The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1889. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2289, 28 November 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1889. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

♦ The shipyards m Great Britain have an exceptionally large number of orders under way, and each week English exohangeß report from 12 to 25 launohea of large iron ships. A Naw Plymouth lady the other day die" oovered that a tabJe-oover m her house was on fire. The sun's rayß, acting through the magnifying glass of a fish-bowl which was on the table, bad ignited the olotb, and had also killed the fish, whioh were m the bowl, ! In the course of a sermon at Inveroargill : one Sunday recently, the Rev F. W. laitt, referring to the number of hours bakers', employees have to work, said that m Inveroargill thoy bad a slavery that was positively disgrnoeful. Personally every piece of bread he had eaten had almost choked him since he ■ learned that those who made it had to work fifteen hours daily. v It pays much better to be an adroit manager of a company of clever aoto r 9 (says the " Argus ") than to be a tolerably good atjtor yourself. Tbia has been verified m the case of Mr Horace W. Lingard, who will be remembered m this city m the latter capacity. He baa amassed £50,000 by aonduoting travelling companiesijthrough the manufacturing and country dißtriotß of Great Britain. A specialist interested m the question of children's sight (says •' Chamber's Journal ") lately tested the vision of fifty boys, indifferently ohosen from a public, elementary sohool m London. Only twenty three out of the fifty were found to possess normal sight ; " twenty more only attained, an average visional value of tbrae quarters ; and the remainder were not more than half, one being as low as one-fifth." The private secretary of the Eatl of Hopetoun, the new Governor of Victoria, attended at the Melbourne Custom house the other day and paid a cheque for £1000, m anticipation of the duty chargeable on the carriages and liveries and other dutiable articles whioh Lord Hopetoun is importing into the colony. Some 300 suits of ' livery have been sent out for various servants, of whom 30 arrived by the Carthage, and there were also eight oarriage horses on board the same vessel. I went m to bathe, st*id a Yankee, but before I was long m the water I saw a huge double-jawed shark making rapidly towards ma. What was to bo done? When he waa within a yard of me I faced, round dived under the shark and taking a knife from my pooket, ripped the monster up. But did you bathe with your olo'hes on ? asked an astonished listener. Well, answered the storyteller reproachfully, Ido think you needn't be bo tarnation particular. A curious accidental death is reported from America where a gentleman walking on the railway track got his foot fixed m the metals, and, being unable to extricate himself, was |aut m pieoes by a train. Th<s identical | acoident (says the " Citizen ") very nparly i happened to a gentleman m the General Post Office, who was crossing the line of a suburban railway. ' The heel of his boot got fixed m the points, and he was unable to extrioate himself. An expreßa train turned 'the bend m the line, and his franlio exertions tore the heel from the upper, and ho only just saved his life by a few inches. At Oamaru on Tuesday eevoral oases werq heard against Salvationists for "wantonly disturbing oertain residents by the blowing" of musioal instruments. It appeared that the Army bad been m the habit of bombarding one of the hptels, and the licensee and a shopkeeper doing business near by made formal aomplaint. The oaptain of tha Army, who played tha baritone m the band, got off on the charge against; him, the Benoh considering the ovidence insufficient. Two other members of the Army, the oornetist and the big drummer respectively, wore convicted and fined 103 and co3ts each. No'ioe of appeal was given. It ia quite evident Bayß the "Daily Times " that the Exhibition has attracted several very undesirable individuals, including eotne very proficient pickpockets. One gentleman, wbo ia visiting Dunedin, was relieved of 6oma £70 which he had m his pooket. Mr Sligo, of Goorge Btreot-, was another victim, but fortunately m his oase the sum was not very largo. Another gentleman, who took with him some lco°e sheets of paper with a view ta making some notes of tho proceedings, had his pooket picked, but be was still more fortunata as only the loose sheets of paper were abstracted. Several other visitors to the Exhibition suffered some slight losses, but as far as can be ascertained the pickpocketß did not roap such a harvest as they would