LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2263, 25 October 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Russian papers are abasing the Shah for hia friendly expressions regarding England. The Queenrof Siam wears one and a half inoh boots. The Pope has had his large bedroom filled With singipg birds, It requires 1400 thioknesses of gold leaf to equal a sheet of thin paper, and 280,000 to form an inoh. The penny m the Blot of the South eastern railway of England oarriagea will now provide a traveller with an eleotrio light m the lamp fastened at the side. A bee farm near Beoton, m Canada, oovers tour acres, and the owner, m a favourable year, seourea no less than 75'0001bs of honey from his 19,000,000 little workers. We learn from the *• Herald " that there are a good many oases of a severe kind of aore throat m Timaru juat now— of a kind that mvob resembles diphtheria but is not so dangerous or injurious bb that disease. A large shoal of flounders and sols is at present m Timaru harbour and fishermen and others are getting phenomenal " hauls.'' The flab, made their appaaranoe on Saturday, and Beem inclined to make & lengthened stay on the Timaru feeding ground. Bapid progress is at last being made witb the new canal whioh ia to oonneoc Amsterdam with the Rhine, and Consul Robinson states that it is ezpeoted to be completed by tbe year after next. A remarkable mirage was seen at Napier some days ago. Early m the morning the townßhjp of jOlive, situated five or Biz mileß Bouth of Napier, was seen distinotly projected out to sea m a north-easterly direotion. The floating o! the 70,500,000d01s 2£ per oent loan at par and above, by New York oity, : a <*<ne of the most remarkable achievements of its oi"" 1 * ever re P° rUs^* N° o ' tv bonds, bearing a"lowe; tatfl^ n 3^ cent have c™e ™ been sold at par m x. J 10 * 18 * At the meeting of the Board of Sduqation on Thurßday the Buildings Committee reported that the Olsrk of Works had been direoted to prepare planß showing how necessary additional aooommodation at Hampstead could be provided. The sum of £2 15s was allowed to tbe Sohool Committee for making tbe section recently purohaeed available for use as part of the boys' playground. The social gathering held under tbe auspioes of the newly formed Oourt of Foreaterß on Wednesday evening m the Oddfellows' Hall, was a suoaesß m every way. A number of songs were contributed by lady friends, and items by Messrs Brooking and Hillgrove were encored. Mr Hamilton gave a reoitation. Dancing was kept up with vigor to a late hour, and a most enjoyable evening was spent by all. The coming Lord Mayor of London, Aldermau Sir Henry Isaaos, bas abandoned the usual procesßion m the golden carriage, and postponed the usual festivities for two days, because tho 9th of Nov. falls this year on a Saturday, whioh is the Jewißh Sabbath, Sir Henry leaaos deoided to walk to the Law Courts m private, and there to take the oath, and to leave all the show part of tbe oeremony I till tbe MondayA Oastlemaino telegram iq a Melbourne contemporary says t — "A terrible diacaso has broken out amongst the members of a family named Hawkins, residing at Vaughan. There are seven ohildren, and all have suffered from f,hfi soourge, whioh the doctors m attendance have designated " blaok measles." Two members of t}ie family have already died from its effeots,' and two more are m a moribund oondition, and not expeoted tp recover. The o<her ohildren are also m a oritioal oonditipn. The disease is occasioning alarm amongst thj pejdfntfl of ths districts where its ejjtfte/'

Itii aimed iliac ihere are now 21,000,000 J homes io Russia, not inoluding those of /\ 9 Finland and the Oauoasus. ; P Virginia oity, Nevada, haa the biggest j y eleotrio plant on earth. It has aix 120 horse. J y power generators, and runs a mine and mill, bi The annual show of the Agricultural and g Pastoral Assooiation at Leeston on Thursday | c was smaller m the entries than usual, but the i t, stock was good, though m sheep and oattle there was very little competition. t X there is one time more than ano'her t when a woman should be entirely alone it ia [a when a full line of olothes oomea down m the mud. i John Reeve was accosted m London by an * elderly female, with a small bottle of gin m l her hand. " Pray, sir, I beg pardon—is this ? the way to the workhouse ? " John gave her • a look of clerioal dignity, and, pointing to the bottle, gravely Baid, '"No, madam, but