The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1888. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1832, 4 May 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, MAY 4, 1888. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

We would remind ~owners"*~bf nominated for the Ashburton Tradesmen's Races that acceptances must reach the hands of the Seoretary before nine o'clock on Saturday evening, and entries for Selling Hurdle and Haok Raoe must be made before that hour. Alfred Buchanan, of tho Ashburton High Sohool, is entitled to a Scholarship under the North Canterbury Education Board, having siood second m the list of candidates m Class D for the Board Scholarship Examinations. Buchanan gained 611 marks out of a possible 900 ; and Miss Hilda Lewis, of the Chrißtchurch Girls' High Sohool, who stood first m I the list made 678 marks. At the Rakaia stock sale held on Thursday Mr E. G. Staveley stated that someone had oiroulated a report that Mr Secretan, the local agent for the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Company, had left the distriot without saying good-bye, and was not coming back again. He (Mr Staveley) had no idea who circulated suoh a report nor what the object was, but he thought it his dnty to publioly contradiot the statement. There was no truth m it, and, as a matter of fact, Mr Seoretan, on the advioe of bis medical adviser, had obtained a montha' leave of abßenoe, and gone for a trip to benefit his health. He hoped he would be recovered m health and home before the next sale, 'Mr W. Wilson Reid, auriet, has an advertisement m our columns whioh we would draw attention to. Mr Reid is a son of the well-known aurist, Dr Reid, of Glasgow, and can be consulted at the Commercial Hotel, Ashburton, on Monday and Tuesday next by all suffering from deafness, or, diseases of the ear, whether Blight or of long^ standmg. Mr Reid is m the colonies m the interests of his father's business, and has with him the aurophone invented by Dr Reid. This instrumeut is an artificial drum, constructed on accurate scientific principles, and is said to be an invaluable instrument to those who have difficulty m hearing. Mr Reid's headquarters are at Melbourne, but he intends to vi&it New Zealand periodically. An extraordinary run took place on March 23 on the Westminster branoh of the National Penny Bank, whioh iB said to have been due to an even more extraordinary cause. A story got abroad, it is said, that the Duke of Westminster had lost his fortune on a horse race, and thereupon the depositors m ever inoreasing numberß swarmed to the bank to withdraw their money. Hundreds upon hundreds of the poorest among the thrifty poor orowded to the counter of the bank to demand the immediate payment of their modest deposits. (t Some were m tears, and some had oome just as they left their washing or other work. They rushed round m their slippers and shoes to get their few shillings." More than onethird of the depositors had less than a shilling m the bank ; 65 per oent. of them had less than 10s to their credit. This money, painfully saved at the price of rigid economies, was deposited m pennies at a time at the the bank. Some £18,000 wa? paid over the counter.; It was not long before confidence was restored, but it is feared that only too many of those who withdrew their 6aving3 invested them m gin shops. Somebody said lately that a newspaper, today an artiole of no value, would by the lapse of years become worth its weight m gold. That would not be muoh, but, if the chemists are right, there will not be muoh of the literature of these latter days to offer for gold a, century hence, Science has oheapened paper, and multiplied books and newspapers ; but some time ago German chemists discovered that most modern paperjs so bad that a large proportion of the literature of the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century is designed to speedy deoay. The Prussian Government took alarm at this discovery, which affected the national archives. A department was therefore created for the ohemioal analysis of all paper supplied for the service of the State. A report on the work done by the department has just been issued. Among other things, ninty-seven German and foreign magazines and other periodicals were examined ; and the official chemists report that only three of them will go down to posterity, the paper on whioh the others are printed being so bad that m little more than half a century it will dooay. A couple of generations is the longest that any of the condemned publications will last. The throe that are destined to immortality are printed upon paper made from rags ; whereas the commoner sortß of paper are made from straw, wood pulp, and other substitutes.

