LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1923, 20 August 1888, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

At Auokland on Saturday a fire broke out m a block at Hobson street and destroyed three shops, etc A shop and dwelling at Cambridge iwere aleo destroyed by fire. In tho former case £700 insurance was effeoted and m the latter £100.

At Papanui, Chrißtohuroh, on Saturday, two men, named Joseph Delahunt and William McLean, bad a drunken quarrel, and the former stabbed tbe latter m the abdomen with a sharp pointed saw. No serious consequences are likely to ensue. The aggressor has been arrested.

It is an ill wind which blows nobody good, and the Westport coal mines Bbould drive a brisk trade if the miners m Australia adhere to their intention. of going out on strike. The local oonsumers, however, may have to pay a higher prioe if the strike is general, and we already hear of stooks being replenished m prospect of suoh a calamity.

We have to thank the looal Telegraph Officers for the excellent and expeditious way the Public Works Statement was sappiied to us on Saturday. The message comprised over 14,000 words. In the House Mr Mitohslson took fifty>five minutes to read it from a printed copy, and as soon as he had delivered it the first instalment of " copy " was to hand for the printer. Tbe House adjourned immediately after the Statement had been read.

Saya the " Taieri Advocate " : — Woeful countenances and dismal utterances have been so common amongst our farmers and everyone else for such a long time now, that it is quite refreshing to hear hopeful remarks. One of our West Taieri farmers says that he is quite sure we have "turned the corner." Wool is up, frozen .meat is up, butter and cheese sell well, there is some prospeot, he declares, of getting a^fairjprice for wheat, and the farmers may eipeot better timea m a very little while. Is this the beginning of the "confidence" that, our colonists have been laoking m?

With reference to the cable news respecting theEmpresaof China the "Press" says:— The nominal assumption of the Empire of China by the present Emperor Kwang Su was announced from Pekin m February 1887. The late Emperor T'ungohi died at the age of 17 without performing the duty of naming his successor from a younger generation than his own, aooording to the Chinese Custom. A Council of regenoy was then held, consisting of the Empress Dowager, widow of the Emperor Bienfung, who preceded T'ungohi, and Prince Oh'un, his brother, and they named the infant son of tho latter, Kwangsu, for the vacant throne. Prince Oh'un is perhaps the most powerful man m China, being Prime Minister and Lord High Admiral. It would now appear that Kwangsu — who is not the infant son of the Empress Dowager as stated m the telegram— is about to become Emperor m reality as well as m name.

We clip the following important testimonial from the |" Illawarra Meroury " (N.8.W.) of the 30fcb|Maroh. It needs no comment :— 11 Mr John Loveday, of the Balli Mountain, writes to us that after suffering for four years with acute gravel, he has experienced almost complete relief by using Sander and Sonß' Euoalypti Extraot. He Bays seeing the said Extraot advertised m the ' Illawarra Mercury,' his intense suffering induoed him to obtain a bottle of the medioine from Mr Hosking, ohemißt, of this town, and that the use of it gave him great relief at onoe. He states that between the 10th March instant, when he obtained the first bottle of the extract, and the 19th, the use of that medioine continued to afford him relief, to which he had been a stranger for four yeara. Mr Loveday writes also that he has found the Euoalypti Eztraot a cure for rheumatism as well as gravel. He requests us to publish this information through the 'Mercury.' We have muoh pleasure m oomplying with Mr Lovaday'a request, whose word cannot be doubted, and who oan have no object m view other than a pure desire to benefit Buffering humanity."— <4dYt,) 3