c that is." 1 "Did you see the beginning of this 8 trouble ? " asked the magistrate of a witness l sguinst a man who had struck his wife. ' *• Yes Bir, I saw the very commencement of 5 J the difficulty. It was about two years ago." ( " Two years ago ? " " Yes, air. The ' minister said, ' Will you take this man to be your lawful husband ?' and she said ' I will ?' '• * Mr Justioe Denniston on Thursday morn- ' ing delivered judgment m Bing, Harris and I! Oo v Commissioner of Trades and Customs. J He gave defendant general costs, aa if £149 T' had been olaimed, and plaintiff the costs of ] any witnesses called solely on any iasuea as I to furs and fanoy goodß, these last not being ' liable to forfeiture. . ' The Board of Eduoation on Thursday' resolved that, aa the Board haa been obliged to antioipate for works urgently required, about half the amount apportioned to the distriot, the Minister's attention be drawn to the necessity of allotting a further sum, iri order that the board may be m a position to provide schools, and to effeot repairs urgently needed and for a long time authorised, Thia , was apeoially passed m oonsequenoe of a letter reoeived from Mr Habens, stating that ' the North Canterbury Board's ahare of the building grant ia only £3765, more than half ( of whioh haa been spent. The headß of the Danish polioe have / introduced a way of suppressing intemperanoe ) which is both simple and original. If a man ia found druok m the streets or at public plaoea a cab ia hired and he ia taken home. 1 If he is too intoxioated to be aommunioated 1 with he ib taken to a polioe station and kept \ till he is able to give hia address, when he is . taken home by oab. The beßt part ot the , performance is the faot that the publioan 1 who haß given the last glass of drink to - the viotim ia made responsible for the cab 3 fares, whioh sometimes amount to a consider--3 able sum. It was a remarkable ciroumstanoe m oon> , neotion with the reoent fire m Oollins street, ' Melbourne, tbat the whole of the building 3 oooupied by Allen and 00., music sellers, was 1 not destroyed, but the peouliar method of f construction saved it. When it waa ereoted . the partitions between the rooms and the . tjpaoes between eaoh floor and the ceiling 1 below were paoked with sawdust, ao as to - deaden sound. The water poured upon the _ building to prevent the spreading of the . flameß Boaked into the sawdust, and bo made the building praotially invulnerable as against * the fire. There is a rumor floating round society 5 that Princess Viotoria of Teok is to be i affianced to the Hon John Baring, son and .. heir of Lord Rsveletoke. The banking firm of Baring dates from the commencement of the last oentury, and is ohiefly oolebrated m - history for ita wonderful enterprise by freeing i Franoe from the inoubua of an occupation of c Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies of 50,000 men eaoh by the loan of £1,100,000 j t at 5 per oent, a feat whioh made the Duo de '• Riohelieu deolare that there were six great i c Powers m Europe —England, Franoe, Russia, g Austria, Piussia, and the Baring Brothers. At the Ensilage Oonferenoe now Bitting m J Melbourne, the following remarbable statee ment was agreed upon by all the praotioal men present as being a true representation of tbe faota :—The aame fifty aores of green n stuff that would produoe five tons ot hay t altogether, at a oost of about £1 per ton for a making,-would produce 300 tons of onnilaKQ ;. at 2s per ton for tbe making; and the 300 tonß of ensilage when made would be worth " at least double the amount that the hay would '> be worth either for fattening or milk pro. if duoing qualit'eß, and worth many times as y muoh as a summer fodder for milk oows. A , cow oannot eat more of the ensilage than of ' hay m tbe day. _- In one of his weekly letters to the " New York Tribune " Mr Smalley tells an anecdote whioh be says letß m no little light on the vaat colonial Bystem administered m Downing Btreet. One of the permanent officials of the Colonial Office said to a oolleague m one of the home departments: "If you make a ,r mistake m your department you hear of it next morning m '-The Times"; there ia a disgraceful editorial column about you or your If ohief. It I make a mistake it oomea out three yeara afterwards m a big Blue book, and d meantime there baa been a horrid war m South Afrioa." "But Ido not wish," says Mr Smalley, " to revive disagreeable memories ;o and the