Wesleyan services will be oonduoted m the Sohool, at Mount Somers, on Sunday next, at eleven o'olook ; and we are informed servioes will be conduoted every alternate Sunday at Mount Somers, after tho 6th instant. Major Steward, M.H B. for Waimate, met a number of his constituents at Wai-iti, near Timaru, on Thursday evening. He reviewed the work of lass session, and declared m ' favor of a graduated Income-tax and a proteotive tariff, An exohange gives the following translation of the names of eminent Frenchmen with which tho newspapers have made us so familiar : — Booher, butoher ; Boulanger, baker; Brisson, little sea-urchin ; Caff ar el, ford ; Carnot, corpulent ; Cemenceaa, little Clement ; Ferron, dealer m old iron ; Ferry, Freddy ; Freycinet, oak sapling ; Gambetta, little leg ; Herbette, email herb ; Naquet, norter hired by the day ; Rane, a man with a limp ; Rochefort, a fortified rock ; Rouvier, oak plantation ; Saussier, a maker of sauces ; Spuller, maker of spools ; Yiette, night lamps We glean from a story m Mr Tulloch'B " Life of Quaen Victoria " what is perhaps a solitary instanoe of a pun made by the Master of the Horse m answering a royal question. The ocoasion was the Queen's visit to the Mansion House m the first year of her reign. •• I wonder," she said to Lord Albermarle, "if my good people of London are as glad to Bee me as I am to see them ? " He replied by pointing to the letters "V.R." woven into all the decorations, and saying, " Your Majesty can see their loyal Cockney answer, ' Yo are.' " In the Tunbridge Wells " Courier," William Habon, m a very well displayed double column advertismont, notifies " New Zealand butter, just arrived m ship Kaikoura, rich, creamy, of splendid quality, la 4d per lb." In the same advertisement finest Normandy butter is quoted at Is 5d per lb ; and tine do at 1b 2d per lb ; whilßt margarine, wbiob, it statefl, " being both wholesome and nutritious, is preferable m any way to oommon butter," is advertised at Is a lb. It would send matters along with a boom if the farmers wives m Ashburton County were able to participate m the profit of the butter trade as shewn forth m the foregoing. A correspondent of the " Scientific American " gives the following particulars as to the mode of burning town refuse, which is adopted at Deßmonies, lowa : — " The furnace is 18ft long by 'Ift Gin wide, has a capacity of 50 yards of garbage daily, and cost, with building about £1700. About 2ft from the bottom of the furnace is a solid iron plate, and above that, and upon which falls the substance to bo burned, is a heavy iron grating. In the centre of the furnace is a circular hole, closed by a trap, into whioh were thrown, while I watohod it, two dead horses, seven dogs, 18 barrels of garbage, three loads of manure, 15 bushels of rotten egge, and three barrels of rotten figh. Thia was all conspmed m one hour, with no j offensive smell from the oombustion ani no smoke. The furnace was cold when started. There are two fires — one m front and the other m the rear. The rear fire was started first. The refuse is dumped upon the grating through the man hole, thus baing kept away from the fire so as not to extinguish it. The heat from the flames m the front and rear rapidly dries the matter, and soon all is burning. The theory of the inventor is that if there were only one fire, the combustion would bo offensive. The draught carries the smoke to the rear fire, whioh consumes the noxious gases and dostroy all germs." There was a large and characteristic audience at the Oddfellows' Hall last evening, when the self.styled Dr Silvester gave an entertainment of a varied and somewhat unique character. The " Dr's " efforts m the way of ventriloqmlism wore of ratlier a mild and very amateurish character, but for the most part he kept his audience amused by his broad, low comedy dialogue between himself and hia lay figures. So far this part of the entertainment was somewhat m accordance with the professions made m the bill, but as for the Other items, such as the magic and conjuring, they were oonspiouous by their abeenoe. When the audience saw that the programme m its entirety was not going to be carried out they became rather more demonstrative than the " Dr " could have wished for, and plainly gave him to understand that they were not going to be " had," After the ventriloqual performance was concluded, a female, m some sort of garb, supposed to represent some class of gipsy, appeared on the stage and attempted to give a reoitation. This was not very much appreciated, but an invitation by her that those who wished to have their fortunes read should oome on the stage was warmly taken up, and the remarkably attired female was at onoe surrounded by a throng of people anxious to have an idea of their future life and happi- j I ness. While the fortune-teller was engaged on Jthis business, the orowd, who could not get near her august person, dropped into song and made the hall re-eoho with the strains j of "Wait till the clouds roll by," and such like familiar ohoruses. The gift distribution was looked forward to by many of the ! audienoe, and when it was observed that a I gentleman, presumably one of. the company, was jealously guarding a quantity of lollies and Brummagem jewellery near the door, a rush was raado for him, and he was ignominiously hustled into the street, and the contents of the looker scattered far and wide. A section of the audienoe moaned and hooted at the Dr, while another lot were watohing ' to give him what they termed " hot coffee." The hall was cleared at length, and at a lato ' hour the atmosphere m the vioinity ' . grew calm again, though many did not return ■ from the soene of the evening's performance | ' until the morning stars lighted their way i 1 home. 1 1 " Bough on Pilch."— Why suffer Piles ?Im ' mediate relief and complete cure guaranteed ' Ask ior "Bough on Piles." Sure oure for itohing, protruding, bleoding,"or any form of ' piles, & l i