LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2265, 28 October 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The consumption of alcohol doubled m Franoe between 1975 and 1886.

The graves of the officers and men, who fell m the Waikato campaign, are now renovated and the headstones re.lettered,

An apple tree near Fresno, Oal., is reported to have borne one ton of fruit the past season.

The human ear is so extremely sensitive that it oan hear a sound that laßts only the twenty-four thousandth part of a second.

A clergyman was asked reoently if h e thought clanoing a sin. "Yes," responded the worthy rector \ " yes, a great sin— if they don't dance well."

I The only plaoes where women possess the same privileges of voting as men are Iceland, p ' l "aim Islands, and the Isle of fijan. Jn these ismt^" *** ba?e tb ° m 9usra^ mv „ . ""-'"Braph Company learns The Exohange ± o . v - t £ h / been that extensive veins of gola qu. ..v,^ auartu struck at VoelVamman, Flintshire, t^. . yielding over seven ounces per ton. Prinoe Nicholas of Mingrella, formerly a oandidate for the Belgian throne, died m the Caucasus. The extinot dynasty which he \ represented olaimed direot descent from King David of Israel. The streetß carß at Lyonß, m Franoe, are hereafter to be operated by a system of compressed air, whioh has been found to work satisfactorily m Nantes and other French oities. Invitations have been issued by the Ashburton Bifles for a sooial to oelebrate the opening of the Orderly Boom, to be held at the drillshed on Tuesday, November 5, at 880 p.m. A Wanganui paper says the farm osdeta brought out by Mr Courtney m the Buapehu have, it is stated, all been placed m situations on better terms than he agreed to find them on leaving England. There is still' plenty of employment lor more on farms and at flax mills; A new torpedo boat is about to be introduced into the Frenoh Navy. It is very small and very light, and the torpedo can be carried outside attached to the hull, bat is disengaged m a moment. On the bow is a pair of curved soissore, and they enable the boat, which is to be worked by electricity! to noiselessly cut her way through nets. In the Frenoh crystal department at the Frenoh Exposition is an enormous glass I bubble perohed on a stand, like the world on the back of Atlas. It is oapable of holding nine oasks of wine. It is said it has never been equalled m the history of glass blowing. The bubble is pure as crystal, and without the slightest blemish. I Italy is at present passing through a grave i financial orißis. Several baoks have stopped payment, and there has been a great falling j off m the export trade, owing to the renuncia- i tion of the Oommeroial Treaty with Franoe. The French Press throws the blame for the present financial crisis on Signor Crispi's political proolivities, but whether this blame | is justified or not it is imposible to say. | A bell weighing eixteen tons will Bhortly be i oast at Anneoy for the basilioa of the Sacred j Heart at Montmarte. It is to be called the Savoyarde, and will be the gift of a number of ' aubaoribera m Savoy, fit the head of whom is Mgr. (.Luillenn, Archbishop of Canterbury. This bell will sound the lower G, a note lower than the great bell of Notre Dame, whioh latter only weighs twelve tons and a half. A writer m an Indianapolis paper mentions a fact (if it be a fact) whioh will we fanoy be news to most people. He says :—-" A negro child at Its birth is as light colored as a wbjito ope. You" wouldn't notioe any differ- , ence m {the oolor at all. In three or four hours after birth the Bkin begins to turn dark, and m a short time beeoawfl as black as the child is destined to be during its ljfe, The German Federal Counoil has only just sound up the aooounts of the indemnity of £200,000,000 paid to Germany by Franoe at tho olose of the war m 1871, and it has decided that tha bala#oe, amounting to £110,935, shall be divided among the different • ""of the Empire ip the same proportion staio.. -,„ anm ff jjioh ba a already been bb the large • aourse itaking the distributed, Prussia oi ° lion's share. . Franoe and Germany, especially the . - attach great importance to forestry, and have well organised departments, the value of whose work is fully recognised, and the oost of whioh is looked upon as a good investment. Russia appreciates the value of her fores tB to such an extent that m some sections tbe use oi wood as fuel on railroads and steamboatß 1 iB forbidden, British India has an important | forestry department dealing with forest lands, - und the result ft*e mopt enconrtgiDg, j

