LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2242, 2 October 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Scientists deolaro that it would tujce cogbi days for a cannon ball to roaok the moon. A meeting of members of the Fire Brigade is called for tbis evening at 7,30 on business of importance. South Wairarapa is about to borrow £25,000 or £30,000 from too government for expenditure m (he euppreesion of the rabbit peat. A seam of ooal, six feet m thiofeaeee, has been discovered on Native land m the ging Country, Mr John Murray and Mr T. Peacock' M.H.R., are*, it is said, candidates for the vaoanoies on thd Board of Direotora of tho Bank of New Zealand. England will adopt the German method of having the price of the journey printed on every railway tiokot. It is a convenient facility for travelling. The annual waeta by /ire m the United States is somewhat over £20,000,000, and it is computed that fully 80 per cent of it is due to causes that are easily avoidable. The simplest way to fumigate a room is to hoat an iron shovel very hot, and then pour vinegar upon it drop by drop. The steam arising from this is disinfectant. Doors or windows should be open that it may esoape. The longest stretob aoross London is from Brentford to Stratford-le-bow, a distance of twenty one miles. That is to say London, inclusive of suburbs, without a break of houses. The olergyman m an English town having published the banns of matrimony between two persons, was followed by the olerk, reading the words, " Mistaken souls, who dream of heaven." Wo aro requoßted to draw attention to ,tlie faob that the privileges of the forthcoming Ashburton Baoe Meeting will be sold by Mr Harrison, at hia rooms, on Saturday next at noon. Also to mention tfrat among the privileges submitted will be the new abillivg stand. ' I " Fined .£5 or fourteen days' imprisonment, what shall I do?" wired a oountry settler to his wife, who had attended at the B.M. Court to answer a rabbit summons, " It's more than you can make at hpme, so use yom own, judgment," was the stootil

Mr Bay has re-aold Ohainuhot to Mi Duncan Butherford, of Amuii, lor £650. Intelligence has been reoeivod at Borne from the east ooast of Africa that the Sultnn oi Oppia haß oeded hiß sovereign rights to Italy Mr J. Quinn, watobmaker, Bast Street, notifies by advertisement that he has been appointed sole agent m the Aahburton ocunty for Mr. Bioketts' improved speotaolePi Bishop GrimeH has expressed his willingness to become a member of tho Imperial Federation League, and haß Bubaoribad towards the looal funds. The Oonnty Counoil yesterday voted the sum of £25 towards the funds of the Looal Committee, m order to secure an adequate representation of this district at the Exhibition to be held m Dunedin. It is said that Osman Dignn is the Bon of a Joseph Nisbit, and was obristened George Niabit m the cathedral at Rouen, France, where be was born m 1836. He went with bia father into Egypt, and upon bis father's death was adopted by old Osman Digna. It appears that Mr Gladstone's anoeators were buccaneers . In 1665 Halbert Gladstone, a merohant m Edinburgh, was a member of the orew on board the George whioh Bailed from Glasgow to prey on the Dutch merohant men, Ravensbourne Presbyterian congregation has deoided to give a oall to the Rsv J. H. Mackenzie, of Wallaoetown, Southland. The question of the use of unfermented wine has been settled by having two Communion tables, one with and the othor without ordinary wine. The •• Otago Daily Timea " Bayß that the late Major Jackson was a resident of Dunodin many years ago. He was employed aa a draughtsman m the ofßoe of Mr Mason, then m business aa an architect, and was for a considerable time ensign of No. 1 oompany of volunteers, under Oaptain F. J. Moss. There are now 100,000 Amerioans travelling m Europe, and it is estimated m the " Finanoial Chronicle " that they spend there an average of lOOOdol eaoh per year. Thia estimate is low, but it makes 1,000,000 dols, eaoh per year withdrawn irom oiroulation m the United States. The farm buildings of Jarves Wilson, Longbridge North, near Inveroargill, were destroyed by fire on Sunday afternoon. There waß no insurance, and the loss will be £130. Wilson and his wife had gone to visit a neighbor, who waa siok, and one cf the children getting possession of matob.es set fire to an oat staok, and the flames extended to the buildings. The dwelling-house esoaped injury. One who has tried several ways to wash blankets, says that it is best not to wring them