remainder of this aneodote shall ba t0 suppressed," •n A foal, apparently only a few daya old, le established a reoord on the Manawatu Oom. Ip pany's line tbe other morning (says the " Standard "). It was with ita mother on the line between Shannon and Levin when the. f B train oame along from Longburn. The mare 16 escaped up the bank but the foal followed the '7 train on to Levin. Here room was made for it m the luggage van, and it waa taken on to re Paikakariki. On the return journey a small re mob of horses was met and the foal waa it liberated' Instead of going with the horses, o however, it followed tbe train, and m spite of the efforts of tbe driver to leave it far lt behind it oontinued to follow, running the d gauntlet between the passing trains at Eereru. | It was then put into one of the truoks and d brought on to Shannon. 0 A London correspondent of the " Efawke's Bay Herald," writing on 3Qth August, says • Q —Sir Julius Yogel now walks comparatively Q well, and seems m good spirits. He still takes ,s the warmest interest m New Zealand politics. [ r speaks very hopefully of ita immediate prospeots and beams all over at the reoolleotion of the enthuaiaetio reoeption he got at Napier ir some years ago. "A. D. 2000 "is still being te reviewed —more or less favorably—in a variety )8 of English papers, and Sir Julius' publisher i- urges him to another production. As to the i. other novel written alone —not oonjointly — by a Ohristohuroh lady, it is to be published ' m London shortly, and ia founded on tbe Hall ' oaae, a subjeqt whioh ought to take well m ( B England, judging frqm the immeuae and ' universal ezoitement atill prevailng about the >r Liverpool poisoning case; A member of the legal profession m thia oity, being anxious to engage a oountry girl as '' a domestic servant, oonfided hia wishes to a a friend residing m a country distriot, and L" sought hia good offioes to obtain what he * wanted. fl« reoeived a reply m the following B strlotly proiflssfonal form;— Dear 1 8 reoeived your telegram and made searoh 6a r 8d : and consulted several, aay half a dosen, at 6a 8d; £2 *. long consultation with one I a thought would suit yC"; fil U J she is nearly f 15 years, and would ezpeat 7s per wee* *C a begin witb; advice to her to go, 6s 8d ; con- . suited her father and mother, who were y anxiouß for her to go, 14a 4d j total £4 7s Bd. i She ia to give me a final reply to-morrow, c Yourß, <fee—"Post."

Tbe younßest admiral of tho BrHn:i flfit ' lia Sir Gaoffrny Hornby The oldpet i 3 Sir \ Provo Wallia G.O B. Admiral Wil'i.i is 98 j yeara old. It iB eighty.five years— just the year before Trafalgar— since he firs* went to Bea. And it is seventy six yeara aud three months sinoe he fought m that famous sea fif*ht between the English Shannon and the Chesapeake, of Boßton— the lateat fij?ht between England and her American offspring, and may it be the last. It is pleasant to think that this grand old seaman, a contemporary of Nelson, is still m fair health and strength; It is possible that the widowed Grown Prinoeas may yet beoome Bmpresß of Austria, for the Archduke Francis, the heir presumptive to the throne, is well-known to be absolutely devoted to her, and hia great object m life ia to marry her. The Archduke waß born m Deoember, 1863, and he ia, therefore, only five months older than the Grown Princess Stephanie ; but the faot that he iB an epileptic is a serious obstacle to hiß marriage, and he iB also grievously weakminded._ The Archduke haa lately been : undergoing a oourße of Bpeoial treatment (inoluding eleotrio bathe) m the hope that he may be oured of his epilepsy. Apple growers m New Zealand Bhould make a note of the following, whioh goes to show the probability of a good markot for this clasß , ot produoe m the United StateB :— The «• New \ YorkTribuna " states that the enormous apple ! j orop of last year is succeeded this year by a j comparatively short yield m the great apple ] belt. The English orop ia alao light, and an , active export demand and fair prioes are ' anticipated. "The Homestead*' reports the ■ oondition of the apple orop m New England, I New York, and Michigan, as only 65 perl 1 oent of a full orop, against 79 per oent at the ( , same date last year. The orop is especially . short m New York, where it will be hardly ) half aa large as usual. The orop was never i poorer m quality m New York, many of the 3 apples being wormy, while numerous orohards 7 are affeoted with blight.