LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1737, 11 January 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The ordinary monthly meeting of the "Ash- j barton Sohool Committee wab held last 1 evening. Present — Messrs J. 0. Duncan I (chairman), Sawle, Oraighead, Dimant, and Cook. The Visiting Committee were granted I an extension of time to report on repairs, etc I The Committee decided to reoord its veto m I favor of Messrs E. G. Wright and O. Booth I for the vaoant Beats on the Board of Eduoa- 1 tion. An additional month's holiday waß I granted Miss Diok on the ground of I ill-health. It was resolved thai further! consideration of the matter of the I ohildren'a treat should stand over till after I j the Bohool had re« assembled. Aooounts were I passed for payment, and the Committee ad« I journed. I The oldest botanical work m the world is] sculptured on the walls of a room m the I great temple of Karnak at Thebes, m Egypt. I It represents foreign plants brought home by I an Egyptian sovereign, Thothmes 111., on his I return from a campaign m Arabia. The I BOulptureß show not only the plant or tree, I but the leaves, fruit, and seed pods, separately, j after the fashion of modern botanioal I treatises. Mr W. Flinders Petrie, the well* known archroologiat, has recently taken paper I easts of this very interesting work. j Danish butter realises the highest price m j England. Next cornea the German artiole, I followed m succession by the produot of I Sweden, France, and Holland. I Says the Hasting! " Star " :— W« hear that Mr Bowman, one of our local carriers, has a I notion of doing a bit m the show line.- . He I has, so it is said, heard of a petrified child I somewhere m the Taupo country, and intends I

leaving with a ooaoh and pair shortly to bring the wonderful curiosity down. Some aheep that bad never been Bhorn were mustered for tbe reoent shearing at Ledeourt Station, Victoria. They had been apparently forced out of tbe recesses of the Grampians by last summer's fires, and had joined the flocks on tbe plains. The fleeces were of remarkable length and weight. One from a ewe weighed 521bs, and a sample of the staple was 15 inches m length without any break. It is claimed that London now yields to New York the proud dißtinotion of being tut great money oentre of the world, sinoe the total exchanges at the bankers' olearing house for the United Kingdom last year amounted to only £5,917,921,369, while those made by the New York olearing house were £6,735,365,022. The difference is thus over I £800,000,000 m favor of the latter. h. book byjhe Hon James Inglis, entitled " Our New Zealabff 6TOBin«,'i.ia_cromised by Messrs Sampson, Low, and Go. ~ ' Ferrets have been found to be no match for the rabbits on the Otematata Bun. At a special meeting of the Oatuaru Harbor Board recently, Mr Pearson, writing on behalf of Messrs Tesoh' emaker and Bitobie, stated that 11 ferrets had been turned out on Otematata many years ago, and for some time they appeared to keep tbe rabbits m check, bat latterly the rabbits obtained the supremacy and last winter the ferrets appeared to have taken to eating the poisoned rabbits, as they have been found dead all over the run, so, m thefaoe of this, it would be a waste of money to turn out ferrets there." A "laughing plant," it is said, grows m Arabia, with seeds producing effects like those of laughing gas. The flowers are of a bright yellow, and the seed pods are soft and woolly, while the Beeds resemble blaok beans, and only two or three grow m a pod. The natives dry and pulverißo them and the powder, if taken m small doses, mako the severest person behave like a oiroue clown or a madman; for he will dance, sing, and laugh, and out the most fantastio oapers, and be m an uproariously ridiculous condition for an hour. When the excitement eeaseß the exhausted exhibitor of these antics falls asleep, and when he awakes he has not the slightest remembrance of his frisky doings. The late Oeorge Fordham, exolnsive of £10,000 left to his widow, I leaves about £40,000 to be divided among his four children. Three weeks before bis death Fordham called a meeting of bis family to bis bedside and distributed among them the whole of bis accumulate* presents, worth a very large sum Of money. Fordham's last words wert { *f I'm waiting for the flag to fall." The Jubilee gift of the Gtrman Emperor to the Pope is a mitre set with precious stones, valued at 20,000 francs, and that of the Empress a Bet of Mass robes costing 30,000 francs, while Queen Carola of Saxony has presented Sis Holiness with a beautiful basin for consecrated water, made of ohina, and containing 5000 franos iq gold. If the kbantankerous Ayoub Khan, who is a khandidate for the Ameership of Afghanistan, doesn't khanoel his engagement |witb Mtrafghi Khan, they can make a very khankery khanvass together. But if the khanny Ameer goes after them with his khannon he will make .them danoe the khan-khan to tbe whistling of kb&nistpr shot.—" Springfield Union." The growing potato crops m some parts of New South Wales have boen attaoked by a destructive sort of disease, From 10 to 20 per ceas, of some of the orops are reported to have been d»fltrp.jred. The tops of tbe plants affected look as if fire had parsed over them ; and the tubers are rotten. Farmers m New South Wales are rouoh agitated as to Jhe oause of the disease. All kinds of potatoes a.re affeoted. ft is not known what the disease fa, frut ps «pme of the haulms and tubers are infested wftb ap jingect it is supposed to be the potato fly ; but this is not known for pertajn, The potatp crop is rather heavier than usual m JJew South Wales this year. Another instance of the power of oil to calm troubled waters is reported m the case of tho English steamer Warwick, and the result is said to have been most remarkable. The Warwick, while going from Newport (Won,) to Philadelphia, enoountered terrible weather. On the 80th a heavy north-wast gale was blowing and tbe seaa ran mountains high, making a clean breaoh over the steamer and carrying all valuable things off the deck. During the* rtabt of the storm the experiment p£ throwing oil on the Tutors was tried. The efleofc jls dJßfcribod as .marvellous'. T hc »ea became corapajratyvey h^mjefls, and wherever i i the oil was on the water , the qutyaoe appeared to be quite calm and unbroken, while outside £urbuljpn£ waves were running. i ' When worn down *p,d Jffi.ady to take your 1 bed, Amerioan Oo.'s Hop Eittfyfl j# wbafc yo»i pwd k wMtti you. get