had the crowd been greater. At the last sitting of the International Congress of Grain and Flour, held m I'aria, a curious paper, treating of the total production of wheat m the world, gives the following Htatistio3 : — Tha total growth of wheat amounts to 325 millions and a half of hectolitres, thus calculated; Europe, 475 millions and a half; out of Europe, 349,600,000 hoclolitree. The two nations whioh produce the moat are the United States which produces 186,400,000 heotolitres . and France which produces 100,700,000 hecto'ltres According' to the paper referred to, of the entire population of the globe, amounting to 1 milliard 429 millions of inhabitant?, it is the French people who, per head, eat mo3t "white bread," most meat, and drink the largest quantity of wine — m other words, who are the best and most wholesomely fed of the populations of the planet. The Anti-Alcobol Congress m Paris has come to an end. It brought out many eerioua facts, one of which is that the dram shops m Paris have risen einoe 1880 from 24,000 to 29,000. , In 30 years the consumption of alcohol has been trebled, and as much as .36,000,000 has been manufactured out of potatoes for the Frenoh market. This shows an average yearly consumption of over 12 quarts per adult man. The consumption of alcohol doubled between 1875 and 1806. It attains its maximum m the colliery districts of the Nord, while strangely enough m the, wine countries of Southern Franoe the con.; sumption is lowest. However, deaths from 1 alcoholism are much fewer m the North of Franoe than m either England or Bußßia. The Congress voted a resolution to the effeot that inebriates should be treated as mad, and that prison hospitals 1 should bo created for f.hep, A yonog man who represented himself as a cdruneroial traveler hailing from Wellington, was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment at Ohristohuroh on Tuetdiy morning, for larceny. It is said he showed his BkilfulneEß m appropriating articles m a somewhat peouliar way, after he was m the bands of the police. When arrested he was searched, and all the articles found m his pocketß were; turned put, among them being all the paraphernalia nectary to obtain a smoko. When ho was plaoecl m foe lock-up, the watohhousekeeper, whop'e aiity it is $p see that a prisoner has nothing left m his possession by whioh he may do away wi'h himself or effeot an esoapo from bis quarters, again examined the man's clothing, and muoh to the astonishment of the first searoher tho pipe and tobaooo previously removed were lound m one of the pockets, How they were spirited bajok is only known to the unfortunate individual who was thus deprived of a quiet smoke m the solitude f>l h;s cell. :

The weekly session of the Star of the East Lodge, 1.0. G.T., was held m the Templar Hall last evening. The Lodge was opened Bt seven p.m. by Bro T. Soott, P.O.T. Routine businoßS having been disposed of, ibe Lodr<e was thrown open to the public, and the chair was taken by Mr R. Aloorn. Songs were contributed by Meßsrs Weloh, Rocke, and Simpson, a recitation by Mr Grant, read* ings by Messrs Saott, Edwards, and Miss Edwer Js. Mr and Miss Simmons rendered several duets very nicely. The meeting was closed at 9 30 p.m. In an article on "Natural Emigration" m Blackwood's Magazine, by Mr John Martineau, that gentleman quotes spmo interesting figures as bearing on the various attractions offered to emigrants by the English colonies at the' Antipodes. He altogether favors New Zealand as tbe country presumably possessing the most advantages, chiefly for the reason that the centres of population are Eoattered well over the colony, there boing no monster cities like Sydney or Melbourne, bo preponderating m size aa to attract the wealth and population from tbe rest of the colony. The mean yield of wheat m New Zealand is 26 bushels to tho acre — the highest m the world, aftor Denmark and England— aa compared with less than 15 busheb m New South Wales, a little over 13 m South Australia, and between 11 and 12 m the United States. German papers appear confident that the new vehicle now mannfaotured at tho gas motor works, Mannheim, is one that is destined to eolve an interesting problem m locomotion. In this oase the motor, whioh is not visible from the outeide, is placed m the rear of a three-wheeled carriage, over the main a~sle. and the benzine which is used m its propulsion is carried m a dosed oopper receptaole secured under the seat, from whioh it. passes, drop by drop, to a generator, whioh hoids enough benzine for a journey of about seventy-five miles. The gas mixture is ignited m a closed cylinder by means of an eleotrio spark, and, after regulating the admission