LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1898, 21 July 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

Nine thousand tons o! salt are consumed in the colony annually and an enterprising Auokland man has made a start to supply the demand by constructing apparatus for extracting salt from sea water. Tbe rinking mania still rolls merrily along, and scarcely a day passes without a new rink being opened in some part of the oolony. One of the latest has been very appropriately called the " Niagara." The Melbourne correspondent of the Wellington "Press" says; "There was a paragraph in to-night's " Herald " announo ing that a looal firm had received a consignment of New Zealand oranges which were» Btated to be equal to the best Farramatta. Mr Bruoe's proposal to tax bachelors has been much written about, and the whole question of why marriageable men do not marry has been discussed, the general verdiot being that the modern girl's notions are a tsrror to the would-be benediot. The express train from the South was over an hour late last evening, and as far as oould be learned the delay was occasioned by a slip at tbe Purakanui cliffs, and the passengers had to be transferred to another train. L»Bt year New Zealand's output of coal was 558,620 tons, being an increase on the output Of the previous year of 24,000 tons. The quantity exported last year was 44,129 tons ; including 31,174 tons used for coaling mail steamers. The suburban systems of railway in Vic toria have proved the most profitable, yielding at ihe rate of 7 per cent on the capital oost, The receipts from country lines represent a return of 4 per oent after allowing for the opening of new lihes and concessions on faies and freights of an annnal value of £250,000.

The «■ Auckland Scar " says :— Tbe making of wine is being carried on very extensively by experimentalists in Waikato, and so far as can be seen it promises to be a great success, some of the samplos exhibited at the last Horticultural Show being of the moßt excellent quality and good appearance. One settler has some 400 gallons down of various aorts — grape, apple, parsnip, plum, and gooseberry. The making of oider, too, is going on, two presses having been lately ereoted, and they are now at work.

Special United Religious 3ervioes have been held this week in connection with. the Wesleyan, Primitive, and Baptist Churches, and the Salvation Army. There have been good attendances at eaoh of the services, and addresses have been delivered by the ministers and laymen of the various denominations, whioh must have had a good influence upon the hearers. The meetings will bo continued during next week, when efforts will be made to make them of a still more profitable character. The series of meetings will oonclude with a United Sacramental Service in the Weeleyan Church on Friday evening. A list of times and places of service appears in our advertising oolumns.

The Ashburton Lodge of Oddfellows celebrated their 15th anniversary by a tea. and social gathering in the Hall last evening. There was a moderate attendance at the tea, but the social was very largely patronised. The affair passed off in a most enjoyable manner. Some capital songs were contributed by Messrs Brooks, Dolman, and Piokford, and recitations were given most successfully by Messrs Minnis and Potter. The music for the dances was supplied by Messrs Brooks and Mayo, who, it iB needless to say, performed their duties in an effioient manner. Mr Daviß had the catering in his hands, and his numerous patrons can testify to the excellence of his arrangement..

Bro Tucker, of Ashburton, in responding to the toast of " Our Colonial Brothers " at the Provincial Grand Masters' banquet at the great meeting of delegates from Oddfellows' Lodges in all parts of the British Empire recently held in EDgland, thanked the Manchester Unity very heartily for the manner in which he had been received, not only for himself but also for the colony, a small portion of which he represented. He remarked on tho coincidence that the New Zealand national flag floated from the house in which he waß located, and onoe more, on behalf of himself and the distriot that had sent him, thanked them all round. Bro Fowler, Auckland, New Zealand, as a colonial, thanked them from the bottom of his heart. In the colonies they were not accustomed to sights, haying generally to be content with Nature, but in the sights he had Been in Gloucester Nature had to be left out. Any member who travelled in the colonies, no matter where he went, would find an Oddfellow, even in the bush forty or fifty miles from a township. (Hear, hear.) He had r»et Gloucester men in the colonies, and should carry back to them pleasant recollections of the old oity. The special edition of the «« Gloucester journal," which oontained the account of their proceedings extending over six days, should be most interesting to members of the Order. The total capital of the Manchester Unity on Jan. Ist, 1887, was £6,548,229 4s 2d, and the number of members was 627,594, an inorease of 10,007 for the year.

The Eev. J. A. Buttle of Ashburton, delivered for the first time in the Canterbury province his popular lecture on the Maori race in the Templar Hall, Tinwajd, on Thursday evening. There was a large attendance, Mr John Gaygill oocupying the ohair. The Kev. lecturer, who is a son of the esteemed and venerable Rev. Buttle, one of tbe first missionaries to the Maoris in the early days, is well qualified to speak on the Bubject, and bandied it in a very able manner. Tbe following were the chief points touched by the lecture : Origin, where they oome from, personal appearanoa and physique, RewiNgatimaniapoto, half-oastee in political and social life, language, alphabet, making names, Maori orators, Sir George Grey's curios, sooial life, many wives, Karawini'a courtship, death, games, cooking, Ka nui e Maminga, Hauraki's great Maoris, man-eaters, religious nolionß, superstition, illusions, first Maori martyr, Hauhau-ism, annexation, treaty of Waitangi, ging njoyement, war what of tho future, A united colony and people, hurrah for the Blue Ensign and Southern (Gross ! The above formed the outline ot a very interesting , and instructive lecture, and wo can promise , our friends in the different parts ot tha circuit ajt vhiph Mr Buttle has promised to give this lecture .quite a treat, this being a subjeot rarely taken up, Puring the evening Beveral pieces were rendered by the oboir, and at the conclusion of the lecture refreshments in abuodanoe were handed round. After the usual votes of thanks, a very interesting and instructive evening's entertainment was brought to a clobo in the usual way.

