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Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 848, 22 January 1883, Page 2

Appointment. The Gazette notifies that Mr Walter G. Walker has been appointed superintendent collector of agricultural statistics for the district of Ashburton. Crime in Auckland. —At the Auckland criminal sessions on Saturday, Albert Long, for attempting to murder his father, was sentenced to seven years’ penal servitude. In the case of Jatnss Crowley, charged with murdering his wife with a box-iron, the jury, after being out for four hours, brought in a verdict at

9 p m. of guilty of murder while in an unsound state of mind, but not amounting to legal insanity. The accused was sentenced to death.

Presbyterianism. —The Presbyterian Synod, now in session at Dunedin, has decided, on the question of union with the Northern Church, after a lengthy and animated debate, that as negotiations have not yet proceeded so far as to furnish grounds for affirming or denying the practicability of union, the Synod re-ap-point the Committee, with instructions to continue the negotiations and bring up a more matured, full, and detailed scheme for the consideration of the Church.

Inkw Offices. —Mr J. Ward, who has now for some years past transacted the business connected with registration of births, deaths, and marriages, along with the multifarious duties connected with the local gas and building societies in a small office adjoining his residence, has taken commodious rooms in the new buildings erected by Mr Bullock in Burnett street. The offices are admirably suited for the requirements of the different bodies with which Mr Ward is assoc ated. Police Court. —At the Police Court to-day, His Worship the Mayor (D. Williamson, Esq.,) presiding, diree men were brought up charged with drunkenness. One was discharged, fines of 5s and 10s being inflicted in the other cases. J. Riding was charged with the larceny of a dog valued at LlO, the property of Robert Smyth. Accused stated that he had bought the dog from a man at Rakaia, and the case was remanded for three 'days, in order that further evidence might be obtained.

Cricket. —A match will be played tomorrow between an eleven of employees of the Ashburton Mail and similar number selected from the staff of the Guardian. The following are the names of the players -.—Mail-. Messrs Reddin(Captain), Thompson, Nathan, Roper, Venables, Empson, Berry, Bevan, Brooks, Dally, and Ivess, jun. ; Guardian : Messrs Shaw (Captain), W. H. Zouch, C. Dixon, J. Gamble, Brimble, F. Vaughan, Gates, G. Caird, Lawrance, L. H. Wilkins, and Hodge.

Sudden Death. — A man well-known in Ashburton by the sobriquet of Bricky, but whose real name was wrapped in mystery, was yesterday seized with a fit of apoplexy, and was removed by the police to the Hospital, where he died forty minutes after being admitted. The deceased had for a long time lived in a tent in the river bed, and had always borne a good character. As there wore no suspicious circumstances attaching to the death, an will not be held.

A Chance for Single Womcn. will be remembered, writes the correspondent of a Scotch paper, that the Marquis of Lome recently held out high hopes to unattached young women who might be dispesed to emigrate to the Canadian North-West. I think he said that a young woman would have twenty offers in a week, and the further west she went the more offers she would get. A pamphlet entitled “Fat Lands for Lean Tillers,” states a good looking woman can choose among fifty adorers, while a plain one can sele.t from five ; and the author interprets his estimate liberally by adding that, in his opinion, no good tempered woman is plain. He quotes from a O madim paper the following paragraph on the subject ; —“The cry is—Still they don't come. Girls of Ontario, come West 1 We have in our town many eligibles. The first comer can choose between a thin lawyer, a stout doctor, a retired but not retiring merchant, and one still in business. All are warranted docile, and tired of single unblessedness.” Why do not these desolate ones co-operate and establish an agency for the importation of brides ?

Mr Milner Stephen.-— A correspondent of the Wellington Post says : “ Among many others, I went to see Mr Stephen work his great cures, and was very much disappointed at his occupying so much time reading testimonials, any of which may be equalled by the dozen in the list of Holloway’s cures, or of any patent medicine advertiser, and his exhibition of the boot put me in mind of the . bottles with wonderful tapeworms ex? hibited by the quack doctors in the market places at Home to recommend their nostrums. As to his so-called cures, I remember seeing Captain Wilson, when lecturing as a mesmerist, cause far more wonderful effect on the paralysed and lame than I saw on Saturday last. But what shocked me most was the mixture of the claim to a sacred gift and the mummery of the conjuror. In his remarks on prayer, he said he had asked ‘ that he might be able to do some great work before he died,’ etc. Is that the spirit of prayer which says ‘ Not my will but Thine be done ?’ STo, it is to be some great thing. If we were to dictate to God, no doubt many of us .would like to do the ‘ great work,’ especially at from two to five guineas a patient. I, for one, protest against this so-called free gift of j God being doled out at so much a head so unlike that Jesus who ‘ went about doing good without money and without price,’ and yet whom Mr Stephen professes to follow and imitate. Whatever mesmeric or magnetic power Mr Stephen may have, I know not, but such was not the power of the Apostles—no half cure, no come again, no inability on account of long standing, but ‘ In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk,’ was Peter’s word of command to the lame man, and at once he ‘ walked and leaped and praised God.’ I write to enter my protest against this union of money-making with the ‘ gift of healing ’ laid claim co by Mr Stephen. With doctors it is different ; they lay claim to no supernatural gift, but by careful preparation and study, they have fitted themselves for the healing art, and common gratitude for benefit' derived ought to make it a point of honor to pay their fees.”

