Untitled

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1003, 19 November 1883, Page 2

Edwards meets Scott in a contest of twenty-four hours at Wellington on Friday. The Canterbury Rugby Union has resolved to apply for affiliation to the English Rugby Union, Two gentlemen were nominated to-day for the office of Mayor of Ashburton for the ensuing year, viz : —Messrs Donald Williamson and Alfred Harrison. The polling will take place on the 28th inst., at the Borough Council office. The following are the detailed entries for the Otago Agricultural and Pastoral Show: —Merinos, 54 ; Leicesters, 51 ; Lincolns, 24; Romney marsh, 2; fat sheep, 14; shorthorns, 33; Ayrshires, 86; fat cattle, 5; draught horses, 45; light horses, 97; pigs, 13; implements, 148; buggies, 20; dairy produce, .97; agricultural produce, 10; New Zealand manufactures and extras, 88; total, 787. The total for last year was 753. Major and Mrs Pollard arrived at Christchurch by train on Saturday afternoon, and in spite of rain a large number of the “ Army ” met them, and conducted them in procession with bands and banners to the “barracks.” They had a “ free and easy” at night, and special knee drills yesterday in the Tuam street Hall at 7 and 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. This week is to be specially sensational in salvationism.

At the Police Court this morning, before Messrs R. Alcorn and T. Bullock, J.P.’s, Joseph Barnes was fined 10s, with the alternative of 24 hours’ imprisonment, for drunkenness, and a first offender was discharged with a caution. James McCormick was brought up charged with having been drvnk at the railway station on Saturday night. He was also accused of using bad language and resisting Constable Casey in the execution of his duty. The offences were fully proved, and the Bench inflicted a fine of L 3 and costs. The first number of a new periodical called the N.Z. Volunteer and A. C. Service Gazette is just to hand, and we must congratulate the proprietor on having turned out a very admirable journal, which should meet with the support of those most interested. The Gazette is excellently printed, the leading articles well written, and the reprint matter seems to be strictly confined to matters interesting to volunteers and military men. The publication is one which fills ajjvoid, and wejwish Messrs Ford and Co., of Christchurch, who are the publishers, every success in their venture. The news of the death by drowning of Mr Allan Hobbs will be received with unfeigned sorrow by many people in Ash burton, where the deceased was well known and universally liked. Mr Hobbs had been staying here for some time, having the entire Cassivelaunus under his charge, and he intended returning from the Bouth to-day. The event is rendered doubly sad by the fact *hat the deceased was, we understand, on the eve of marriage, and his journey down South was to make final arrangements, but, as will be seen in another column, he never reached his destination, having been drowned while on the way from Palmerston to Port Chalmers. Mr Hobbs was still a young man at the time he met his death, his age not being much over 30. Says the Timaru Herald: —The Northern papers and the telegraphic correspondents, we see, invariably call Mr Mitchelson the “Honorable ” Mr Mitchelson, and refer to him as if ha were already a Minister. At a Farmers’ Cl ub banquet at Whangaroi on Thursday, however, he to )k occasion to mention that he is not yet sworn in. If all we hear from Wellington be true, ho may not be sworn in for six months yet; and it is quite within the region of possibilities that he may never be sworn in at all. It is rather premature, therefore, for his friends to invest with Ministerial honors and to make a fuss about him as Minister of Public Works. We were much amused, by-the-by, to notice that at the Farmers’ banquet on Thursday, Mr Mitchelson cautiously declined to disclose his policy. His policy, indeed ! We have been trying to get soma inkiing of his policy from the part he took in the proceedings of Parliament last session ; but we are bewildered to find that he took no part at all, as far as Hansard shows, beyond asking three Questions, one about the Kaipara pilot station, one about kauri forests, and one about the MangapaiWhangarei telephone. There is not much about policy to be got out of these, and we may be excused if we hazard a belief that Mr Mitchelson has no policy and does not know what policy means. What is rather remarkable, though, Mr Allan Macdonald, who has hitherto been an ultra-Opposition member, declared at the banquet that jn future ha and other members of the Opposition would support Mr Mitchelson. What has Mr Montgomery to say to this, we wonder 1 We may also ask, What are politics in New Zealand coming to 1