In Melbourne the population increases at the rate of over 20,000 a year. They Bay there's a publio house at Broken Hill whioh takes £100 per day over the bar for drinks alone. A Mrs Kattenbury gave birth to throe daughters and a son at Tempe,- New South Wales, on the 20th June. An exchange remarks : — Acoount sales o frozen meat recently to ghand show a net return of lid per lb. for lambs. The Lyttelton Town Council have ceased paying half-a-crown for eaoh oase of infeotious disease reported to it. The consumption of tea in New South Wales for the year J lB6 is reported to be I nearly eight and a half million pounds. I The total,'claims made to the Ratbit branoh o! the Sydney Landß Department lor rabbit destruction amount to £191,351. There is now, on a moderate computation, from £500,000 to- £600,000 worth of exportable wheat _held in Melbourne and the country. A West Coast paper anticipates that by Christmas next not fewer than 1000 men will be lemployed on tha Midland Railway Company's works. The Newcastle police recently surprised a party of nearly 200 persons who were witnessing a cock fight, and 16 game cooks were seized by them. Two brothors named Hammond, and another boy named Hedges were out shooting at Yarra, near Goulbourne, when one jokingly presented hiß gun at Hedges. The oharge exploded, (and lodged in Hedges' lower jaw, completely shattering it. An experiment (says an Australian paper) is being made by Mr Charles De Burgh with the view of ascertaining the desirability of introducing camels in the Thargomindah distriot, to oonvey loading from Bourke to Thargomindah and baok. There is some prospect of a dairy faotory being started in Waimate. The soheme is at present under consideration, and with the support of farmers and tradesmen in the distriot suoh an industry should prove a suooess. I As will be seenjby an advertisment in this issue, the annual Volunteer Ball will be held on the 9th August. Last years' Military and: Fanoy Ball was a comphte success, and we trust this|year it will be equally wel patronized. We notice that Mr Fleming'B string band has been engaged for the oooassion. A supposed Cbineße leper, who was recently brought overland from Croydon, was brought up at the Cooktown Police Court when medioal evidenoe was given that the man was not, nor has he ever been, suffering from leprosy. He speaks good English, and appears to have been treated very harshly. He was discharged. At the Christohurch Supreme Court, on Thursday,- his Honor Mr Justioe Ward gave a deoision in an appeal oase whioh iB of considerable importance to sheep owners. His Honor held that a dog caught worrying or chasing sheep could only be destroyed during the commission of the act, to make the action of the person shooting it juatifitable within .the meaning of sections 13 and 17 of the Dog Registration Aot. Otherwise, his Honor considered, there was no limit to the time at whioh it might subsequently be destroyed.

The Rink will be re-opened this evening, when a hurdle race for a medal will be an attraction. Mr J. 0. Ross, the genial managnr of the Rink, ia making arrangements for a series of novelties before the season closes. He entertained a number of friends at the Somerset Hotel last evening, when a very pleasant hour was spent. The proceedings took the form of a smoke concert, and Bonga and recitations were both numerous and good. Mr Ross' health waß drunk in bumpers and suooesa wished him to the end of the season.

A meetiDg was held in Willis's Rooms, Londou, lately for the purpose of promoting the proposal of the Rev Herbert V. Mills to acquire a piece of land, people it with unemployed, and after alloting to eaoh individual about half an acre, so to organise the community that handicrafts should form pare of the industry, and the inhabitants of the village consume what they produced. Sir George Campbell and others participated in the disqussion. Subsequently a seoond meeting was held, at whioh Mr A. H. Dyke Aoland, M.P., presided. Letters were read from Cardinal Manning and Mr Joseph Chamberlain, expressing sympathy with the soheme, which was fully explained by: the Rev Herbert Mills. The sum of £25,000 ia asked for with whioh to begin the experiment. Referring to the application made to the Auokland Education Board by Mr Vanse, the postmaster of Te Aroha, to have a little Chinese boy expelled from the publio school, the " Waikato Times " says : -" Here in Hamilton, (the eon of the Chinese gardener, a bright young fellow of about ten years of age, is going to Mr Murray's school, and the liberal instincts of, the English boys are by no means adverse to his companionship. As his father said of him, 'He all same English boy, only got yellow skin.' There are very few people who value so highly the blessings of eduoation as the Chinese, and we venture to say that even a Celestial gardener could be found who would give Mr Vause poinis in philosophy and the abtruse sciences. At the R. M. Ooutt this morning, before Mr D. Thomas, J.P., and Mr T. Bullook, J P., John^ Henry Allen, of Newlands, was charged with ill treating three horses by working them with sore shoulders, and pleaded guilty, and Will am Allen, father of the above, was charged with allowing the above horses to be worked, and also pleaded guilty. The Bench said it was a very bad case, but would deal lightly with it as it was Allen's first appearance in a Court, and fined the father 40a and costs, and the bou lop and costs, or 7 days' imprisonment, each ; and cautioned Allen not to work one of the horses again as it was in suoh a bad state, as if he did he would bo sent to gaol without the option of a fine. — William Allen also pleaded guilty to being the owner of two unregistered dogs, and was fined 10s and costs.

To the Deaf.— A person vbo was pure, of deafness and noises in the head of twenty three years' standing by a simple remedy will send a description of it free to any person who appließ to Nicholson Lincoln Inn Chambers, William street, Melbourne.