The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1883.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 969, 14 June 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1883.

The girl Humphreys knocked down by a runaway horse in Christchurch on Tueaday, is still unconscious, and is in a very critical state.

The system of parcels now introduced into Christchurch by Messrs 0. E. Brown and Co., of Fashion House, seems to be getting popular in New Zealand. This firm having purchased a bankrupt a'ook, notify elsewhere a long list of the articles and value in each parcel and the price for which they may be obtained direct from their establishment.

On Monday a couple attended the Catholic Church Gisborne, forthe purpose of getting married. The ceremony had proceeded to the point where the priest puts the question, “ Wilt thou take this woman to be thy lawful wedded wife 1” “ I will,” was the reply. “ Wilt thou take this man to be thy lawful wedded husband ?” said the priest. At that moment a note was placed in her hand by a spectator, containing something. “ I will not,” said the bride, and at once rushed out of the church and disappeared. The wedding ceremony was thus abruptly brought to an end.

The Collector of Customs, accompanied by the Landing Surveyor, has been making seizures of fancy goods at certain premises in Christchurch and Lyttelton. This action has been taken in consequence of apparently fraudulent invoices being tendered to the Customs’ authorities. We understand, on enquiry that the consignees are in no way implicated, and are exonerated by the officials from any suspicion of connivance. The alleged fraud lies at the door of a firm outside this colony. Unfortunately, under the provisions of the Act, the firm in question cannot be proceeded against at law, and trill only suffer the loss Of their: goods.

Last evening a very strong aou’-westerly gale sprang up, and was accompanied for, a short time with some rain. * It‘was bitterly cold during the night. No snow fell near the town, hut certainly a heavy fall took place at the back of Mount Somers and on the Methven Ranges from the appearance which those places present today.

Some of the “ larrikin ” element must have been, evidently suffering from this morning’s cold weather, and for want of better employment destroyed one of the large panes of glass in Messrs Friedlander Bros.’ windows'. The damage done is estimated at L 25. It ia supposed to have been broken with a stone, but no clue has yet been discovered as to the offender. At the Dunedin Police Court yesterday John!Jones, an elderly man, was charged with forging and uttering two promissory notes on the Bank of New South Wales, Wanganui, for L 24 10s and L 35 respectively. The bills were given lo an hotelkeeper as security for board and lodgingThey were signed by Frederick Williams and endorsed John Jones. It turned out that there was no such person as Frederick Williams, and the Bench said if there was no such person as Williams, his name could not be forged. Besides, there was no proof the bills would not be taken up when they matured. The charge was dismissed without prejudice. There was a further charge of the same nature, which was remanded till Tuesday. Jones was at one time (about twelve months ago) living in Ashburton, and was familiarly known as “ Gouty Jones." He was one of the gentlemen who claimed a vote under the residential clause and asserted his right at the last Wakanui election. Mr Archibald Forbes is writing a aeries of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald, entitled “Queensland Jottings." In commenoing he says :—“ I wonder whether it has ever occurred to the physiologist that the people of Australia, men and women alike, are stronger in the region of the spinal column than are the inhabitants of New Zealand ? It may be asked what evidence we can adduce in favor of this assumption ? I reply by calling attention to a detail in the fittings of the passenger steamers plying around the coasts of the respective colonies. There is not a vessel of the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand that ia unprovided by support for the backs of nassengers as they sit at the saloon tables. I have not had very extensive experience of passenger steamers in the coastal service of Australia, but 1 have journeyed in no vessel in this trade which is furnished with this appliance. The vessels plying between Melbourne and Adelaide are smart boats enough as regards their powers of steaming, but their passengers have to lean on their own spinal columns or else collapse. ” A great ice bridge which has been formed across the Niagara river has attracted much attention. Every day thousands of visitors crowded to see it, and excursions were organised in all parts of America to view it. “There are (says a correspondent of the Tribune) no hugh buttresses of gleaming ice, no crystal piers with prismatic.colors dancing about them. It is nothing but a great expanse of thorough and seam-marked ice. The architecture of this stupendous structure the south wind. A steady blow from this quarter causes the ice in Lake Eric twenty-five miles away, to break up in gigantic fragments, which float down the river until they shout the rapids and plunge over the cataract—a sight well worth a long journey to see. Below the falls some of these cakes lodge. The frost and the foam weld them together and the process goes on until the river is covered from shore to shore. The bridge ia said to be the most extensive that has ever been formed, and stretches from the foot of the cataract for three miles, being of a thickness often equal to the tallest of ‘ city business blocks. ’ It may be, traversed at any point, and there is no fear of a sudden breaking up of the ice, at any rate until warm weather seta in, and even then the process would take some time. It offers excellent facilities for smugglers, who are not slow to take advantage of them."

