LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2891, 6 February 1893, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Firemen are reminded that the annual meeting of the Fire Brigade is to be held to-morrow evening in the Brigade's room at seven o'clock. A well-known Covent Garden fruit firm have cabled out £50,000 to be devoted to the purchase of Taemanian fruit for shipment to England during this season. One of the candidates who have just passed pare of the solicitors' 1 w examination is the constable who is orderly to the Wellington Resident Magistrate's Court. The " Kumar* Times " says ;--" The great feature in Wcstland this year is the remarkable yield of apples and other fruit. Some of the gardens on the main road to Hokitika contain trees which have to be carefully propped, so heavy is the weight chey carry." Daring his visit to B'enheim the Hon Mr Seddou btated that the general election may be expected to take place in October or November next, as the present Parliament expires by tfflixion of time on Dacember 5. It is rumoured in Wellington th*t the " CUthoHc Times" will shortly find its mission, and be converted into a weekly secular journal after the style of the Sydney " Bulletin " —a long way after. Th* approximate average value of a bale of Colonial' wool for the year 1592 is commuted in London at £l£ as against £13 los in 1891, £U 15s in 1890, and £15 10s in 1889. The principle of encouraging local in(iusiry was affirmed b/ the Auckland City Council when a recommendation from a committee to obtain parts of machinery from England was rejected in favour of calling tenders for their local manufacture. Provisional specifications have been accepted at the Patent Office from James Keir, of Ashburton, machinist, and James Fraser, of Christshurojv fitter, for an invention for an improved windmill, to be called" The Keir-Fraser Windmill." Letters patent have been sealed for a road cart, the invention of Mr J. A. Berg.

There was an attraction at the Napier Caledonian Sport*, says the " Telegraph," in the shape of a Maori in a kilt—an unsophisticated individual who thought Scotchmen's attire could not be beaten for airiness and simplicity. He was the cynosure of all eyes, and confidingly said to a friend, "Me Mac Wiremu today.' In the Masterton Licensing case to which we referred a few days ago, it appears that the local reporter and not the R.M. was at fault,,.. Colonel Roberts gave no judgment on the points raised by counsel for the licensee who was summoned, but decided on the bare question of Sunday trading that the evidence was not conclusive on the point, and therefore dismissed the information. It doe 3 not appear to be generally known that, under " Tv« Servants rßegistry Offices Act, 1892," i|Js incumbent on all persons conducting suph offices to make application to the local authority for a license under the Act. The Act came into operation on January 1. The applications have to be accompanied by certificates of character and ability to conduct such a business, and the certificates must bear the signature of a Resident Magistrate. / It is said more will be held «of tfce stallion tax which Mr Richie, the Chief Inspector of Stock was desirious of introducing last session with a view of weeding out the undesirable class of stallions whioh are effecting the deterioration of stock in many districts. Country settlers in various parts of the eclony are becoming moie reconciled to the idea, and more satisfied as to its utility. There was a cold snap in the back country on Thursday night (says the "Oamaru Mail) the frost being particularly severe for the second time this" week. We hear that at Station Peaks 700 or 800 sheep were lost on Tuesday night, owing to the ovld rain. They had been turnod out off the shearing machines, and a large number were breeding ewes. The machines, after all are not an unmixed blessing, as they stiear so close as to leave the sheep absolutely unprotected against any sudden change in the weather. The apprehension that wai fait on Saturday morning that more stacks than those of Messrs White and Storey had been fired, proved to be only too well grounded, six stacks of, wheat the property of Mr H. G. Harrison, Doric, being aUo burned. No clue has yet been obtained of the incendiaries, but it is almost certain, from the distance apart of the fires and their occurrence cimoat simultaneously, that more than one fire-raiser has been at work Mr Leonard White's five large oat stacks destroyed were last year's crop, Mr J. Storey "s five stacks were this year's oats. There was no insurance in any of the cases. Mr Joyce, M.H.K., informs the "Daily Times " that the North Canterbury Education Board have been takine evidence as to *he present methoda of scftoql inspection. ISome of the Board are opposed to placing the inspector* ucdeV the control of the Education Department at Wellington, believing that the blots: on the present system could best be removed by'holding a biennial con'fetence of ajl the inspectors in the colony, to be presided over by theJnspector-General; The head-masters rof 'the large schools in and around Christchurch approve of th'<S proposal to hold these conferences, and Sppoif ,the contralisatioo of the control of iuspitftorij