The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et revalebit. TUESDAY. JUNE 5, 1883.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 961, 5 June 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et revalebit. TUESDAY. JUNE 5, 1883.

The Governor returned to Wellington at four o’clock yesterday afternoon. The annual general meeting of the Ashburton Racing Club will be held at Quill’s Hotel this evening. The Auckland Education Board have commenced the experiment of a practising school with fifty children in Wellesley street East School. The master of the Ashburton Home desires to acknowledge, with thanks, the receipt of a parcel of illustrated papers from Miss Steene, also a parcel of “ Sunday at Home” and “The New Zealander ” from Mr T. Zouch, for the use of the inmates..

There have been a series of rowdy meetings of the South Dunedin Borough Council about gas contracts. Last night, when the Mayor wished to strike out the minutes of the special meet ing which had been held, there was almost a Tree fight for the possession of the book. The table was upset. The ratepayers present interfered, and things were lively. Two constables, however, were in waiting, and quelled the disturbance.

The Auckland Agricultural Company are cutting up Horahoi, Tekau, Okoroiro, and other blocks, and will divide 40,000 acres in' o suitably sized sections for intending settlers. Mr Thomas Rnssell has undertaken to float them in the market at home on his return.

Yesterday was the dajt fixed for the annual me-ting of ratepayers in the Longbeach District, but as only two people put in an appearance it had to be postponed. It may be mentioned here that Mr Gilmour has been elected the representative of No 2 Ward on the Longbeach Road Board, the only other candidate nominated, Mr 0. T. Dudley, not being on the ratepayers’ roll. Jacob Monteith, a chemist of Wellington, is about to be proceeded against by the police for a breach of the Dangerous Goods Act. It is alleged that a few days ago Mr Monteith forwarded a box of chemicals to the Queen’s Wharf for shipment by the steamer Hauraki. As the case was being taken on board the contents exploded, and great consternation was created by the occurrence. The box, it is stated, was not marked in the manner provided by law, and hence the proceedings.

A well attended meeting of the Debating Society was held in the Arcade Chambers last night, and a very pleasant evening was spent. The subject for discussion, “ Should the Land be Nationalised,” being well opened by Mr Hughes in the affirmative, the President (Mr Hogg) following in the negative. A capital argument ensued, most of the members taking part, and on being put to the vote Mr Hughes secured a majority. Several new members wore proposed, and the meeting then adjourned. The Kaiapoi correspondent of the Christ hurch Press telegraphs as follows : —“ Two men, giving the names of W. Griffiths and Frederick Smith, stuck up a house in Black street last evening, and announced that they were the rest of the Kelly Gang. The owner of the premises was equal to the occasion. The men were each fined 10a to-day for being drunk, and 20s respectively for using obscene language. Serious complaints are being made of the amount of drinking which is allowed to go on in Kaiapoi every Sunday.” Eli Thomas and Joseph Stra abridge, farmers, at.Waitaheke, who were arrested on suspicion of being connected with recent robberies of drapery and boots, were brought before the Magistrates at Carterton yesterday. Detective Chrystall asked for a remand. There is property in their hands believed to have been stolen, the ownership of which has not been ascertained . Other portions of it have been identified as having been stolen. The prisoners were remanded till to-morrow. Bail was allowed to the amount of L6OO.

A woman, who is not yet fully identified, was found dead on a boulder bank near Wakapuaka Bluff on Saturday after' noon. The woman in question has been staying at the North Hotel, Nelson, for ten days, and on Friday she went for a walk. The following day she was found below high water mark with a bruise on the top of her head, and her face was bruised, there being blood on the boulders beneath her face. Her hat and jacket were found beneath a tree 300 yards distant, and a pocket of her dress was inside out. Her purse, however, was found at the hotel. It is thought to be a case of suicide. The Town Hall was crowded last evening, when Rainer’s panorama of the American war was exhibited for the first time in Ashburton. The pictures, which are admirably executed, depict the principal incidents in the war, and the various events were well described by Mr Stuart, who is a very capable lecturer. The mechanical scenes, showiug the fight between the Alabama and the Kearsage, and the funeral procession of President Lincoln, were heartily applauded by the audience; Not the least interesting portion, of the entertainment was the distribution of valuable gifts—a tea and coffee service, a gold clock, and a 100 table being among the most noticeable. Mr Stuart appeared to be quite impartial in awarding the gifts, the silver service falling to the lot of a gentleman whose white straw hat turned up in front “ caught the speaker’s eye.” The recipient of the prize beamed with pleasure as he stepped forward to receive it, and the audience were informed he hailed from Invercargill. Two Ashburton ladies received the clock and the table referred to, and the minor presentations went to gladden the hearts of others among the audience. There cm be no doubt that the gift distribution is the allpowerful magnet that draws the people, but the panorama of itself is interesting and well worthy of a visit, while the orchestra deserve mention for their rendering of a number of popular and appropriate airs. The same programme will be repeated this evening.