The matoh i.gaiust L iiitisuja XJriokei CiUb \ not coming off next Wednesday a eoratoh matoh m the Domain will take plaoe. A sharp frost followed tho rain of Friday nighc, the country the next morning being wnice with hoar frost. Some damage waa done to the more delicate vegetation, suoh as peas, tomatoes, and potatoes. $ The Alarueda with tho English mails of Ootober sth lefO San Franoisuo for Auckland on Ootober 21st, two days late. The Mariposa with the oolonial mails of Oatober 9th arrived 1 at San Francisco ftom Auckland on October } 26th, the contraot date. There are 24,414 miners employed m the oolony of Viotoria. Of these 11,892 are engaged j.in quartz miaing and 12,522 m alluvial mining. The total value of all maohinery employed is estimated at £8,863,477. It is reported from Brussels that King Leopold bas definitely deoided to abdioate the sovereignty of the Congo Free State m Afrioa. The enterprise is bankrupt, and the Rothschilds alone have mortgages aggregating 16,000,000 francs. The Feilding paper says that Mr Potts, manager of the Raumai Station, Rangitikei, 7500 acres, has written to Mr Keiller, his prinoipal m Scotland, his iatention to dispose of the whole of the oattla on the estate, about I 3000 head, and to cultivate flax.

The Pope's brief creating the Hon Dr Grace a Count of the Holy Roman Empire has been received m Wellington. The title ia made hereditary, under certain conditions, m the direot male line. The same authority also states that bis Holiness has also created Mr John Cumin, of Wellington, a Knighb Commander (oommendatore) of the Order of St. Gregory the Great.

We may mention m oonneotion with the funeral of the late Mr Geo. Thomas Permain that through tho thoughtful oare of a friend, a son of the deceased, Mr Harry Fermain, who is resident at Albany, Western Australia, was represented among the floral tributes showered upon the coffin, the gentleman referred to having prooured from Christohuroh, for tbe purpose, a beautiful wreath of everlastings into whioh was woven the name of the absent son.

Since the passing of M. Naguet's Divoroe Bill m 1886 the work of putting asunder what the Church or the secular authorities have joined has bjen going on merrily. In 1887, 4685 divoroe auita were instituted, of whioh 749 were either withdrawn or deoided against the applicants. In the auooeeding years the number steadily inoreased and at the end of the third year 15,582 divoroes had been pronounoed, being at the rate of 16.5 for every thousand marriages. It appears that forty per oent of the divoroe oases are those of married couples withont ohildren.

Fully 150 persons attended the Oddfellows' Hall yesterday afternoon to hear the Rev O. O. Brown's exposition of the 2nd and 3rd chapters of Revelations, as showing the history of the professing Christian Ohnroh m its seven stages. In tbe evening the Hall was well filled with an attentive audienoe, when the subjeot of the Ten Virgins was dealt with. Mr Brown gave an eloquent address,* whioh was listened to with great interest. To-night he is to reply to a leoture reoeutly delivered and published by the Rev J. Berry, Wesleyan Minister, against Conditional Immortality^ attics

The last of the shilling oonoerta m St Stephen's sohoolroom whioh iB to take plaoe to-morrow at 8 p.m. should prove the beet of the serige, as a glanoe at the advertisement will sbow. Mrs Charles Harper has oome over from Haokthorne for the oooasion. Mr Thomas Aoland whose voioe is bo well-known m Ohristohuroh will be present, and also Mr W. B. Dixon, of Rakaia, whom some of our readers will remember as taking part m the trio " O Memory " some years ago at the Cathedral Choir Gonoert. Mesdames Denshire, and Gamble, and Miss Kidd and Miss SimmonSs will represent our looal talent. The programme should attraot a large audienoe,

Sir Spenoer Welle, m an address to a meet' ing of medical men on the subject of cremations, remarked that the oremations at Woking now amounted to 69— three within the week — and that m Rome they had increased from 119 m 1886 and 155 m 1887 to 202 m 1888. He argued that it must be imposiible to prevent the Bpread of oonsump. tion, typhoid, yellow fever, Roman malaria, soarlatino. diphtheria, qholera. nr nf anj> inteotlve diseases, it burial m the earth of bodies of thoEe who die of suoh diseases iB continued. The germs or seeds of these diseases are, he says, preserved by burial m the earth, and the cemeteries are nurseries for their perpetuation and multiplication.

