LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1373, 18 October 1886, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Borough Council meets this evening. A meeting of gentlemen interested in the formation of a Cricket Club was held in the office of Mr Davis, cabinet maker, on Thursday, Oot. 14th, when it was decided to form a club to be called “ The Ashburton Borough C.C.’’ After twelve members had been enrolled the meeting was adjourned till this evening, at 8 o’clock, for the purpose of electing officers, &o

By a printer’s error in an advertisement of an auction sale by Mr T. Bullock, which appeared in our issue of Saturday, the name was given as “ Mr Fen-ant," whereas it should have been “ Mr Tennant.”

At the E.M. Court this morning, before Mr R. Alcorn, J.P., a first offender for drunkenness was fined 5s and costs, with the usual alternative.

The cultivation of sub-tropical fruits is extending in the northern part of this colony, as an example of which it may be mentioned that 1000 orange trees have been imported into Hokianga this season.

Within tho last two months failures in Queensland have occurred involving a total of nearly £700,000.

At Pioton they deal with the wandering animal nuisance by permitting horses and cows to graze in the streets, provided a license is paid for each of £1 a year. The Borough Council gets about £4O a year in this manner. It is amusing to see the cows with collars on their neck like duly registered dogs.— Express.

There are 1011 Post Offices in New Zealand. The number of articles which were posted and delivered last year were:—Letters, 35,829,855; post cards, 1,313,993; books and parcels, 3,205,960; newspapers, 14,233,878.

Considerable excitement was caused in Sydney and suburbs prior to his match with Wallace Ross by a report which was industriously circulated to the effect that Beach had died suddenly. People bearing the rumor made enquiries in all directions to trace it to its origin, but no satisfactory explanation was obtainable until late in the evening, when it was stated that the report had arisen from a mistaken reading of the following cable message, received from Mr J. G. Deeble : “ Beach dead certainty.” The Wellington Hospital “ liquor bill ” presented this mouth shows that during the month of September, 1885, 30 patients consumed 586 pints of spirits and malt liquors, which was about 15 pints to each person. In September this year 19 patients consumed 131 pints, or an average of about 7 pints to each person. Of 131 pints in this year 66 pints were consumed by the five old men in the Hospital, who are not properly Hospital patients, leaving an average of a little over 4£ pints to each of the patients proper. The consumption in September, 1885, was 2 pints of spirits and 13 pints of malt liquor by each patient; and last month the average was 3£ pints of spirits and 3J pints of malt liquors each.— N.Z. Times.

In the Supreme Court to-day the case for the ;Crown against Hall and Hiss Houston closed. Mr Joint submitted that the indictment disclosed no offence, antimony, according to the evidence of Professors Black and Ogston, being a non-poisonous metal. The Judge replied that common language was sufficient, but Hall’s counsel proceeded to argue in support of his contention. Spencer Compton, the boy who was very severely burnt some months ago by his o’othes being ignited by a candle, is still in the Hospital, but is progressing very favorably. A writer to the Melbourne Ago, treating of the public caprice in regard to authors, mentions as a fact that a brother of the novelist B. L. Farjeon “ is now dying from starvation in Melbourne streets, and who as he hobbles along is almost too decrepit to pick up crumbs which don’t ever fall from the rich man’s table.”

The Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Corn Exchange held a combined meeting on Saturday, when it was decided to communicate with kindred institutions, throughout the colony as to the proposed standard corn sack. The general opinion was that a sack equal to containing 2001bs of wheat was most suitable.

William Hosking, a labourer, employed at Bipa Island fortications, died on Saturday night from injuries received through a fall of earth on Thursday last.

The gigantic proportions ot the business of a big daily newspaper may be gathered from a statement lately published in the New York Herald : — Between the hours of 9 o’clock a.m. and midnight the Herald received one Monday morning 34,200 letters in answer to advertisements in Sunday’s paper. An analysis of the ordinary daily correspondence of a newspaper would be very interesting to the genera! public. One London daily was so overcrowded some time ago with correspondence that it was compelled to engage a staff of half a dozen men to assist in opening and dealing with the letters by the morning mails. —R porters Magazine.

For close confinement, want cf air, sedentary habits, and brain and nerve tire, trust in Hop Bitters (American Go’s.) Read