A correspondent writing to London Vanity Fair says :—“A cure for, neuralgia and sciatica—and, as I am told, an unfailing one—is too valuable not to be recorded. An English officer, who served with distinction in the war with Napoleon, was once laid up in a small village in France with a severe attack of sciatica; It so happened that at the time a tinman was being employed in the house where he lodged, and that this tinman, having bean himself a soldier, took an interest in the officer’s case, and gave him the cure, which, in this instance, succeeded immediately and for ever, and which I am about to set down. It is at any rate so simple as to be worth a trial. Take a moderatesized potato, rather large than small, and boil it in one quart of water. Foment the part affected with the water in which the potato has been boiled, as hot as it can be borne, at night before going to bed; then crush the potato and put it on the affected part as a poultice. Wear this all night and in the morning heat the water, which should have been preserved, over again, and again foment the part 'with it as hot as can be borne This treatment must be perservered with for several days. It occasionally requires to be continued for as much as two or three weeks, but in a shorter or longer time it has never yet failed to be successful.

A proposal is now made to flood the interior of Australia. Writing on the subject, the Melbourne correspondent of the Hawke's Bay Herald says : —“ Captain Stuart, the renown.ed Australian explorer, always entertained the belief that the interior of the Australian Continent was an immense basin, and that a large inland sea would be discovered when the unknown land came to be traversed. Recent explorations have proved that this idea was partially correct, and that the territory extending northwards from Spencer Gulf in South Australia is from 15 to 40 feet below sea level, and this depression is believed to extend to the borders of Northern Queensland. It has, therefore, been asked whether, instead of constructing a trans-continental railway, it would not be more advantageous, by a succession of short canals, to fill this great basin with water from the sea, and thus render communication with various parts of the continent easy and expeditious. It is suggested that nature has accomplished a considerable portion of the work, Spencer Gulf running well up into the land; and a channel from Port Augusta connecting Lake Torrens, and another carrying the water to Lake Eyre, and so Onward, would make the undertaking far less expensive than the Suez Canal. So far it is only a tuggestion ; but, as it is anticipated that such an expanse of water would have a beneficial effect on the climate of Vustralia, it is probable that the proposition will be seriously considered. ”

The Ashburton County Council will hold their usual monthly meeting tomorrow. _ It will be seen by advertisement in another column that the meetings of the Women’s Prayer Union are being held in the Primitive Methodist Church.

At a meeting of the Auckland Board of Education a resolution was passed that the Board approve of the suggestion contained in Principal Heath’s letter re calisthenics for girls m the High School, and the Board resolved that attendance on drill, as prescribed by the school syllabus, be enforced on all pupils, unless a medical certificate be produced to the Head Master stating that such exercises are, without doubt, injurious to the scholars ; that a circular to parents and guardians be drawn up, calling attention to the dangers of the present style of dress and its unsoitableness to the purposes of physical development; that the Inspector arrange for periodical examinations in calisthenics, as in other subjects. In the course of the discussion it was suggested that girls should be dressed in serviceable uniform dress An explosion of gas took place at half past six o’clock yesterday morning at the residence of Mr Martin Lightband at Nelson. A servant had entered the room, with French windows leading te the verandah, and observing a of gas opened the French windows. She then went to another part of the house and afterwards re-entered the room where she smelt gas. She placed a lighted candle on the table and took some mats on to the verandah, and while engaged beating these an explosion took place. The French windows were torn off their hinges and thrown on to the verandah, and all the glass in the room, including that in the picture frames, was smashed and the ceiling charred. The flames struck the servant, and her face and hands and arms are badly burned. Her screams and the noise of the explosion caused great commotion in the neighborhood, and some little distance away the explosion was felt and attributed to earthquake. A well-attended meeting of subscribers to the telephone exchange was held in the Wellington Chamber of Commerce yesterday, Mr J. Nathan in the chair. The following resolution was unanimously agreed to : “ That the charges for the use of the telephone are so excessive as to place it beyond the reach of numbers who would otherwise avail themselves of its benefits, and that the limited hours allowed to subscribers are such as to warrant a consideration as to the advisability of their continuing to subscribe ; that a deputation be appointed,to interview the Government on the subject.” A general opinion was expressed that a substantial reduction should be made in the subscription, and that the area within which connection will be made without extra charge should be extended to one mile, and that the exchange should be open all night. Messrs J. E. Nathan, J. B. flarcourt, E. T. Gillon, W. F. Who ler, C. Zohrab, and T. K. Macdonald were appointed a deputation to interview the Comm.ssioner of Telegraphs on the subject. An English paper remarks :—Surely Barnum is irrepressible. Anything from a gnat up to a pachyderm seems to come within the practical range of his speculations. Now that he has acquired Jumbo, ho longs to become the possessor of a second enjoying that title. This animal, though is not an elephant, but a diminutive specimen of the equine race belonging to Lady Brooke, and some time since the indefatigable showman wrote to her ladyship asking her to part with it. The height of this Lilliputian steed is exactly twenty-eii'ht inches. It follows its fair owner like a dog, even “upstairs and downstairs and in my lady’s chamber.” No one is able 1o catch it but Lady Brooke, who is generally appealed to in order to take it into the stable where it sleeps. The pony not unfrequently accompanies its mistress in her walks, resting contentedly to graze outside any house she may happen to enter. It goes unshod, and objects to be touched by anyone except Lady Brooke, whom it is always delighted to see, rearing on its hind legs whenever she enters the stall in which it Is located.

