LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1728, 6 December 1887, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

An Inspection Parade of the Ashburton Rifles and Guards is ordered for this (Tuesday) evening at seven o'clock, when a full muster of both Companies is deßired. The Cadets ] r will attend this parade. k At the South Rakaia B.M. Court yesterday, r before Mr J. Ollivier, R.M., H. Primmer, for 1 allowing one cow to bo at large on the roads, I was fined 10a and costs 7s. — John Thompson pleaded guilty to stealing a pair of boots * one McCallum. From the evidence it ap- i peared that prisoner stole the boots from a . swag and sold them to a local shoemaker for ] 6s ; the boots were new and cost 16s, Com- < mitted for a month.— John Clifford, for being , 1 drunk and making use of indecent language ' m a publio place, was fined os for having ' been drunk, or m default 24 hours, and 96 ' hours for having made use of bad language. — Chamberlain vD. Murphy. Claim £10 for meat and bread supplied. Judgment for plaintiff with costs. The "Boston Herald" says:— "ln this respect temperanoe^brings its own reward, m that the man who absolutely ref raina from the use of stimulants has, other things being equal, the chance of living some eight or ten years longer than the man who does not praotioe this form of self-denial. Nor is it only a question of years of existence, for this lengthened duration of life implies a greater degree of health, and consequently more mental satisfaction, than is likely to be enjoyed by those who have shorter average terms of existence. The Victorian Railway Department recently notified that there were some vacancies on the staff, and received no less than 2,755 applications for the 222 vacancies, as follows : —Permanent way repairers, 527 applications for 60 vaoancies ; porters, 896 applications for the 60 vacancies ; engine-cleaners, 804 applications for 30 vacancies; laborers, 130 applications for 10 vaoancies ; line men, 40 applications for 4 vaoancieß ; youths for various olasses of work, 35 applications for 25 vaoanoies ; junior olerks, 300 applications for 37 vaoanoies ; operators, 11 applications for 3 vaoanoies. No fewer than 300 additional had to be rejeotedon account of informalities. The " Tuapeka Times" understands that the Borough Council will shortly be asked to consider a proposal to contract a line of tramway to Roxburgh, a distanoe of thirtythree miles. The cost is estimated at £70,356. Mr Dodgshun, a Melbourne merchant, left London on 21st Oct. with the mails per s.s. Ormuz, whioh vessel he joined at Naples. He left the steamer at Adelaide, took train, and had his feet under his own mahogany m Melbourne on 18th Nov., 27 days from Modern Babylon. Hoani Kahu died on Tuesday last at the Arowhenua pah, Temuka, at the reputed age of 110 years. For many years he has been perfectly helpless, but his intellect had suffered but slightly. He was a warrior and a statesman, and his past career has been suoh as to cause him to be an object of interest and respeot both to his countrymen and to Europeans. He is said to have been a native of Kaiapoi ; at all events he was present when the attaok on that pah was made by Te Buaparaho. It is announced from the War Office that all Cavalry Regiments are to be armed with the largest pattern of the Nordonfeldt machine gun. The bottle industry is a very large one, the number produced per day m the respective oountries being estimated as follows : — Great Britain and Ireland, 6206 gross; Sweden, 960 ; Norway 600 ; Denmark, 360 ; Germany and Belgium, 30,039 ; Austria, 7000 ; France, 100; United States, 840; Canada, 120; Australia, 207. Total, 46,432. With 300 working days this gives no fewer than 13,929,600 gross per year. The results of the survey and last census of India are that the area of the peninsula of Hindostan is 1,382,624 square miles, and the population 253,891,821. Although immense traots of country are annually cultivated, according to the most recent survey 10,000,000 acres of land, saitablo for cultivation, have not as yet been ploughed. At the same time 120,000,000 of aores are returned as waste lands. One of the latest additions of the naval foroe of the Australian colonies is the torpedo cruiser Tartar whioh has been ordered to join the Australian fleet, and is a new vessel built by Messrß J. and G. Thompson, Glydebank, Clyde. Her displacement is 1360 tons, and her engines are 3500 horse-power. Her speed is very great, and her armament comprises six 6-inoh steel breeohloaders, and eight 6-ponndor quick-firing guns. She is also fitted with the latest torpedo improvements. Some ourioui and terrible effects of lightning are reported from Mende, m jFranoo. During a thunderstorm m that looality the room of Madame Gaillard was suddenly illuminated by the flashes of fire. Tho woman and her three children, frightened out of their wits, ran for safety to the chimney , corner, when a single sharp olap of thunder \ waa heard over the house, and the chimney waß struck by lightning. The mother and the three ohildren were knooked down insensible. One of them, a boy of four, was killed instantaneously, and a little girl was whirled into tho centre of the room and had her eyes completely burned out. The Edinburgh correspondent of the " Otago Daily Times " reports that the crisis m the whisky trade continues. Four more firms oarrying on business m Leith, Falkirk, Edinburgh, and Glasgow respectively, have convened meetings of their creditors; It is also freely asserted that m the case of six other firms thoir aoceptanooa have been returnod. Independent of these last there havo boon fourteen suspensions m the whisky trade sinoe the beginning of August, and it is believed that the dividends m these estates will not exceed Cs m tho pound. The " Economist," m an artiole on tho subject, says that it has long been apparent that a collapse of this kind was only a question of time, that the speculation, though legitimate at first, " speedily degenerated into a mere gamble," and that " the bubble has now burst, and a [heavy liquidation, m whioh serious losses will be included, must take place."