after the last rinsing, but to hang them on the line and let them dip dry; The nap is not then matted down, and the blanket retains Ub buauty and new appearance. Flannel grown yellow by repeated washing will whiten considerably if left out of doors •over night. The ouriouH theory has been advanoed that floods and rain storms are increasing m the United States through the influence of steam engines, The more than 30,000 looomotives m use m North America arc oaloulated to give out alone more than 53 billion oubio yards of vapour per week, and the other engines eight times as muoh, making a total of over 470 billion oubio yards of vapour turned into the atmosphere weekly by the Bteam engines. A disoovery of what is supposed to be the vent of an extinct voloano at Moeraki has been made. The correspondent of the " Palmerston Timea " m forwarding Beveral specimens of what has all the appearance of having once been ejeoted lava, adds: I am m a position to give you further particulars about the dimensions of the vent. Its walls insidg are as smooth as a tube, black m oolour, with burned appearanoe as if by fire. They stand from 3ft to Bft above the level. The diameter inside of oirole is 25ft. Mr T. Lindsay Buiok delivered hie Beoond lecture last evening, the subjeot beiog "The Exiles of Erin." The audience was, we were sorry to Bee, not so numerous as the merits of the lecture deserved, but Mr Buiok had no reaßon to oomplain of a laok of appreciation on the part of those present as their attention was secured throughout, and the lecturer was frequently applauded. His Worship the Mayor oooupied the ohair. Mr Buiok will, by request, delivor a third leoture this evening m the Oatholio Sohoolroom, Subjeot—" Ireland, Historical and Sooial." A strange tale of a dog comes from Port Melbourne. Five years ago a oaptain of a Bhip, whioh was then, m the Bay, oame ashore with a retriever. In bis hurry to oatch a train the dog waß left behind. Whilst m Melbourne the skipper fell down dead r ,with heart disease Thia, of course, oould not be oomnjinioated|to the dog, and the poor animal has from that day to this attended every train upon its arrival to look for his long lost skipper. He is now old and stiff, and a great sufferer from the mange, but he is well fed and oared for by the porters at the station. The " Akaroa Mail " says that two Christ, ohuroh Bportemen have visited Ikoraki, near Lake Forsyth, with double-barrelled guna for the purpose cf shooting blaok shags. They bid m a place about ten miles from Birdling's Fiat, where they oould ahoot them as they flew from the cliffs* They are now hatching out. The sportßmen destroyed 134 old birds. In these were quantities of young fish from the lake. Good sized mullefc were ex traded from them. They killed 71 shags on a previous oooaaion, and intend revisiting the scene, and hope to exterminate the tribe altogether. The Mossburn correspondent of the "Southland Timeß " writeß :— " For some weeks no young salmon have been seen m the Moss* burn oreek, where Bangers Burt and M'Kay procured their spooimens, and it was generally supposed that the fish had gone to sea. To-day (Thursday) being very bright ana fine I examined the oreek and saw several fine young salmon. They had the dark smudges on their pides and forked tails, and some of them had bright silvery spalea showing on them. Most likely they have been lying uqder the banks all winter. Diamonds to the value of £600 are said to have been stolen from a Bafe m the shop of Messrs Priora Brothers, jewellers and diamond I setters, Sydney. The matter ia, to some extent, involved m mystery, but it is supposed the safe was opened aud the valuables ejttrapted about dinner time, while one of tj&o brothers who was left m charge of the ohop was called out tp speak to a supposed customer ip a buggy at the edge of the footpath. The robbery muHti'bavd been carefully planned and quickly oarried out, as Mr Priorft was only absent from the shop a few minutes. The robbery was not discovered till some time Afterwards.' The new " Board of Trade Journal '' amongst other valuable matters, contains a r.oporf f*?m Mr Thornton, of the British Legation }n Copenhagen, which gives a remarkable acoount of ' the; magnitude of the egg trade of Denmark with the United kingdom, and whioh, Mr Thornton says, '.' must excite a painful astonishment m the breast of the English poultry farmer." In 1867 the export of eggs from Denmark was 45,000 sqore, valued at £1800; m 1877 it was 944,000 Boore, valued at £51,388: m 1887 it had men to 5,546,724 acore, valued at £262,514. Of this Jatter enormous quantity nine-tenths were Bent to Britain. The trade is a recent one m Denmark, pud is capable of increased development. "Ad a matter of faot, m Jutland alone, whioh haß hitherto, m spite of its superiority m oi#e over the other provinces of the kingdom, remained rather ip the background, an enormous extension m the production of eggs is confidently looked for." Statutory Declaration.