The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1889. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2310, 20 December 1889, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1889. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

' The overland telegraph line to Fort Darwin is interrupted. It is calculated that flax will figure m oar list of exports this year as worth nearly £400.000. Mr Ediaoa told the, reporter of the , " Illustrated News ' m London that he receives an average of 1000 letters daily, many of whioh oontain offers of marriage with his daughter. Mr E. Goad will preach at the We3leyan Ohuroh on Sunday morning. An announcementaato the services appear m our advertising columns. The funds oolleoted on behalf of the popular Bports and friendly sooietieß' demonstration at Ohristohuroh on Anniversary Day amount' to over £900. The , attention of the polioe having been oalled to the fact that Zola's works were sold m Ohriatohuroh, it is believed that proceed* ings will be taken against certain booksellers m oonßequeaoe. . Oapt Norman, of the barque Otago, which recently put m disabled, was on Thursday presented with a testimonial signed by sixty of the leading residents of Lyttelton, expressing their appreciation of the Bkill shown by him daring tba trying time whioh the vessel has passed through* Mr Ollivier has selected the following players to represent Canterbury m the oaioket match against Wellington :— E. P. Barnes, E. J. Ootterill, W. J. Ootterill, H. Demans, O. W. Garrard, R. Harman, A. H. Labatt, G. Marshall, A. E. Moss, G. Rayner, T. W. Reese. E. J. Ootterill has been elected oaptain. The proposals of the British Government for fortifying Thursday Island and King George's Sound have been reoeived by the New Zealand Government. The contributions it is proposed to take from eaoh colony are specified. England bears the larger share of the expense. New Zealand's quota will be small. The fleaond aeries of Ghristohuroh wool sales opened on Thursday afternoon. About 9000 baleß were offered. There was a good demand for superior wools, but not so much for inferior sorts. The^ptioes obtained were m most cases equal to those of last aeries. Crossbred wools realised 9d to 10£ d, halfbred 9d to Is Id, merino, B£d to 9&d, looks 2Ji to 4|d, pieces 3d to 6d. An individual who was a clerk m the India House with Charles Lamb and John Stuart Mill haß just died at Ventnor, and his demise iB worth recording beoause he had enjoyed a handsome pension for 54 years, haviDgbeen allowed to retire "" m consequence of- broken health," m 1835 ! It would be interesting to peruße the medioal oertifioate upon whioh this worthy man was pensioned off. Says the " Honolulu Bulletin " of a few weeks ago:— " Professor Sauntley, a distinguished English professional singer, passed through per the Zealandia, bound from the colonies to America," This •' personal par " evidently refers to Santley Olampett, on his way rejoicing to 'Frißoo from New Zealand with his pookets stocked with the wherewithal to make a start m the States as a " distinguished English vocalist." On Thursday morning John WilkinEon.aged 68, postmaster at Wainui, an experienced boatman, and John Neligan, aged 40, formerly a lawyer's clerk, left Akarca for Wainui m a dingy. A squall arose, and they put bapk. They were advised not to venture out again, but started at about noon. A squall upset I the boat. Wilkinson, who was a good swimmer, got on the bottom of the boat and was pioked up muoh exhausted. Neligan's body was washed ashore near Wainui. Both men were unmarried. < Writes the "Dunedin Star's" London Bpeoial : — Mr Owen Joneß has returned from his visit to Canada. Like the Agent-General he reports that there is praotioally now an unlimited market m the States for New Zealand flax, provided the fibre be really good, It cannot, however, be too frequently or too foioibly Impressed on producers that it is of the utmost oonsequenoe to select their leaves carefully, and send only good fibre. The labour of such selection will pay itßelf over and over again m the enhanced prioe. Mrs Hoffman, of Brooklyn, has just had a new noße made for her at the Long Island College Hospital. The bridge of her nose had been destroyed by disease. The surgeon raised the skin that formerly covered it and divided it lengthwise, and then inserted a breastbone just removed from a live ohioken, with the oartiiigenouß filament and periosteum adhering to it. The skin waß then drawn over the bone and sewed, and the doctor thinks that m a short time Mrs Hoffman's nose will be as good as anybody's. The " Amerioan Manufacturer " says: — The Pittsburg Seduction Company haß been for some time making aluminium under the patents of Charles M. Hall, of Oberlin, Ohio. The process is one whereby the metal iB reduced directly from its oxide by eleotrolysis. The oxide is dissolved m a bath of fused metallic fluorides, and is then decomposed into aluminium and oxygen by means of an eleotrio current, the bath remaining unchanged, more Deing added as $bp process of reduction goes o«, thua making the prooess a continuous as well as a direot one. The works have been running successfully fiinoe November, 1888, and have a oapaoity of 50 pounds of aluminium per day. The prooess has been kept a iseoret jjctil a few daya ago, J when the patents were issued. There never wajLJßjime v seTn&pß, wtorOo" -IBtSy^royal' personages performed upon musical instruments. Her Majesty the Queen and the Princess Louise are skilful organists, the