LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2304, 17 December 1889, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

*vw> w The amou* of property tax received up to yesterday was £204,503. The final result of the EJaßt Coast elootion is Arthur G76, Bees 624. A strike & Melbourne furniture trade employees atoned. i There are 1 . civil servants m New South Wales and 31,408 m Viotoria. Immense damage has been done by floods m th§ northern part of the oolony of Tas> mania, Mr W. M. Purkiac (barrister) intends to contest the Hokitika seat against Mr Grimmond at tha next general eleotion. The bullion from the Broken Hill district tbis year has been 28,999 tone, valued at £1,320,053. According to the " Mount Ida Obrociolo " a discovery of coal, which will probably prove of considerable value, has been made at the 1 head of Spec Gully, about a couple of miles from Naßeby. A movement is on foot to induce the i Premiers of all the colonies to assemble m JDunedin about the middle of February, m .order to bold an .informal conference on the various Bubjects of intercolonial concern, A Ohristohuroh telegram says that the lad Lincoln who was struck on the head at the Rangiora Salvation Army Barracks is m bo ' ?riti<?al ft oopfliUon tb&C bjs dopoejijon ip to be taken. Aooording to the* " Toranaki Herald" a party of buahfallera explC*?* th^ ranges near Kaponga last week came aoroßß *"° ' litters of wild puppies, eight m one Jot and ' nine m the other, and saw the tracks of numerous wild dogs. The " Taieri Advooate " states that the orops m the Taieri this season give promiso of being extraordinary heavy. Many of the farmers are actually dreading a heavy downpour of rain on account of the damage it would do m laying the orops. The " New Zealand Herald " (Auckland) mentions that it has been shown a magnificent dish of figs grown by Mrs Williams of Wynyard Street m that oity. The figs were 18 m number and turned the scale at silbe some of them weighing as muoh as seven ounces. The San FranoiEeo correspondent of tho "Sydney Mail" says :— Authorities on tbo crop question m the United States estimate tho yiuld of wheat for 1889 will not exoood 485,000,000 to 500,000,000 bushels, this being at least 70,000,000 bushels less than )he birveat of 1888.

A return just issued of shipping casualties whioh occurred on or near the ooastß or m rivers or harbors of the United Kingdom, from July Ist, 1887, to June 30th, 1888, shows Ibat the total number of such casualties during that period was 680 G. The number of total oases at sea was 573 (tonnage 201,519). Wo learn that Messrs Friedlander Bro» have chartered two iron ships to load at i Lyttelton for London with grain and wool. ( These are tho barquo Magnet, 980 tons, which is expected to be m port shortly after Ohri3imas Day, and the Bhip Oarlislt Castle, 1460 tons, due at Lyttelton about the middle of January. News by the mail is to the efieot that Mr William Noblo, the founder of the Blue Gibbon Gospel Temperance movement^ m England, whose serious illness was noticed m December last, has made considerable progress towards'recovery, and it is expected by his medical advisers that he will be able to resume his labours m the cause of Temperance during the early spring of next year. The '• agony oolumns" of the London dailies sometimes contain peouliar notifications, but the following advertisement, clipped from a reaent issue of the " Otago Daily Times, will take some beating:—" Wanted a man; one who fears God, and can oarry a ton, for 5s per week and his matoheß; Apply King of Never Society, Bishop's Court Township, between 9 and 10 this morniug." A missionary from Afrioa tells the following story: ~" One day an old chief oame to me, with two wives, ons old, and the other young, and wanted to join my church. I told him we didn't allow a man to have but one wife. He went away, and the next week oame baok with the young wife, both of them smiling, and said,' Now me join ohuroh; me all right now.' • Where is your old wife? I asked. ' She all right, too ; me eat her up, placidly answered the old savage. I postponed the deoision upon his application for admission to a more convenient eeaßon." | Out m Obio, the other day, twenty Baptist clergymen, wbo were attending a convention, went down to a seoluded spot on the river b*Dk m the afternoon for the purpose of taking a swim, This eoore of brethren removing their olothing, and placed it upon the railroad traok olose on hand, because the grass was wet. Then they entered the water and enjoyed themselves. Presently an express train oame round the ourve at the rate of forty miles au hour, and, before any ol the swimmers aould reach dry land, all of those undershirts and Books and things were flutter, ing from the oowoatoher and speeding onward | towards Kansa?; It was painful to the brethren —exceedingly painful, because all the olothing that oould be found after a careful search was a sun umbrella, one coat, and a pair of eye-glasses. And they do say' that when those twenty marched home by the refulgent light of tho moon, the situation was —well, embarrassing. A rather unusual incident, and one tinged somewhat with oomioality, took place on a reoent Sunday (says the "Auokland Herald") at the forenoon servioo m the Tabemaoie. Pastor Birch was impressing upon his hoarers that their nervines to their Divine Master should be tinotured with the spirit whioh animated Borne of the Israelitish bondservants. When the days of servioe were over the servant was free to depart, but he said, "I love my master, I will not go out free. Then his master brought him to the judges, unto'tbe doorpost, and his master bored his ear through with an awl, and ho served him (or ever." Said the preaoher, " 1 had euoh a servant, with suoh a spirit for twenty five years. When I left for New Zealand he followed after me m the next direct Bteamer, and is here worshipping with us this morning. Is not that so, Tom ?" The large assemblage were considerably eleotrified when there came m dear, resonant tonas from a weather-beaten grey-haired man of 60 m one of tho pews the oheery reply, " Yes, sir ? " Evidently Tom knows when he has got a " good thing on."