LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2257, 18 October 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The New Plymouth telegraph staff are laid op with meastee. The Hon. J, White's cheque ovor the reoent Australian Jooke? Ulub meetiucr was £3345. ■ The meefing of the Ashburton Debating Sooiety appointed for this evening has been adjourned till Friday evening next. At the R.M. Court this morning Charles Bishop who had been fined for drunkenness , a day.or two ago, was brought up for a similar olfdnoe. He was ordered to be imprisoned for seven days wjth hard labor. An address to $tng Jamea prayed that His Majesty might live as long as the bud, moon, and slara endured, "Faith, mao, >r said the King, " if I do, my sou tboo must reiun by candle light." Mr B« L. Farjeon is engaged upon a dramatio work. This is not bis first experienoe of the drama, as when m Dunedin ha wroto burletques suoh as •• Faust," and " Jaeon and Medea." A serial novel from his pen will run through «• Good Words " next year, and the opening chapters relate to Australia. An nmusiug tale is told at the expense of a lady who had offered accommodation to one of the Wesloyan Conference visitors to Shiffiold, The minister presented himself, and, the first greetings over, the iady said, " I do hope you are not a teetotaller like so many ministers are." Ho replied that he was not. " Oh, I am bo gla<?, was the rejoinder ; teetotallers are always wanting ooooa, coffee, or lemonade, and wo have suoh isplendid water 1" F "" It is Btated m •• Vanity Fair" that the late f rmoe Consort left upwards of £300,000 to foufadl an ''Albert Family Fund," to make suitable provision for hja descendants who may hereafter require it, other than tbe Heir Apparent and suoh members of the Eoyal Family as may marry into foreign reigning houses. The Queen has added to this fund I bo largely that it is now said to have con- I Biderably more than doubled, and it still I increases yearly. Jt is not, however, intended thai \\ fbfS^ £9 ftyililab.le dyrjnc the pr«enU

London cabmen cotleotively earn about two millions and a quarter per annum. , The ueual rehearsal of tbe Ashbuuton Minstrels will take plaoe thi3 evening at eight o'olook, Medioal professor (to student): «• Io a oaae which you fiod difficult to diagnose correotly, what is the proper oourse to take ?' Student: "Look wise and say nothing." 1 A young man at Titusville, Pa., who oould • not t»JCford to take his bridt. on a wedding , tour, brought sdol. worth of tiokets for tbo r merry.go-round, and the happy qeuple proceeded to travel round to their hearts' content. Several of the large land owners of Sootland have imported a number of reindeer. ; from Norway and turned them out m the , hope that they may become aoolimatised and ( increase. The health of Queen Viotoria seems to be . failing. On the oooaaion of her laßt appearanoe m publio Bho displayed muoh weakness. 1 She waß obliged to use a stick and had to be ; assisted by her servants on entering and ; leaving her carriage. ' The English Frimato has two chairs oon- , siderably over one thousand years old—the ' chair of Augustine at Canterbury, aad the ohair m which he Bits at Lambeth, which 3 belonged to the Abbot of Eeoulver m the ; seventh oentury. ' A London oableqram, dated the Ist inßt., i says: "An aooident, fortunately not attended . with serious oonacquenoee, happened to Mr Gladstone while engaged m his favorite ' exeroise of tree-felling Mr Qladetone's axe , oaußht m a line Btretohed near the tree at r whioh he was chopping, and m the rebound j injured him, but not seriously. 3 There was a goodly number of plain and . fanoy dress akaters at the Rink on Thursday evening, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves m skating and waltzing to the 5 etrains of the Borough Band. The paper j carnival takes plaoe m about a fortnight 1 whioh will close the Binking season. It is hoped to seoure the services of Miss Mabel ' Sylvester for the oooasion. ' A genial and hospitable, but eooentric, gentleman m New York has hit upon a novel 9 devioe for nipping m tbe bud any topic of I conversation likely to become unpleasant to 3 the feelings of any of his guests. An artificial mocking bird ib concealed among tbe flowers ' upon the table, whioh flutters and chirps at • the pressure of an eleotrio wire by tbe host's f foot. This immediately diverts attention, r and amuses the company. 3 Lord William Beresford has now completed k the preliminary arrangements for Frinoe Albert Victor's Indian tour, whioh have been entirely entrusted to his care. The Prince is 9 to go right round India, beginning with Poona 1 and Hyderabad, and proceeding thenoe j through the Madras Preeidenoy to Madras, where he is to embark for Oaloutta. From Calcutta he travels to the North-West; • provinces and the Punjab, and will finally J reaoh Bombay by way of Rajputana and \ Baroda, It is settled that he leaves Bombay x for England m the early days of March. 1 I am pleased to note (writes " Anglo. 