Brown Sequard'B elixir of life, reoently made known to the world, is creating a sensation among medical men m the United States and the publio generally. Some of the faculty favor, and others oppose it. Ex-Surgeon-General Hammond, of IJew Ifork, has publißhed the result of the treatment of th;ee subjects, aged 02, 66, and 33 years, m whioh the happiest results were obtained by the injeotion of the elixir, The first was oured of ju^ulh rheumatism, the second of heart trouble, the th ird °J insomnia. In all these oases the more marked features of old age disappeared f torn the personal appearance of the patients. A great many experiments have been made by dootors all over the United States, m some inatano.es with disastrous results to patients.

According to reoently published statistics it appears that the three countries m Europe m whioh the population increases the moat rapidly are Sweden, Denmark, and Germany. In the two first named tbe births exoeed the deaths by eleven per oent, while m Germany the annual increase is over ten per cent. In England, Bussia, and Holland the inorease is over nine per oent. {n Norway and Belgium, eight per cent; m Austria and Italy, seven per oent; and Switzerland, six per cent. In Franoe alone the population remains almoet stationary, the inorease being only jast over two per oent. From the above figures it is olear that for the northern nation b— Belgium and 1 Germany — colonisation is an absolute neoesaity, whereas Franoa has no surplus population wherewith to form colonies.

A pig tale or tale of a pis; may not be out of plaoe just now when news is scarce, and the yarn has further to recommend it, the merit of being true. The hero of the atory, the pig, was one of six oonaigned to Hokitika by the Kennedy. They were landed, but one of them escaped up the town and was not reoaptured. The Kennedy duly left Hokitika and Bbortly after crossing the bar with an offing of about two miles a strange objeot was espied sturdily swimming m the smooth water and steering apparently for Melbourne direot. Soon it was discovered that the stranger was a pig, and tbe steamer being stopped a boat was lowered and the pig was induoed to oome aboard. The surprise of the Kennedy's crew may be imagined when it was found that the animal was one of the six landed an hour previously on the Hokitika wharf. Whether tbe pig felt disinolined to explore Chinese interiors m the shape of pork, or whether it cherished a recollection of high living on the steamer, His hard to say. 4t any rate the pig is none tbe worse for his swim, and deserves to escape the usual fate of his brethren on account of his strange experi. enoe. — "Westport News."

Statutory Declaration.— l, Franz Raabe, {ronbark, Sandhurst, m the colony of Victoria, Australia, do solemnly and sincerely declare that on the 25th June, 1877t my epn Alfred, six years of age, was accidentally hurt wtb! an axe on his knee. lat onoa took all pains to seoure medical assistance. However, |v spite of all efforts, on the 27th August, 1877, the opinion waa given by Dr Maogillivray that an amputation of tho injured limb had boconie imperative, m order to save life. At this juncture I called, on Messrs Sander and Sons, proouring some of their Extraot of the Eucalyptus Globulua, and by the application of the same I bad the satisfaction of seeing my bou mtb\n f> fortnight out of all danger and to-day he is reo'Qvejed. I may just ndcl tha tit was when the orisis had been reaohed that the Extract icf erred to 'was first appliedl and I make this solemn declaration, eto,~ Fb^bz ' Jbeclared at' Sandhurst, m the polony of Viotoria, Australia, this seventeenth day ol Qotober, one thousand eight hun^iaa and B6venty'-seyen before mie, Moritz'Cohfa ■^.P.— fAdyt.) 6 '

": -Ring's €?.QugJ]L Lozenge cure Cough a „ R Wtis, Wgdicdl testimony states Asthma,^;- -^ te 60 efTeMSS that no other mectu.... „ ma i B ji '7 "rj'" cure of these dangeroub •«"»««, ( Ofla Lozenge alone gives ease, one or iwo ac * n J time ensures rest, For relieving difficulty m breathing they are invaluable, Tljey contain no opium nor i ny violent drug, Sold by ajl CbemiiUat is i%i 6 cgpb, 77 '7* Pf r