LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1783, 7 March 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We are requested to call the attention of the publics, and of residents at Rakaia m particular, to the advertisement relating to Mr Elston'a Monthly Advertiser, which will be found m another column of this issue.

The Wellington •• Press " emphatically states that everything said by the «' Post " re Sir J. Yogel and Mr Braoken being conoerned m the publication of a " Picturesque Atlas of New Zealand "is incorrect. This exactly bears out what we said m an article m yesterday's issue. Depend upon it the frozen meat trade is the matter m hand.

An exohange writes " a baohelor friend of ours had the blues the other day, and applied to a local dootor for some medioine. The doctor inquired into bis oaee, and wrote a pre. soription m Latin, which the baohelor took to a ohemist. Translated, the preßOription read : — • Seventeen yards of silk, and a woman m it.' After the druggist got through laughing he explained, and the baohelor proposed to a lady the same evening, and the , marriage is to come off at an early date.'- 1

Gordon was killed while defending Khartoum. He was sent there jointly by England and Epypt. His expenses were £40,000. England refuses to pay and Egypt repudiates, so the holder* are suing Gordon's personal estate m Scotland. The hero is dead, but live heroes will not be muoh enrap tured by such a proceeding, and England need i a few live heroes.

A daughter ol the Sultan and three ! daughters of the late Sultan are to be married shortly -the first to a Bon of Ghazi Osman, the hero of Plevna ; one of the others to General Mehemed Pasha, aide-de-camp of the Sultan; another to a son of Marshall Dervish Pasha ; and the last to Attit Bey, formerly general Secretary to Abdul Aeiz, and at present Governor-General of the Provinoe of Earassei. Reuben Fields, of Owingsville, Ky.,/is twenty-eight years old, perfectly illiterate, aud a mathematical prodigy. Since eight years of age he has been able to solve m a flash such problems as : The moon is a oertain number of miles from ihe earth ; a grain of corn is bo long ; how many grains will it take to connect the points ? He can also instantly, and without consulting a time piece, tell to a fraction of a second the time of day or night. ' The " Dunedin Star " says that the Koslyn Woollen Mills are now employing 220 hands ; tiu some departments of the works the I machinery is kept going from seven a.m. to nine p.m., employing two shifts of men.

At a Travelling Agency— To Clerk— "Did you ever realise anything m the German lotteries?" "Yea, sir I tried live times, and realised that I wbb an idior 1 "

Parent : « Who is the lazießt boy m your olasß, Johnny ? " Johnny : " 1 danno." •' I should think you would know. When all the others are industriously writing or studying their lessons, who is he who sits idly m his seat and watches the rest, instead of working hlmßeU ? " " The teaoher."

The "Chris'ohuroh Telegraph" says that the reduoion of the capitation hitherto paid to the Volunteer oropa will, m all probability, entirely put an end to any hope of a camp being held as usual this year.

A London correspondent writes as follows : — " London and all the large towns here are going boxing mad. Sullivan and Ashton reoeived £600 weekly for their show at the Westminster Aquarium ; Smith and Kilrain followed at £1000 weekly, with a peroentage added if the receipts exceeded a oertain sum. Mr Jem Smith was a brioklayer's laborer, living off the City road, London ; now he is a • swell' Biirrounded by knights of high degree."

The Melbourne correspondent of the " Otago Daily Times " writes : — Mr T. Makenzie, M.H.R. for Olutha, has been on a visit to Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide. He desires to obtain the adoption of a system of free interchange of products between the colonies, and has interviewed a number of the leading poli icians on the subjeot. But it is a big subject, and personal gossips upon it will go but a little way towards the achievement of the desired end. Mr Mackenzie haß to show the Viotorian politician, for instauoe, that it will pay to agree to a free interchange with New Zealand. It would no doubt be a good thing for you to find an unlimited market here for your oats aud potatoes, but m what particular department is the Viotorian pro* duoer to gain a quid pro quo ? Thiß is Mr Mackenzie's diffioulty.

Nine international expositions are to be held iv the next two years. Hamburg, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; Copenhagen, Denmark ; Glasgow, Scotland ; Brussels, Belgiam ; Melbourne, Australia ; Munich, Bavaria; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Oharkoff, Bussia, are the cities delected.

A divoroe has been pronounced m Paris between a deaf and dumb oouple. We are not surprised to bear it is the first of the kind which has taken place since divorce became legal, for this couple certainly started on married life with most excellent, guarantees of a peaoeful future ; which only proves how it is that marriage is a lottery.

We learn fron the "Lytteltou Times'' that diphtheria has made it appearance m Eangiora, and caused three deaths. The disease is said to have been brought into one of the families by a visitor from another town, and its spread is not iv any way due to Banitary defects.

The Auokland morning paper says that Sir George Grey intends to take a trip to Europe, and to remain m England for some time.