3 Australian "m the " European Mail") that the weekly organ of the London corn trade ' has an editorial sotting forth the amount of 7 land m New Zealand available for oereals, t and taking oare to point out that 20 000,000 . aores, now oovered with forests, may be converted eventually into rioh arable land. To 1 those who know and watoh the eoaraa of the i great English grain trade there is speoial 1 Bigoifioanoe m tbis editorial, for it evinoes t how tbe thoughts of corn faotors here are turning to the Austral World for future ' assured supplies of wheat, aad it indicates > very plainly how, before long, if only Austral > agriculturists are wiee and oareful of oppor. j tunities, the foundation may be laid of an enormous ann indefinitely expansive grain ' trade between England end Australasia. ' "Will you kindly allow me to stand?" asked a gentleman as he got into a railway oarriage en route for Epsom on the raoe day, ' and whioh already contained the specified [ number. " Certainly not, sir 1 " exolaimed a passenger oooupying a oorner seat. "The way these trains are overcrowded is shame--1 ful«" As you appear to be the only person who objacta 9 my preßenoe," replied the geutloxoan.'-i- ahall KQaiaia..whaifl.} I am." '< Thea I shall oall the guard and have you removed, Bir." Suiting the aotion to the word the aggrieved passenger rose, and putting his head out of the window, loudly called the guard. The new corner saw his opportunity, and quietly slipped into the oorner seat. "What'B up?" inquired the guard, as he opened the oarriage door. "One over the number," replied the new comer ooolly. " You must come out, sir ; tbe trains a>goiog on," and without waiting for any further explanation the guard pulled out the aggrieved passenger, who was left wildly gesticulating on the platform, He didn't see the raoes. A telegram from New York saya: —Horrible j Btoriea come from Port-au-Prince of rapine and murder by the two factions of Franoonegroids engaged In the oivil war m Hayti. An awful tragedy was enacted m the market plaoe ot Port-au-Prinoe on July 26th. General Leqitime's Minister of War caused eight prisoners to be led thither and tied arm to arm. An immense orowd had collected, whioh was at fever heat of exoitement. One by one tbe men were gagged ia plain view of everybody, and then, with the utmost deliberation, their throats were out like so many beasts, the orowd yelling vociferously as each man fell to the ground. In the middle of the killing one man managed to remove bis gag, and he filled the air with tbe most piercing ories of fright. Tbis pleased the orowd bo muoh that the gags of the remaining prisoners were taken out and theories of agony of the wretohed men fairly rent the air, When the butchery was completed, a great yell went up from the orowd for General Legitime, and it was evident that the southern leader bad gained a point ia the oonfidenoo of his followers. Tbe captain of an Atlas line steamer and the American consul witnessed tbe eoene. The " London Ohuroh Beview " writes: There iB no use m shutting our eyes to the growing secularisation of Sunday. Padding* ton and Waterloo stations were crowded on a reoent Sunday with well dressed folk, who have not the excuse of working all other day? m the week, about to seek amusement on the Thames^ It would be well if other rivers|de olergy imitated the example of those at Henley-on-Thames m inviting them '.to oome to ohuroh m their flanneU. Whatever exoueeß, however, there may bo for going on excursions up the river, there aan be none for theatrioal performances on Sunday night m private houses, with the immense additional work they throw on servants, For some time there have been suoh things on the quiet, bnt now they are boldly proclaimed m the light of day, At Mra Campbell Fraed's on a reoent Sunday eveningJustin Maoartby's one act comedietta, " Tbe VVh^te Carnation J' was performed for the first time in'" tno presence of Mr Irving, Mr Toole, Mr and Mrs Kendal, Miss Fortesoue, Lady Monokton, Lady Dorothy Nevill, Mrs Lypn Linton, and many others. Our Melbourne correspondent reoouats an amusing inoident whioh happened at Hawthorn the other day, m whioh the principal aotors were the Mayor and —a baby. A Mrs Wirih bad taken a ohild to nurse, whose mo 1 her paid ten shillings a week for some time and then decamped. Mrs Wirth did not see the foroe of bringing up another woman's ohild for notbjng, so took it to the magistrates and asked them to relieve her oi it* They refused, the Mayor Bapiently remarking that as she bad taken the child for the sake of gain, she must make the best of her bargain and keep it. That she refused to do, and placed the youngster upon the deck of the clerk, telling them to do what they pleased with it. Eemonatrappes were vain. But what to do ? There wap' the child, apd there was the olerk looking at'it. 'At last a luminous idea occurred to the Bench. The unweioome stranger was taken and placed outside the Court. A constable was then Bent to pick it up; he re-entered the Court with the baby m his arms, and gravely informed the Benoh that he had found it. That was enough. The ohild was named, and committed to the' industrial Sohool. Mrs Wirth then left the 3ourt with a triumphant smile upon her faoe. The magistrates looked as if they had been • done."