— l, Franz Baabe, Ironbark, Sandhurst, m tbe colony of Victoria, Australia, do solemnly and sinoerely declare that on the 25th June, 1877, my son Alfred, six years of ago, was accidentally hurt with an axe on his kneo. lat onoe took all painß to secure medical assistance However, m spite of all efforts, on tho 27th August, 1877, the opinion was given by Dr Maogillivray that an amputation of tho injured limb had bocome imporativo, m order to save life. At ibis juncture I called on Messrs Sander and Sons, proouripg Borne of their Extraot of the Eucalyptus GlobuJya, and by the application of the same I hud tho uatjpfaction of seeing my son within & fortnight out of all danger, and to-day he is rooovered. I may just add tha tit was when the crisis had been reaohed that tbe Extract of erred to waß first applied, and I mako .this solemn declaration, etc— Franz Raade. peolared at Sandhurst, m the colony of Viotoria, Australia, this seventeenth day of Ootober, one thousand eight hundred KQd eeveaty-BiviD befort me, Moritj Conn,

» A L the #> q J Brt ? ly me eting of the United inoient Order of Druids held m the T mpls,r Hall, there waa a very large mton* »noe of members present. The Aioh Druid oongratulated tho members on being able to report that the Lodge was m & sound Qnancial positwn, and drew the members' ai tuition to the fact that (he Grand Lodoe at their annual meeting reoorded their eympathy with the dock laborera lately on strike m London, and reaolved to forward them £50 from the Grand Lodge funds. The Lodjze' was then closed by the Arch Druid. Reoeipts for the evening £66 ; expenditure £21 I |Parhapß the diatriot m the county whioh sul f era most from laok of water ia that near the beaen on the Bnkaia side, beoause m summer tima tbe supp'y m the raceß givea out be'ore it nasgone any distanoe over the railway line. A short time ago a Boheme was set on foot to 6«vb an moused supply to the whole d strict between the Eakaia and Aehburton riverß, at i coat of about £5000, but the proposal was oat on a poll of the Ratepayers being taken, sinoe then a soheme of a minor nature was iroposed to supply a portion of the distriot nuoh m need of water, and thia waa adopted >y the County Council yeaterday, subjeot to (ha settlerß interested bearing half the ooßt. The coßt is estimated at £145, and the area benefited is some 20,000 aorea, The ordinary meeting of tbe Hampstead Town Board waa held on Friday last. Present : Messrs Orr (m the chair), Meaolem, Elliott, and Andrewa. The ranger was in(truoted to take aotion against persona allowng gorae to grow on the roads, and against persons riding on the footpaths m the diatriot The ranger was also instructed to insist on pulverts being put over the side channels iWhere required. The Chairman reported what had transpired since laat meeting m regard to taking over oertain roads. It was deoided to take the preliminary steps towards ptriking a rate of Jd m the £, and to institute proceedings immediately against all present defaulters. Aoooums were passed for payment and the Board adjourned. The quarterly meeting of the office-bearers ol the Methven Home Mission (Wesleyan) tob held last evening at Mr John Alison's ] house, when, m addition to eight members, koluding the Home Missionary, the Revds W. Morley and J. N. Buttle were present ; Mr Worley presiding. The roll of membership Bbowed sixty full members, with four on trial. Ihe reoeipta fell abort of the expenditure by £1 5a Id, but on comparison with previous quarters it was found that the contributions from nearly all parts of the Btation were cteadily increasing. Report bof a more or less enoouraging nature were reoeived from the Sunday Sohools at Methven, Alford Forest, and Newtown (Rakaia). It was deoided to ask Conference for a grant of £30 from the Home Mission Fund to assist m oarrying on the station work next year, and Mr Alison was invited to oontinue his labors m the ; district. A vote wbb taken on the question of an Independent Legislative Conference for New Zealand, with the following result : — For 4 ; against 3 ; neutral 1: