LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1595, 28 June 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A mooting of Directors of the Caledonian Sooiety for business m connection with " Inglesides," etc., is appointed for Monday next at 8 p.m.

A coursing meeting under the auspices of the Canterbury Coursing Club was held today, A report will appear m our next issue.

Mr Andrew Orr announces a " great sale of drapery, clothing, and boots." Goods to be cold at English retail prices.

A new evening journal, to be intituled the <' Timaru Evening Mail," is to be published at Timaru m the course of a few days by Mr Joseph Iveßß.

Our Methven correspondent sends the following :— On Thursday evening it oom* mencod to raio very heavy, Tvbich continued throughout the night and all day Friday, Oausing several of the atorm water ohannels •to overflow and partially flooded the townehip. Saturday was a fine day with every sign of the weather clearing up, towards evening frost set m which continued until about noon on Sunday, then moro rain until tho evening when snow cominenoed to faU ! whioh continued until noon to-day (Monday) since then frost has set m and there is so far (4 p.m.) every appearance, of its continuing throughout the night. There was nine or ten ioohes of enow on the ground this morning.

The Alford Forest riokers case is once more before the pablio. It Will be remembered that about April, 1886, James Henry Toner, a farmer, was charged with the larceny of some saplings out of the Alford Estate Go.'b bush. He was oonvioted/and fined 40a and ooßts. An artiole appeared m a Ohristohuroh paper commenting on the justice of this deoision, and to this, Mr Herring, the informant, and manager of the estate, replied m a letter. Toner sued Herring for damages for a libel alleged to be contained m this letter, and he recovered £150, the oase being heard at the Supreme Court, Timaru, m June of last year. Mr Herring has now laid informations against Toner and a man named Bullevant for alleged perjury m the evidenoe given by them during the hearing of the libel case. Both men were brought up at the RM. Court yesterday. Toner was committed for trial, and Bullevant remanded till to-day, when he also was committed for trial bail being allowed m both cases.

A beautiful and permanent rose color can be produoed on pine, deal, and other whitish woods by a solution of the salt known as iodide of potass ; also by a solution m hot water of bichloride of meroury.

On the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea a curious phenomenon is m progress. The Kara Bobhaz is an estuary nearly separated {com the main body ot the sea by a bank through which there is an inlet. The evap* oration from this gall is so great that a cur* rent continuallya sets m from the Caspian ; and as there i 3 no return current the water of the gulf becomes more and more saliferoasi and a deposit of salt is m the'course of formation. In time this gulf wili.be out off from the Gaßpian, and will then bo dried Dp and I baoome an extensive salt-bed.

A correspondent of the "New Zealand Times " signing himself "Loyalty" writes: — " There is a master is one of the Welling ton district schools who, m speaking to his class the other day on the subjeot of the Qaeen'S Jubilee, referred to Her Majesty m an exceedingly unbecoming manner. To refer to any woman as 'disreputable' is, on

the part of a man, an act of arrant cowardioe;

but when a person applies the term to his Sovereign, whose publics life has been exemplary to a degree, it proves himself to be devoid of truth and honor. In these days of deplorable tendenoy to Socialism, such an expression, used by a Government schoolmaster to his class, becomeß a matter for the Education Department to take up."

The " Birmingham Gazette " contains the following : — " It is an ill wind that blows nobody good," says the proverb; and no one should endorse that anoient saw more heartily than Mrs Jerome, better known to fame aa Lady Randolph Churohiil's mother. After Buffering from paralysis some years, and being quite bed-ridden, the poor old lady was so terrified by the first shook of the earthquake at Cannes that she sprang out of bed, fled downstairs, and she has been able to walk ever sinoe T This is a case which should find its way into manuals of philosophy and books explaining miracles."

On a recent voyage Home of the ship Duchess of Argyle, when oil Cape Horn, a large albatross was caught. Upon examination it .was discovered that a brasa pocket compass case waa fastened on the bird's nook by means of three strands of copper wire. After some trouble the captain succeeded m forcing open the lid, and inside found a piece cf paper, on which was written m muchfaded ink the following : — " Caught May 2nd, 1842, m latitude 38deg 16min S., 40deg Umin W., by American ship Columbus." The captain of tho Duchess of Argyle did not destroy the bird, but, after fixing a plate on its neck bearing his Bhip's name, the date of capture, the latitude, and tho faots of the pro. vious capture by the captain of the Columbus, let it go.

The drummers and trumpeters of the German army are declared by " lie Paris " to be hard at work learning the beats and calls of the Frenoh troops. The same authority also allegeß that m many engagements m the war of 1870 the command to cease firing was often given to the Frenoh infantry by German buglers ; and that the command to halt, sounded by the same buglers, often Btopped a oharge of Frenoh cavalry, and placed them m a poeitisn where they could be mowed down.