The total indebtedness of the Australasian I Governments is about £167,000,000. { Twenty-tbree Dunedin Volunteers are willing to go to Melbourne to take part m t the Centennial Rifle Matches. Three thousand two hundred and eightyfour tons of ooal were exported from Graymouth last week. A cabbage, stripped of its outside leaves, weighing 31bs, was shown m Feilding the 1 other day. The model Dairy at the Melbourne Exhi. bition is painted sky-blue, a oolour that has set the wits' tongues wagging. A Melbourne man largely interested m tin, oopper and other metals complains that the interruption of the cables cost him £10,000. At the R.M. Court this morning, before Mr A. Harrison, J.P , a lad named David Milne was brought up under the Industrial Sohoolo Aot ana remanded. The total expenditure on the Melbonrne Exhibition Is expeoted to be £276,000, and the receipts £170,000, making the nett coat £110,000. . i A Dunedin paper says the talk of taking off the Americnn wool duty ia only a ruse to ensure the oontinuanoe of the San Franoisoo Service. The military commander at Mosoow has direoted that speoial attention be paid during the summer to cavalry manoeuves, principally m the shape of foroed marches of large bodice over large distanoes. English ohild-life is said to wither m the delta of the Ganges, one of the malarial traots of India. There the British race can. not reproduce itself, if unmixed with Indian blood, beyond the third generation. The wife of the painter, Herman Kaulbaoh, of Munich, has received the gold medal of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian orown for having, at the risk of her own Jife, saved a young man from drowning. We learn from the local Seoretary of the New Zealand Alliance that Mr T. W. Glover, organising agent of the Alliance, will Bhortly arrive here to deliver one or two addrwseß, dates tof whioh will be announced m due course. An hotel at Tahoraite, Hawkett Bay, was burned down on Saturday morning, the inmates barely escaping with their lives. Th« Itoyal, Imperial, and Equitable offices had £650 m iniuranoes pretty equally divided. On Saturday lwfc m Kaiparua (Harbor a man named Henry Prout was found clinging to a capsized boat. He died soon being rescued It is feared another man named Pettf Brown, who was with Prout m the boaJ, has been drowned. Mr William Smith, of Wellington, who is himself a Chinaman, haß addressed a letter to the "Post," urging the severa repression of gambling at fan-tan and other similar game*, whioh ho regrets to say, prevails so largely amongst his countrymen. Several of them, he says, have lost all they possessed, and have almost been driven mad, A two-foot rulo was given to a labourer m a 01/ de shipyard to measure an iron plate. He, not being well up to the use of the rule, after spending a considerable time, returned. Now, Mike, asked the plater, what Bize is the plate? Well, replied Mike, with a grin of satisfaction, it's the length of your rule and two thumbs over, with this piece of briok and the breadth of my hand, and my arm from here to there, bar a finger. An Auckland firm have, m consequence of the contemplated strike of miners m Australia, boen asked to supply 5000 tons of coal daily for the Melbourne Gas Work». The firm cannot fulfil the order unless shipping is provided, two vessels per day being required. Unless the employers come tc terms with the miners Melbourne is likely to be left m darkness. The mail steamer Zealandia, which arrived at Auckland on Friday, took ooal enough to do her until she oame baok, while the Alameda at San Francisoo has taken coal enough there to do her for the round trip. A shearers' dispute m New South Wales whioh has lasted Borne weeks has just been brought to an end. The manager of the Dunlop station wanted the men to go on, under the Masters' and Servants' Aot, to work Wolsley's patent maohines at 20s per 100 sheep Bhorn; thus saving themselves all costs of the shears, stones, etc The men were willing to work the maohines, but only under the ordinary Union agreement. At length, however, the dispute has been brought to an an end by the owners accepting the amended rules of the Shearers' Union. It is expeoted (hat this decision will afleot other stations m the district whioh were holding out. On 26th ult. the Press Association's oable service supplied the following information from Paris :— " General Boulanger has suffered another crushing defeat, this time m the eleotion for Dordogne." As the redoubtable General had been elected for Nord only a few weeks previously the foregoing was rather puzzling to thoße who take an interest m European politos. This is how the same item was furnished to the " S. A. Advertiser " — " At an eleotion for the department of Dordogne a candidate who had been recommended by General Boulanger as an adherent of his own] wasj defeated by a considerable majority." After a somewhat troubled tenure of offloe the members of the Wakanui River Board on Saturday resigned m a body. The Bord, it will be remembered, has only been a short time m existence, having been eleoted as the outoome of a meeting held at Wukanui some months ago. Hardly had the Board got to work and notified their intention of striking a rate, than a petition wbb got up for the abolition of the diatriot, and another calling on the members of the Board personally to resign on the ground that their administration had not been satisfactory to the latepayers. As a result of it all the members of the Boad resigned. The Returning Officer will take the neoessary steps to fill the vaoanoies that have been caused. Holloway's Pills and ©intmknt are remedies which should invariably be taken by travellers m search of health, pleasure, or business Many deleterious influences are constantly at work m foreign climes, tending to deteriorate the health ; these and the altered conditions of life will entail on those who travel the necessity of carefully attending to early symptoms of disease, and they will find the use of these remedies to be highly necessary, the action of the pills being purifying and strengthening, and of great service m cases of fever, ague, and inflammatory diseases, whilst the ointment is a sovereign cure m cases of piles, bad legs, bad breasts, wounds, and ulcets. Holloway's remedies do not deteriorate by change of climate.