Mr Edwin Booth’s theatrical.campaign in Germany has been a great success. In Hamburg all the places were bought up weeks in advance at a premium. The press notices were very cordial, and the stage manager, a pupil of Davrietat, said that he had never till then seen Hamlet and Lear. Herr Maurice, the manager, announced Edwin Booth the greatest actor who had been seen since Talma’s death. When he was playing Lear the witness states that it was most pathetic to see the people sobbing at the wings. The actors engaged tc. support the star are described as perfectly wild with enthusiasm. It fact their admiration took an unpleasant demonstrative form. The men fell upon his shoulders, and in Continental fashion kissed him on both cheeks; while the women wept and sobbed as they shook hands with him. He did not relish the kissing. In vain ho cried out—- “ Mind the paint 1” And at last, in a sort of comic desperation, he exclaimed : “ If kissing be the correct thing, please stand aside, gentlemen, and let the ladies advance." On another occasion we learn that after the curtain had fallen amid deafening applause, Mr Booth was embraced by every member of the company, “ except the extra little girls engaged to act as pages.” But as he left the theatre the extra little girls were waiting for him in the hall, and “in a perfectly artless and modest manner,” one of them approached him, and in broken English said through her tears : “ Mr Booth, you make us cry—we do want so much to kiss you.” We do not know whether Mr Booth cried out : “ Mind the paint,” on this occasion.

Recently one of the most notorious of bagging impostors was brought up at the Lambeth Police Court and committed for trial. Since 1839 the prisoner, except when in gaol, has obtained an excellent living by appeals to officers, who have served in India or to their relatives. While he was under remand at the Lambeth Police Court, Mr Gomm, the chief officer of the Mendicity Society, succeeded in ascertaining his . private apartments, and on searching the ’place he found a quantity of silver-plate and a large collection of photographs, ranging from that of the Duke of Cambridge to that of a gentleman recently appointed as a subaltern. Although it is now ascertained as a well-known fact that the prisoner has been preying on the public for forty years, his tastes were of that refined nature which precluded his drinking except from silver tankards or cups, and his meals were invariably served on silverplate, His bookshelves contained a large number of copies of the “ Army List,” and that portion-of it which referred to the contingents in India was found to be well thumbed, showing that they had been frequently referred to. His modus operaudi was to call at the houses of those who had served or who had relatives serving in India. If he saw the head of the family he introduced himself as an old Indian officer, and he possessed such an excellent address that he was frequently invited to stay to luncheon. His intimate knowledge, gathered from reading, of (he various cities in India where our soldiers are quartered has made many officers or their friends easy dupes, and on a list found upon Him when arrested there was a considerable number of signatures attached, those signing their names to this appeal showing that they had handed him donations ranging from five guineas to one.

Kidney complaint, one of the most common and yet most neglected diseases of this country, can be readily cured by the use of Hop Bitters. See.—[Advt.]

No matter what your feeling or ailment is, Hop'-Bitters will do you good. Prove it and see. —[Advt,] Holloway's Pills. Liver Complaints.—The digestion cannot be long so seriously disordered without the derangement being perceptible on the countenance. These pills prevent both unpleasant consequences ; they improve the appetite and with the increase of desire for food, they augment the powers of digestion and assimilation in the stomach. Holloways Pills deal most satisfactorily with deranged or diseased conditions of the many organs engaged in extracting nourishment for our bodies from our various diets—as the liver, stomach, and bowels, over all of which they exercise the most salutary control. By resorting at an early stage of this malady to these purifiying and laxative Pills, the dyspeptic is speedily restored to health and strength, and his sallowness gradually -vanishes.—[Advt.]

Wanted Known— That T Mecch is importing all his own goods, wh.Ji 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,]