LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1633, 11 August 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

A correspondent of the "Poverty Bay Herald " etrongly urges that the name of the district should be ohanged. The "Tirparu Herald" asserts that fi number of inquests are held m order to enable coroners to pocket the, fees. During the past fortnight there has been an increase of cases of scarlet fever m Auokland. Three were reported yesterday to the Sanitary Inspector, as also one of the typhoid. The whole of them are m the Ponsonby Ward. Monday's Thames " Advertiser " says:— Twenty years ago yesterday, the shipping agents, Messrs Butt and Anderson, advertised 11 that the fast and powerful p.B. Enterprise No. 2, Captain Scon, master, would leave Queen-street wharf, Auokland, on her first trip for the new goldfieldß at the Thames." The Union Company have received a oable message stating that the new steamer Pukaki sailed from London on the 22nd inst. The steamer has been built for the coal trade between Greymouth and Melbourne. House and land property ia wonderfully cheap at Nelson. We have heard of a sevenroomed house with twenty-five acres of land* some few miles out of Nelson, being let for £20 a' year, while the produce from tho orohard brought £30 per annum. "Rough on Itcu."~" Rough on Itoh" cures skin humors, eruptions, ring worm, tetter, salt rheum, frosted feet, chilblain!, itob, ivy poison barber's itoh. 3

The New Zealand Shipping Company have received the following cable message from thoir London office, dated Bth August, 1887 : — R.M.S. Rimutaka arrived all well at Plymouth ; meat m good condition. Waipa has sailod for Dunedin.

The " roar of retrenchment," remarks the "Taranaki Herald," is producing unexpected results. The Hon Mr Tola told hia late! constituency the other evening that Ministers Bee their way to reduce the Education vote by £40,000.

The General Post Office hae m London alone 250 miles of pipes, containing 10,212 mileß of underground wire. In faot, all the great trunk lines are out of danger of stoppage from storms, and there ere now 215 offices m London served wholly by buried wires.

The Straßburg Library, burnt m the siege during the war of 1878, has again grown to a considerable extent. It now comprises more than 600,000 volumes. Last year 21,936 volumes were added, 18,872 of these being presents.

Diphtheria has made its appearance at Kaiapoi, where two deaths of children took place last week. The epidemio is believed to bo due to the recent floods.

A letter from Las Andes, a Chilean Ultra. Cordillera province adjoining the Argentine Republic, Bays that 30,000 persons have sueoumbed to cholera.

Daring the recent Nihilist scare m Bussia no lesa than 45 per cent, ot the whole of the letters passing through the Russian post were opened. Thia calculation does not include the correspondence of a large olaas of sußpeetß whose letters are always opened as a matter of course.

In the Flowery Land the petals of the magnolia are converted into fritters, whiob are said to be very agreeable to the taste.

Children are beooming very preoooious now-a-days. •• Ma, where was I when you married papa ? "Why, young as I am, I could have picked out a better man."

It seems hardly creditable says an exchange that anyone who haß himaelf Jlived m the Jubilee year of Queen Victoria's raign should be the grandson of a man who lived for twelve years under Charles 11. Yet this waß actually the oase with the late Capt Maude. Hia grandfather was born m 1673; hia lather, the first Lord Hawarden, m 1729 ; ana he himself m 1798. Thuß three generations have covered 213 years, or an average of 71 years to a generation, and have lived under ten sovereigns.

John Willis Smith, " herbalist [phyeioian," was arreßted m Sydney, on the 24th ult., on suspicion of having caused the death of a young woman, Cissy Bradshaw, by administaring some noxious drug. Probably this arrest has led to the disclosures re unregis. lered medical practitioners.

The Eiffel Tower, which is to be the grea* attraction of the Paris Exhibition of 1889, is already being attaoked m the French law oourts, The Oountesse dePoyne and Madame Boumet Aubertot have both asked for injo notions againat the ereotion ot the tower, on the plea that it will destroy the view from their windows and damage thoir property for a oon« giderable time,

The cultivation of wheat m Brazil on an extensive scale is a question now (occupying the attention of agriculturists m that empire.

. A bow-legged man was standing before the Itove wanning himself. A small boy watched him latently lor a while, and then broke out : "Saying, mister, you're a-warpin."

Commercial matters eeem to be m a very low way m Auckland just now. The " Evening Bell " says :— •• There are dark rumours m the commercial world of Auckland. Soma half-a-dozen prominent firms are reported to be oa the verge of tumbling, and all sorts o* Bbiftß ana devices are being resorted to to stave oH the dreaded and apparently inevitable collapse. We do not mention names, tomauee it wodfti bejinfair to do so on mere rumour, but the fact tbTar~tln>i».*thinea wa being talked about is very significant. It jooba as if times were going to be worse before they are better."

A young maßher walking up and down the platform of a railway station m Scotland with a companion who had come to see him oil, observed two handsome girls enter a first-class oarriage. "Look here," he said to his companion, who did not pay muoh attention to hia flreag, •• I'll get into that same compartment, and I tell you what I want you to do. When tae train is about to start, you come up and touch your hat, and Bay to me, ' My lord, th« gins and dogs are m the tan.' " His companion Bmiled assent, but said he doubted if ha could do it with the proper air of a noblenan's servant. The masher took his seat vith a [lordly air m the. same oarriage with the young ladies, whose interest ho wished to woite. The moment arrived and lhe train began to move, when his companion came up to the carriage window. ."Hey, Jock," he tbouted, "tell your master to be sure and send thae breeks 0' mine by Saturday 1 "