LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1918, 14 August 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The usual Inspection o! the ABhburton Rifleß and Guards will be held to-night. It is thought that Colonel Bailey will be present. John Woods, Graham's road, Tinwald assures us that 24 is the answer to the hens and eggs problem. Mr L. P. Fepperell has been gazetted Postmaster at Winstow as from July 2nd, and Mr H. B. Johnson Postmaster at Methven aa from July Brd. During the month of July the estates of twenty-two deceased persons were plaoed m oharge of the Public Trustee. The amounts ranged from £1 up to £1500. August 1886 was a very wet month m Canterbury, and August 1888 has made a good start. 8429 inohes foil this time two years ago. At r reoent rose show m Borne Signor Giuseppe Balestra, famous for his tea roses, exhibited 766 varieties (including nearly all known types of his speciality) grown at his villa on Monte Pariola. On the 31st day of Deo. the population of Sweden was reported at 4,717,189, an inorease during the year of 34,420. The assisted poor numbered 221,911, or 6*73 per cent, of the population. ,# The skeleton of o monster shark caught recently iB being exhibited m Wellington. It is 16 feet 6 inohes long, and it is said to be the largest ever captured on the coast. Its teeth were 2 inoheß m length. The Premier remarked, m the House, that anyone who read Mr Ritohie's Looal Government Bill must see that the English Government were very muoh indebted to New Zealand for the main provisions of the Bill. We have to acknowledge reooipt of Messrs Howden and Monorieff's Seed List for 1888-89. This firm of seedsmen have taken over-M«earo Nimtno an£ BnnrvTjußiness jn. Dunedin. A oure for lung worm m sheep has been tried m the North. The prooesa is by fumigating, and upon examination sometime after being tried the sheep were killed and it was found that the parasite to a large extent had been killed. A man died rather suddenly m Sydney last week after having partaken of a supper of steak and oysters. Deoeased said "ne bad taken four nips of whisky, and it was pood Jpeoause he had paid 6d eaoh for them ; " and after that he had taken the steak and oysters. An exchange observes that not the slightest harm would result if the Education Department at Wellington were swept away and the money voted to the Boards on the basis of average attendance m the sohools within the several districts. A memorial to the late Dinah Maria Craik is to be erected m Tewkesbury Abbey, as Tewkesbury was the home of her worldfamous hero, John Halifax, Gentleman. This memorial will take the form of a marble medallion. In a reoent Frenoh murder trial the bones of the murdered man were brought into Court and plaoed before the aooused. The man turned pale, but over the ghastly relics reiterated his protestation of innocence ; nevertheless he wib conviotud, Mile. Leblois, daughter of a Straaburg clergyman, has been awarded a diploma of Dootor of Sciences by the Sarbonne, There are women doctors, lawyers, and reporters m France, but this is the first time one of them has captured the diploma. The instruction m household sanitation, which was a new departure at Lasell Seminary during the ourrent year, has proved a suooess among the young women of this school, and several other sohools are thinking of adding it to their courses; Among many New Zealand exhibits whioh have been forwarded to the Melbourne Exhibition is an exceedingly handsome 15---horse totalisator, whioh has been made m Wellington. The maker estimates the value of the maohine at £250. At the Henui Ironworks, says the *' Tara* , naki Herald," things are being put m order for the smelting. Between twenty and thirty hands are employed putting wood for the oharcoal kUn that ia now m course of erection at the works. At the Skating Bink on Saturday night Mr W. Simms essayed the feat of running round the Hall forty-six laps to the mile against Mr Bass on a bioycle and Mr Strange on skates. The bioyoie had the best of it, the | time being, oyolist smin 3soo, pedestrian smin 21seo, skater 6min sseo. Aoootding to the Greytown correspondent of the "Post" there appears to be quite a revival among the dairy farmers m the South Wairarapa. They have held meetings m every district and sub-district there, and are determined to thoroughly oarry out the matter of butter and oheese making on a co-operative scale next season, and to a bigger extent than ever before. The cost of the government of the colony for the seoond half of the last financial year was £1,105,430, aa against £978,858 for the first Bi'x months of the year. The explanation of the excess js that m the latter half of every year there is always more expenditure charged to aooouat than m the first half owing to the efforts made at the end of the year tp pay off outstanding accounts as closely as possible; while on the other band, the revenue is brought to account up to the laat day by telegraph. Hollowav'b Ointment and Pius.— Chest and S. tomaoh Complaints.— The source and oentre ojE almost every ailment is impurity of the blood ; dislodge this poison and disease departs. Holloway's Pills exerciap this inestimable power of thoroughly oleansing eaoh . component part of the blood, and rendering ! the iiuid fit to perform its important ' funotions. They oope most successfully with chest diseases, stomach complaints, liver complaints, and many other maladies whioh were ones the besetting danger of mankind at certain seasons m town and country. The directions for use enable everyone to regulate the operations of these pills with the greatest nioety. Chronic invalids, valetudinarians, and all whom other treatment has failed to relieve, are respectfully invited to try Holkwuy'B celebrated medie'iae, wbiob will strength^ hq4 onto thtn,