of the gas, the motor is started by simp y turning a hand lever. The vehiole is steered m the same manner as a trioyole, by a small front wheel, and, while capable of attaining a speed of Borne ten miles an hoar, m orowded Btreets it can be made to move as slowly as is ever requifd m the oase of an ordinary vehicle. The trials wbioh have thus far been made are claimed to have demonstrated that a quart of benzine is sufficient for an hoar's trip, The " London Gardener's Ohroniole '' says : — The Frenoh ara muoh interested m the dwarf trees shown by the Japanese horticulturists at the Paris Eshibition. There are I exhibited thujas, pines, and cedars, said to be 100 to 150yearB old, not higher than 18in. Hence one oan have small forests m floworpots, and a collection of fir trees m a balcony. j They are puzzled to conceive how these vegetable deformities are produoed by patience and labour. Each branoh as it shoots is said to be embedded m earth and retained m position by props or supports and bands. Tbe curvature is made at right angleß, and the upper part of the branoh continues to grow while the other withers and dies. Every time a young sucker or shoot appears it is treatod m the same manner. Ie is by thus stopping the development, and foroing the tree to take various oontorted forms, that they are able to produce these outious abortious. This work has to be oontinued by several generations of horticulturists, if we are able to believe that these small trees arrive at tho great age alleged. Whether there is anything to admire m suoh dwarf trees is a question of taste ; but a sight of them explains the fantaatio and unnatural forms of tho pi ant b whioh the Japanese produce on their lacquared trays, on their bronzes, and their embroideries. A London correspondent writes J— •• It has probably not ooourred to yoar readers to "connect Mr Herbert Ward, the famous African explorer, and friend of Stanley with tbe young man of tho Bfimo name whp oreated a stir m New Zealand seven or eight years ngo by living for some months amongst the Maoris m me King Country. They are, however, j one and the same peraon, Young Ward was only sixteen then, and had but recently left Mill Hill Sohool. He got on capitally with tbe Maoris till they proposed tatooing him all over as a mark of tbeir affection, when it seemed prudent to make traoks for rnnic oivilised districts. If I remember rightly Ward contributed an account of bis adventures to one of tho Aubkland papers. S jon afterwarda he left the colony and entered the ssrvice of the North Borneo Company, with whom be remainod till he was 21, living the life of an explorer, and taking putt m many stirring acenos. In Oatobor 1884, Ward joined the International Afrioan Association, and was returuiDg m January 1887 when he met Stanley. Last week the young man (for he is only 26 even now) leotured at his old sohool on "Cannibal Congo," and it was then he was reoognifled by two Auckland gentlemen, now m England, as the adventurous boy who, nearly a deoade ago, bearded Tawhaio and his ohiefs m thoir lair. Mr Ward seemed much pleased at being reaogniaed,' and the party quite enjoyed a pleasant ohat." . A poor house assembled at the Oddfellows' Hall laßt evening on tbe occasion of the entertainment, " Twa hoore at hame," given by Mies Clara Hamilton. This, no doubt, is m great measure to be accounted for by the inclemency of the weathor, whioh would deter people living at a distance from attending, but the merits of the entertainment wore considerable and it is a pity that it was not favored with a more remunerative house, Misg Hamilton is an able exponent of Sootob Bongs, and Bmall as tha audienoo was, it was enthusiastic eaoh of the items contributed by | her being redemanded. Of these the chief were perhaps "Cam ye by Atbol,",and " Caller Herrin," the latter m character. Miss Kidd,. who accompanied during the evening with skill, sang " Killarney," and as an enoore "3oottißh Blue Bolls" with tha taste and expression which alwayß characterise her contributions, Mr Jago was m capital form, and every song given by him was redemanded. He is a vocalist of no mean order, and his fine voice was heard wi'h great effeot m several Boottish patriotio songs. With Miss Hamilton he sang some duets, which were very successful and were enoored. i Mr MaoL.ean Punn contributed a 1 humorus song wbioh was likewise enoored. Mr J. Malcolm acted as chairman daring the evening, and at the close of tbe oonoert he expressed a hope that the Qootoh people of the district would join m ind_u;oing Miss Hamilton to viait Aan*)urton again, and that on that oooasion there would be a crowded house, such as her merits entitled her to expect, ' ' :