LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1623, 30 July 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Mr W. 0. Walker addresses a meeting of eleotors at Ashburton on Tuesday evening. Sir Juliuß Yogel baa arranged to deliver an address at Ashburton after his return from Dunedin, whither he goes on Tuesday. Last evening a special train consisting Of 25 trucks of horses passed through Ashbur- , ton en routo to Lyttelton. The horses aro part of a number whioh Mr Jno. Grigg, of Longbeaoh, is sending to India by tbe steamer Bucepbalua, whioh has been specially chartered by Messrs Friedlander Bros, for the. purpose. Last evening's consignment was only halt ol tho total number, about 300. and another epeoial train will be despatched on Monday. The estimated population of tbo oolony, exclusive o! Maoris, on 31st Maroh last, was 593,381. Tbe Maori population, according to the census, was .1,828, wbioh would give t total population of 635,209.

Last night the Hon W. Rolle.ton addressed a meeting of the Rangitata electors at, Wakanui m the Schoolroom. About 150 eleotors were present, and Mr James Brown occupied the obair. At tbe conclusion oi Mr Rolles ton's address, Mr Megson proposed a vote of thanks to tbe candidate, wbioh was seconded by Mr Leadley, and carried unanimously. A new discovery m meohanio., says the " Financial and Mining Record " of New York, was investigated m Montreal by a party of New Yorkers, who went there for tbia , speoial objeot. The result accomplished by the disoovery is the pulverisation or grinding of the hardest substanoe by the aotion of air set m motion, resembling that of a cyolone. Tbe air is confined m an iron chamber not larger than an ordinary bouse furnace. At a test given m the paint faotory of M'Dougall, Logic, and Co., where the machine has been m operation for six months past, nails, iron, slag, and flint rook were reduced to an im- | palpable powder, while tho operation was equally effeotive with phosphates, mica, asbestos, rice hulls, and other pulpy and soft substances. The device is very inexpensive, and, so far as the investigations showed, accomplished results so important as to point to a revolution m pulverising and grinding operations m numerous departments of trade. The central provinces of Spain (says a correspondent of the " o hroniole ") have been visited by bo terrible a plague of loousts tbat whole provinoea.are ruined. Within the Bpaoe of a few houra these pests have destroyed every trace of vegetation, grass, wheat, vines, and olives. Over considerable traota of oountry not a Vostiga of green is to be seem and the reports state that at times the sun has been obsoured when these fearful peats have been winging their flight from plaoe to plaoe. In La Manoba the trains have been .topped by them, and gangs of workmen have had to go ahead of passenger trains m truoks to clear the lines of the myriads of loousts that have descended upon them. In many cases the inseots hayo lain so thick on the metals that trains have not been able to travel faster than three or four miles an hour. Tbo Oortos are about to vote a large oredit m aid of the sufferers, aud to provide a means of destroying these voracious swarms of inseots. Our London correspondent writes that at I an extraordinary general meeting of the River Plate Fresh Meat Company, Limited, it was stated tbat during the last ten months the Oompany bad lost £37,000 m consequence of tbo depressed state of the meat market. — " Otago Daily Times." In tbe county of Donegal, Ireland, contain, ing 206,000 inhabitants, the last census gave only one arobiteot, one photographer, one railway guard, one acoountant, one showman, one literary man, one shorthand writer, three cabinet-makers, 10 bricklayers, and 54,000 agriculturists. The German barquontine Wilhelm Weise* was reoently burned at Lakow, m the China Sea, and 5400 bags of sugar aboard were destroyed.; Six thousand gallons of wine from tbe Auldana vineyard, South Australia, has been purchased at very satisfactory prioes by a large wine firm m England. Tho wholo gold raised m the Australian colonies from tho earliest records to tbe end of 1855 was 79,G78,1370zb, or about £318,000,000 sterling of aotual value. Dr Hobbe, who has been tbe Queensland Government Medical Officer for 34 years, has been . granted twelve months' _loave on full pay, and then retires from the service. In the annual report of the Judges of the Victorian Supremo Court they reoommend that the Criminal Law Statute be amended so as to give thorn power to sentenoe offenders to separate confinement as distinct from solitary oonfiement, that power be given to the Judges and Magistrates to prohibit the publication of any report on the ground of decency, that power be given to hear oases m camera, and that the punishment of flogging be extended to all cases of assault with violence. The Hungarians employed m the ironworks at Bethlohem, Pennsylvania, by their queer language frequently cause trouble, and many serious mistakes are made by them, as well i aa by those with whom they transact business (says the Philadelphia Press). The latest error was rather amusing. A couple of tbat nationality desiring to bo married called on a justice of tho peace, and took along an Hungarian couple to aot as witnesses. The strange names oonfused tbe well-meaning justice and instead of marrying tho firstmentioned oouple he united tbe witnesses for " better or for worse." Some timo aferward., news of bla mistake having reached him, he sent word to both the couples to borne before him again. When they appoared he divorced the oouple he had already married and joined the right oouple. He tben wound up the complioation of coremonieß by sending m a bill for two marriages and one divorce.