We are informed that both the Bombay and Aden cables are interrupted, and all messages Home will go via Teheran. The manufacture of " furs " (malting up and dyeing rabbit-skins) has been started m Wellington. The product is said to be better than the imported artiole, as the skins used have not been injured by a long voyage. The Timaru Borough Oounoil are m favor of lighting the borough with the eleotrio light. The proposal has had the effeot of making the Gas Company come to reason m respeot to its charges for gas. We remind our readers that the concert m connection with the Young Women's Temperance Union is to take place this evening m St. Stephen's Schoolroom at eight p.m. Performers are requested to meet m the small room at the baok of the schoolroom, General Grant did not succeed m making his family wealthy till after his death. His Bon is the authority for the statement that Mrs Grant has, up to the present, reoeived from the publication of her huaband'B memoirß the sum of 411,000 dollars. A olergyman preaohed a capital sermon and was congratulated on its evident aooeptanoo by the congregation, when Brown coolly re* marked that Jones had Bhown him a book that contained gvery word of it. The aston* ished olergyman begged for a sight of the volume. "Oh, I haye t no doubt you have the same book m your own library," said Brown, "it is Johnson's Dictionary." ; His Exoellenoy the] Governor passed through Ashburton at about Bix o'clock this morning on his way baok from the Melbourne Exhibition and en route for Weilington. He arrived at the Bluff by the Manapouri on Monday and oame on to Dunedin by speoial train. He left Dunedin per speoial train on Monday evening about ten o'olook and caught the steamer Penguin at Lyttelton this morning. The extent to whioh old-world danoes are again coming into favour ia very striking. The minuet and gavotte are once more the order of the day, and young ladies and gentlemen who desire to keep pace with the times are taking lessons m great numbers. Some of the danoing-maßterß are said to be reaping rich harvest out of the new fashion, We saw a minuet danced m a West End drawing-room the other night, with really exquisite graoe. — " Dublin Evening Mail." Messrs J. Orr and Co. announce that they have been appointed agents for this county for the MoOormiok reaper and binder. A feature m connection with the maohines-is the new knotter with which they are fitted. This contains only seven parts instead of many times that number m its predecessor. All complications suoh as plunger bolt, swaybar and oonneotions, disc frame, disc cord holder and spring, Knife arm, taoker cam and brace, plunger bold cam, and a large number of other parts too numerous to men. tion have been dispensed" with, and the effectiveness, as well as simplicity of the new knotter, is highly spoke \ of. Writing on the subject of Archdeacon Stook's oharge of immorality m the State sohools, the Rev E. H. Gulliver, M. A., of Auokland, says : "As one who has been connected with the primary sohools of the colony, I have had daily opportunities for observing the conduct of the ohildren m the largest Bohool m Auokland, and I have seen nothing that could cause a blush or m any way justify the alarm which has been raised m regard to the matter. What holds good of one school may be applied to the others, and would lead to the interference that the primary sohool system of New Zealand does not tend to sap the morals of the young." The Nicaragua Canal, the concessions to whioh have been ratified by Congress, ia a rival to the Panama Canal, and is to be construoted by an Amerioan Company under a oharter from Jthe United States Congress, with a privilege of raising a capital of 300,000,000 dollars. In September, 1887, it was estimated that the preparatory work would take one or two years, and that after that was done the construction would probably take six years, the cost being from 60,000,000 to 70,000,000 dollars for a oanal 120 feet wide at bottom, with a minimum depth of 28 feet. A correspondent of the "Wanganui Herald " writes as follows : — '• As a proof of the mildn'eßß at tbia - -irlntor {were any 1 needed), I would state that I received recently from G. Morse, of Fordell, a woodhen chick about ten days old. Again, Mr Holden informs me that a hen pheasant brought out a brood of ohioks near the house on his property, No. 2 line ; and, again, sportsmen here told me this season they have found duokß of all ages, from the very youngest, on the lakes and lagoons of this district Starlings started to nest m June, and the sparrows have been at it for some time. The vagrant pigeons m towns were nesting last month, though this is not, I think, unusual. This district must have a wonderful olimate indeed, when its birds oontinue to pair and nest through its midwinter. Amongst the applicants for an apprentice at the meeting of the Holborn Board of Guardians reoently was a tailor. This enter* prising gentleman, desirous of giving due weight to his application, circulated his business card amongst members of the Board. This is a portion of its contents :— " Savoy out olothing, out slap with fakement seams and little artful buttons at the bottom to suit all comers for business or pleasure. Out very serious to suit ploughmen, dustmen, sneaks,, mushroom fakers, trottermen, costers, aotors, parsone, bruisers, and gentlemen. Peg-tops bell-bottoms, tights, or half-tights, or droop over the hoofs. Blaok or dandy vests made to flash the rag or dickey, or tight up round the soragg. Kavonder m every shade, built epankey, to suit the Ikey and Flimsey lads of Notting Hill, Shepherd's Bush, and the surrounding neighborhood." The (.Board "received " this unique application.