Mr R. A. Proctor, the well-known lecturer on astronomy, has tried the experiment of wearing a corset, and thus describes the result:—“ When the subject of corset wearing was under discussion in the pages of the “ English Mechanic,” I was struck with the apparent weight of evidence in favor of tight lacing. I was, in particular, struck by the evidence of some as to its use in reducing corpulence. I was corpulant. I also was disposed, as I am still, to take an interest i i scientific experiments. I thought I would give this matter a fair trial. I read all the instructions, carefully followed them, and varied the time of applying pressure with that ‘perfectly stiff busk’ about which correspondents were so enthusiastic. I was foolish enough to try the thing for a matter of four weeks. Then I laughed at myself as a hopeless idiot and determined to give up the attempt to reduce by artificial means that superabundance of fat on which only starvation and exercise, or the air of America, baa ever had any real inducing influence. But I was reckoning without my host. As the Chinese lady suffers, I am told, when her feet-bindings are taken off, and as the flat-headed baby howls when his headboards are removed, so for a while was it with me. I found myself manifestly better in stays. I laughed at myself no longer. I was to angry with myself to laugh. I would as soon have condemned myself to using crutches all the time as to wearing always a busk. But for one month of folly I had to endure three months of discomfort. At the end of that time t was my own man again.”

According to a Christchurch contemporary, one of the most unique matches in pedestrian records came off at about 1 o’clock on Saturday morning, a Richmond athelete backing himself to run to Papanui from the junction of Barbadoes street and North belt in forty minutes. Old Father Time found a ready backer in a well-known nautical Boniface, and the stakes put up were L 5 a side. Owing to the early hour the attendance was far from large. Preliminaries having been arranged the pedestrian, left the scratch at 12.45 a. m., going off at a free swinging pace, closely followed by the judge and timekeeper. When nearing the Carlton Hotel an amusing contretemps took place. The Richmond man, who was making the pace, suddenly shot through a number of ladies and gentlemen returning from an evening party. Thinking from appearances that he was an escaped lunatic, more especially when immediately after the timekeeper armed with a large kerosene lantern came scudding through the group with hia coat tails flying in all directions, a general stampede of the party followed. The unusual conditions of the race, combined with want of due preparation, began to tell on Time’s opponent, and after entering the straight on the Papanui road, the judge called “a walk,” which was denied by the pedestrian, who at once put on a spurt. Not to be out-ge ierf.lled, however, the backer of Time, who was in the rear, left the asphalt, and taking to the opposite side, where his footsteps were unheard, he succeeded in coming quickly up on Time’s antagonist, who was again walking. The judge on this occasion gave the verdict in Boniface's tavor, as the conditions strictly mention d that the distance had to be run in the time stated.

The vigor of youth given to the aged and infirm by using Hop Bitters, Try it. Read. —[Advt.] We know Hop Bitters are above and beyond all as a nutritious tonic and curative. Read thoroughly the—[Advt.]

Wanted Known—That J. Meech is importing all his own goods, which enables him to sell cheaper than any other furnishing house in Ashburton. He has every class of furniture to suit all parties, from the kitchen to the drawing-room. All kinds of cutlery, crockeryware, fenders and fire-irons, iron beadsteads, carpets, table cloths, matting, and druggetting. A variety of tinware and other cooking utensils, etc. A splendid lot of Vienna chairs in walnut and maple. Feathers, flock, horsehair, and wool for furniture and mattrasses—in fact every article for house furnishing.. Owing to facilities afforded to him, enables him to sell • cheaper than if in East street. Furniture exchanged, and parties selling out will find that he gives the highest price for furniture. All kinds of furniture repaired; practical workmen kept. Agent for the celebrated Dunedin blind-maker. Spring window rollers kept in stock. Carvings and turnery sold to the trade. —J, Meech. Note the address, next Bullock’s Arcade. — [Advt.] Holloway’s Pills.—Health or Wealth.— No sane person would hesitate an instant in the choice between these two conditions. Now is the season to secure the former either by restoring or confirming it. These Pills expel all impurities from the system which fogs, foul vapours, and variable temperatures ingender during winter ; this medicine also acts most wholesomely upon the skin by disgorging the liver of its accumulated bile, and by exciting the kidneys to more energetic action ; increases the appetite for food and strengthens the digestive process. The stomach and liver, which most disorders originate, are fully under the control of these regenerative Pills, which act very kindly yet most efficiently on the tenderest bowels.—[Advt.]