Prinoe of Wales play upon the babjo, and the Princess, m spite of her deafness, is a clever pianist. The Duke oi Edinburgh, it is < well knoven, is muoh attached to the fiddle ; and the Duke cf Connaught spends a good dea) of time m o with his flute ; while Prinoe Henry of Battenberg iB said to produoe extarordinary efieots by means of an ivory comb covered with tissue paper. The Gssar of Russia excels on the oornet & piston ; King George of Greece practices on a peal of hand-bolls and a rook harmonidon ; the Empress of Austria is an Booomplished zither player ; and Elizabeth of Boumania Bhines bb a harpist. The Melbourne papers of the sth inst. published the following cablegram : — " The death is announced of the Hon. Henry William Petre, brother of the late and uncle of the present Lord Petre." Henry William, second son of the eleventh Baron Petre. of Thorndon Hall, Brentwood, Essex, was born m 1820; was appointed Commissioner of Inquiry into Crown Lands and Immigration m Canada, 1838, under Lord Durham's Administration, and Colonial Treasurer of New Munster, New Zealand, m 1847; was Postmaster-General of New Zealand, 1853; and was appointed to the Legislative Oounoil a year later. He as also Deputy-Lieutenant of Essex. Mt- Petre left New Zealand with his family m 1855. His eldest son returned to the colony m 1872, sinoe wbioh time he has resided m Dunedin. He has also another son at Greymoutb, m the employ of the Midland Railway Company. The " Auckland Herald's " American correspondent writes: — The treaty job hatched m Honolulu last aumme* 1 , whioh had for its object a commercial arrangement which would be equivalent to the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States, received a very eotd reception m this country. The press is generally opposed to the extension of the United States' domaio, particularly m this direction, and there is' every prospect that the matter haß been aqoorded about all the attention that will be given it . The soheme originated m the Amerioan colonies m the islands, but it is strongly opposed by the Hawaiinas. One clause m the treaty haj) aroused the interest of the British Government. A cablegram from London states that m view of the proposed " treaty of oommeroe ' between the United . States and Hawaii, a move has been made by the British Foreign Offioe for a treaty between England and Hawaii- The Britien Consul Hbb been instructed to .oppose the Amer/can Company's efforts to obtain exolu--^•oefteippfl to land and cables, and to pusVthe inter;:?* ol *&&&»&* ' Rough en Catarrh.— Corrects offeu o \ svc odors at once. Complete cure of worst chronic s m a Bl6 ' 88 mef ° "" W'*™,

•' Light or dark blue, gray, brown, bottlegreen, purple and lijlao" dress poata with metal or brasß buttons, are beooming the rage m London. Nominations for the vanoanoy on the Mount Soraers Boad Board, oaused by the resignation of Mi- Harrison, will be reoeived at the Boad Board Cffioe, Mount Bomers, up to noon of J Friday, 27th instant* Mr W. K. Vanderbilt'a steam yacht Ava is said to be the handsomest and most perfectly appointed pleasure boat m the world. She cost £120,000, and the cost of running he ia said to be about £30,000 r year. An old gentleman has just passed away at the village of Deering, St Jamaa, near Spalding, Lincolnshire, who had had five 1 wives, and who buried the last of them aP month prior to his own disease. He lived to'J be eighty five years of age. Subscriptions to the Ouseley Memorial Fund already exoeed £3000. A Bpeoial service was held last month at Chester Cathedral m aid of the fund, at whioh Mendelssohn's"9th Psalm" was performed with full orohestra. ! At Indianapoliß, Robert Marvel, aged eighty five, has died after fasting sixty Beven days. He drank nob more than one gallon of milk during that period, and he was reduoed to a skeleton. The fatal result was brought about by apoplexy and paralysis. His fast is Btated to be the loogest on reoord. The Marquis de Gaux, whose death has been announced by oable was married to Adelina Patti, the well-known pritna dmna, at Ohapham, London, m May 1868. Patti obtained a divorce m 1883, and m 1886 I married Signor Nioolinl, who has for many ! years taken tenor parts m her operatic performances. The " Canterbury Times " for the present week is a splendid number, containing besides the ordinary weekly ibudget a oapital Christmas supplement, m whioh will be found the prize tales, the prize Jubilee poem, some very interesting liaes on "Farming m tha Future," by G. P. Williams; a Maori story, by Colonel MoDonnel } and lots of other interesting matter; also an amusing lithograph appropriate^ the season. Considerable damage is being done to all vegetable gardens m Pahiatua (says the Star") by a dark caterpillar. All kinds of orops are being attacked, especially onions and potatoes, and this pest bids fair to oompletely destroy the prospeots of many. Mr J. D. Wilson planted a quarter of an aorc m onions, whioh were looking well until the caterpillar commenced operations, now there is hardly an onion left. "Captain" William Jackson Barry is making headway m Tasmania. At Hobart the other day ho lectured to a fashionable audienoe, having his Worship the Mayor m the ohair. The leoture was enlivened by the gallant oaptain's recital of his adventures on a whale, and some very ohoioe selections orr the Town Hall organ by Mr jL-Mangham Barnett, organist of St. Davfd's Cathedral, Oapt W; 3. Barry ir compiling a work to be entitled " The Australian Colonists and Men •I the Times."