1 Attempted Incendiarism. —An attempt has been madd to burn down a house in Riverton, occupied by a Chinaman and his wife. The fire was discovered in time and extinguished. Kerosene had been poured bver the walls on the outside.

New Zealand Grand National. —It will be seen from a report in another column (for which we are indebted to the Timaru Herald) that it has been decided not to hold the next Grand National Meeting at Ashburton. Mr S. Saunders, the secretary of the Ashburton Racing Club, wrote stating that no guarantee would be given, and in consequence it was determined that Timaru should be the scene of the next meeting. Fire. —At about noon yesterday the fire bell rang out an alarm. Both the brigades put in an appearance, but their services were not required, as the ringing of the bell was due simply to a smalt stack of straw in Princes street, NorthEast belt, belonging to a man named Nolan, having ignited. No damage was done beyond the destruction of the stack and a quantity of hay, but had it not been for the timely assistance of ‘ the neighbors several houses in the vicinity must have been burnt down. We understand that the fire was caused by a little boy, the son of the proprietor, setting light to the stack.

Prison Economy. —Captain Hume, Inspector of prisons, says the Auckland Herald, is a great man in little things, as is evidenced by the immense reform which has just been accomplished at the Auckland Ipck-up. Formerly two short sentenced hard-labor men were kept there to do odd Jobs and the menial work of the station, cleaning out the cells, washing them, etc. His Argus eye discovered that this was not “reproductive work” credited to Mount Eden Gaol account,and that there was a saving of some odd coppers and throe farthings effected on their rations by removal to the Stockade. The result is that the Auckland lock-up has ceased to be gazetted a prison, and no prisoner can now be kept there over twenty-four hours, while the unfortunate constables, after coming off duty, have to do the washing out and cleaning of the cells after every filthy drunkard themselves as best they may. It is needless to say that the new regulation gives general dissatisfaction among the force, and with reason.

The Crbswick Mine Accident. —The Oreswich Advertiser gives the following account of messages from the dead, found in the drives of the Oreswick mine:—Two more of the unfortunate miners’ billycans have been discovered, on which the departed «nes sent messages bidding goodbye to their friends. On Benjamin Bellingham’s were scratched the words—“My dear mother, my dear brother, J.B. We are all happy.—B B.” These words must be a comfort to the young man’s widowed mother. The following were scratched on Clifton’s —“ Good-by, dear mother, sisters, and brothers.” Also, “Philippa, my dear girl. (Signed) John Tom Clifton.” Before the word Philippa are three other words, but these are rendered very indistinct, from Thomas Chegwin having written his name very largely over them ; but from some reason the latter was unable to finish his name, and it now stands on the can “ Thomas Chegw.” Presumably the lights may have gone out, which prevented its completion. Mrs Clifton says that on the night of the fatal occurrence she several times endeavoured to hurry her son off to work, he being accustomed to stay at home till the last minute, when at last he said —“You seem to be in a hurry to get rid of me.” This son has been her great support for a number of years, and by his cheerfulness always endeavoured to comfort her when down-hearted. Wages in China. —The United States Consul-General in China has collected some interesting statistics on the present state of wages among the working classes in China, and these have been recently published by the American pre s. Skilled workmen, who, in a sense, might be considered artists, those who have to do with decoration, embroidering silk, porcelain painting, etc., even when they have attained considerable reputation, can scarcely earn as much as will keep, them, and enable them to lay apart what will cover the cost of their funeral, a special solicitude on the part of every celestial. Jewellers, who have a great responsibility, are s miewhat better paid ; whilst the highest wages, 4s to 8s per week, are obtained by the silk weavers. The average earnings p-r week, all over, are:—For masters, 12s 6d ; for workmen, fis; for women and children, 2s. The master lives, as a rule, in his workshop ; he has L 4 to L 6 worth of household goods, and spends about Ll 4 for food, L 7 for rent, L2 for clothing, and considers himself fortunate if he has from L 6 to L 8 over. The unmarried workman lives with his relatives or friends. He spends for food L 9, for lodging about 48s, and for clothing about 30s. Women and children spend every cent they earn. The peasant earns from 4jd to 7d a day. During harvest time he makes 4s a week, with board, which is estimated at 4Jd per day. They are fortunate who are in a position to save 15s a year. Day laborers, porters, wheelbar-row-men, and sailors earn from 24d to Is 2d a day. In West China the porters, who have to carry from 120 to 150 kilogrammes of tea in the mountainous regions, make Is a day. The ordinary day laborer makes 4s 41 per month, and only spends 4s. Gold-washers receive to 7d a day. A gang of seven men can wash twenty tons of gold-sand daily. The yearly maintenance of a Chinese soldier oo ts a little over Ll 3. Little wonder need prevail that the Chinaman looks upon America or the Australian colonies as a veritable Tom Tiddler’s ground, even though he works for what the European considers pitiful wages.

Holloway’s Pills.—The changes of temperature and weather frequently upset persons who are most careful of their health, and most particular in their diets. These corrective, purifying, and gentle aperient Pills are the best remedy for all defective actions of the digestive organs ; they augment the appetite, strengthen the stomach, correct biliousness, andcarry off all that is noxious from the system. Holloway’s Pills are composed of rare balsams, uumixed with baser matter, and on that account are peculiarly well adapted for the young, delicate, and aged. As this peerless medicine has gained fame in the past, so will it preserve it in the uture by its renovating and invigorating qualities, and its incapacity of doing harm.—[Advt.]