LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1454, 12 January 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At half-past two this afternoon a thermometer placed by Mr B. Murray under his verandah registered 86. The running water m the side ohannel registered 88.

The first sod of the first saotion of the Midland Railway is to be turned, at the Brunnerton end, on the 24th inst., by the Minister for Publio Works.

The snooesa of aoelimatiats m regard to the humble bee is now complotely assured, that nsefal inseot being now very numerous m some localities. Yesterday m a garden a*: Treverton eight were aeon at one titne buav among the blossoras of a white climbing aolanum.

A ooinoifcnae m connection with Hall's trial is that it is net. dowa for hearing on his birthday— January 24th. Ho will be 39 years of age.

A little girl prettily defines a smile as " the whisper of a laugh."

The number of matches annually made is almost inconceivably great— soo,ooo,ooo o* boxes without ojnnting tho 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 of boxes of wax matches and 'usees.

Apropos of our recent article on the import* ance of Antarctic Exploration m connection with the possible oper ; ~ i-i of freah whalefisheries, we learn from \L>.ißtralasian. and South. American, of Deo. 11th, that reports just reoeived from the Arotio note that up to about the Ist of September only 150 whales had been taken againßt 250 during last year. Whales are hunted now for their bone, the oil being a secondary consideration. The freighting vessels which bring back the bones are the medium of communication with the fleet. No substitute has ever suoceeded m displacing ,whale-bone, whose cash value inoreases from year to year.

The Hattingt Star suggests that it would be easy enough to pay the debt of the colony by imposing a tax on beauty. There isn't a woman living m the colony who would not demand to be taxed.

The Wellington correspondent of tha Lyttelton Times writes: — " Mr Ballance'e proposed measure for the appropriation of private estates for settlement purposes must have been fully disoussed by the Cabinet, for it is already, I am told, m the printer's bands, and will be circulated all over the colony before the House meets."

The North Otago Time* Bays : — Apparently there will soon be a scarcity of dairy cattle m this district. A short time ago we drew attention to the fact; that Messrs Fleming and Hedley had sold to a buyer at Gore 50 head of dairy cattle. We now learn that the same buyer has purchased another lot, numbering 74, through tha same firm, and these are to be sent south.

A centenarian widow is living m New town, Montgomeryshire, Mrs Rebeoea Grosvenor, has just kept her 162 nd birthday, and is m excellent health. Indeed, sha can read and thread her needle without spectacles. Another oentenari«.n, Mrs Elizabeth Drako, has jnst died m Manchester at the age of 103. She was bom m Shropshire, and Baw some foreign servioe with her husband, a trooper under the Duke of Wellington. Sailing from England m the old Bellerophon, Bhe was present at Waterloo, and assisted other soldier's wives m attending the wounded.

The Neiv Zealand Herald urges the importance of cultivating perfume flowers for the purpose of extracting the essential oil. It sajs : — " Of the value of the yield per acre of various perfume plants, as published some time ago m the London, Journal of Horticulture, we find m the list that, m countries adapted to their growth, the flowers from an acre of jasmine are worth £250 ; from an acre of rose tree, £65 ; flowers from a hundred orange trees, ten years old, growing on an aore, £50; from an aore of violets, €160 ; from an acre of geraniums, £80 ; from an aore of lavender, £300."

We olip the following important, testimonial from thei ttawarra Mercury, N.S.W., on the 30th March. It aeeds no comment : — " Mr John Loveday, of the Bulli Mountain, writes to us after suffering for four yeare with aoute gravel, he has experienced almost complete relief by using Sander and Sona' Euoahpti Extract. He says seeing the Baid Extraot advertised m the Illawarra Mercury, his intense suffering induced him to obtain a bottle of the medicine from Mr Hosking, ohemist, of this town, and that the use of it gave him great relief at onoe. He states that between rhe 10th March instant, when he obtained the first bottle of the extraot, and on the 19th the use of that medicine continued to afford him relief, to which he had been a stranger for four years. Mr Loveday writes also that he haa found the Eucalypti Extract a oure fo rheumatism as well as gravel. He requests ua to publish this information through the Mercury. Wo have much pleasure m complying with Mr Loveday'a request, whose word cannot be be doubted, and who can have no object m view other than a pure desire to benefit suffering humanity." — (A.dvt).