LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1767, 15 February 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Hon G. F. Riohardson, Minister for Lands, returned to Wellington last evening without having paid a visit to Ashburton He has, however, promised to do so next trip South.

Mr Collins, manager for Messrs MoOailara and Co., has brought to our offioe a sample taken from a consignment of Westport coal whioh shows very dearly the description of timber from whioh the blook was originally converted m Nature's laboratory. This was evidently a totara tree, tbe grain of the timber being plainly recognisable.

Thirty^iz members of the Rifles under Oapt Dolman and Lieut Fooks, thirty-three of the Guards under Captain Sparrow and Lieutenants Cathbertaon and Paul, and iom« twenty Cadets nnder Lieut Low at ended last night'B parade. Captain and Adjutant Fooks and Sergeant.Major Hayes were also present. After inspecting the three oorps Major Douglas exercised them m useful battalion drill for over an hoar. The work was fairly done, though the presence of a sprinkling of recruits was manifest. A good deal of company drill is still required to bring the companies up to the matk for the Easier encampment, and we hope to see much larger musters at the weekly parades daring the coming month. For some time past the attendance of Cadets bas been partioolarly small, and we think parents Bhould see that a marked improvement takes plaoe m this reßpeot. Sergeant-Major Hayes has devoted muoh time and trouble to the Cadet corps, and the least return tbe boys oan make is to put m an appearance at drill onoe weekly. We regret to learn that Lieut John Arthur Orr, of the Cadets, bas reigned, owing to absence from the dietriot.

I Mr Sydney Taiwhanga, M.H.R., has gonel to gaol (or fourteen daje, io default of paying j £.38 due by hicn for board and lodging. ' '. Wo learn from the "Lyttelton Times"' that it was reported at Rangiora on Tuesday that three sharp snooks of earthquake, m quiok suooeßsion, and preoeded by a loud rumbling sound, occurred at an early hour m he morning. A farmer at Flaxton states that tbe second shook was co seriously felt at his plaoe as to displaoe three pans of milk from tbe dairy shelf, spilling the milk upon the floor. Professor Frootor asserts that 100,000,000 people lived and died m America before Columbus' dißOovery, Scarcely an apple tree m the Dunstan district has esoaped the ravages ot the oodiin moth. ' , A Sydney eolioitor, dabbling m mining shares, reoently netted £120,000 m a week or two. It is reported that an attempt will shortly be made to establish a lager beer brewery m this colony. The Bay of Plenty "Tlmea" taji that eggs are sp plentiful at Gate Pa, that the Battlers are feeding their pigs with baoketsfal »t a tf me. Not- a dozen years ago exporting onions by the Egyptians was not thought of. Yet during two months reoently do less than 14,000 tone were reooived m Liverpool from Egypt. Mr P r .Comiakey, a well-known old Wegt Coaster, now m London, is rying to float a Company to work the Newberry-Vautier process of gold extraction m this oniony. The capital of the Company is to be £100,000. A peculiar feature of Long Lake, m Wex r ford County, Miob., is that it gradually rises and subsides once every few years. It had beep rising for the past four or five years, and the Grand Rapids and Indiana railway has ' been obliged to abandon its old roadway along the shore. The farmers m Southland are said to ba looking gloomy. Heavy losses have ooourred 1 m grass seed, whioh has rotted m the fields The hat vest will be very la c, and there are some prospects ot the late sown crops being Overtaken by the winter frosts. The " New Zealand Qtrald " reports that about 100 tone of whit is thought to be gold* I bearing atone has been taken from Patateire ' for the purposa of testing, which, af er concentration, will be conducted at Te Aroba* Another trial of the stuff m tbe Waitoa itooftljty will shortly be made, a email plant being m course of eruption on Mr B. Smith's property there. A thorough test w|ll be oonduoted. The apple trade from America to Sootland i jta ea.it! to bavo been begun by one Buchanan, a Scotchman, who, so long ago as 1645, despatched five barrels of applet) from B, oßton 10 Glasgow. The venture having paid, h* repeated it until he had established a trade ; tnd now Boston and New York export five* sixths of all the applon sent from America to \ Sootland, the five barrels of 18415 having grown to over 700,000 to WBS-86. This month's isß,ue of the Illustrated 1 Australian News (New Zealand edition) contslno 9 view of the New Plymouth Break, water, and a charming pioture of Te Beinga j Waterfall. There is also a sketch Of a very ' pretty pioppn the Perwent, and a view of th«< nnveiling of the tyuitn's Statue at Sydney, ! besides numerous otb#r efcetchM, opraa of them of an amustPg ebsraottr. It ia a w'y foci number