anthem : Balance of parts end quality of tone. 20; time, tune, 15; expression, 15 ; precision, attack, 10 ; pronunciation 20; interpretation, 15. Hymn, first four verses : Time, tune, 10; punctuation, 10 ; interpretation, 15. Work at present is suspended on the Seddon memorial monument over the tomb in Sydney Street Cemetery, in Wellington. Everything is complete, save the allegorical figure surmounting the four-square pillar of Corofnandel granite. The-erown-ing statue is expected from England shortly, and. on arrival will be hoisted into position The Post considers that the whole monument, with ite simple, chaste Doric design, will be one of the features of WHlinsrton. Mr G. W. Forb°fi, M.P., told the Hon. D. Buddo a few day ago that the Land Purrha&e Board was asleep. There was much land lying idle arid the board seemed to take no notice of it. Petitions foe the purchase and subdivision of ebates were sent in and nothing more was heard of them. The Minister stated that the Land Purchase Board had recommended the purchase of six estates in Canterbury. Negotiations for the purchase were now taking(place, and he had heard privately that in repard to one property the negotiations had ended in purchase. As far as possible, Mr Buddo said, the Government was falling in wif-h the views of the public in this direction. About 100 of Auckland's leading citizens gathered with the utmost secrecy in the Drill Shed at 10 o'clock on Saturday mornins? to witness a fistic exhibition in whi-'h two prominent boxers were to take part. One of the prime movers (says a Press Association telegram), addressing tho«e present, asked anyone not desiring to fee

identified with the contest to leave the building', as the affair was being' conducted unknown to the police. All present, *" however, remained. Way having been made for the principals, the leading citizens., brought tr.it two dummy figures, and, pullm?; a s-trin? set them at each other. The spectators ' were oonvulsed with laughter, " and left the building hastily, realising that they i.v ! i oen hadiy hoaxed