LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2907, 24 February 1893, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Th? Lake ifotay fcb Begeatta produced a loss of £57. Prince Charles of Bavaria, who i« 19 years old having been forbidden by his grandfather to marry a ballet girl, has caused a sensation by running away with her. A member of the Timaru School Committee has stated that nine out of every ten teachers appointed there were appointed through favouriti m. A Maori who went to the Hawera race 3 struck three big dividends, but had his pockets picked of the money, and also a £iiooo land debenture. It is stated that Messrs Nelson Brothers ' nave purchased fch£ business of the Christ-1 church Meat Company, including the Jslimjton Freezing Works.

The Canterbury Acclimatisation Society ' has decided to recommenlthe Government to forward nil th 9 salmon ova expec ed to arrive in the colony shortly, to Otago and .Southland for distribution. The Government Statistician estimates that on December 31,1892, the population of New South Wales was 1,197,050 person?, of whom 640*378 were males and 650,672 were females. The total cost oi the education system of New South Wales, taking a credit for the £70,000 from school fees, was under £800,000 a year, and as the number of children in ti.e public schools at the end of 1892 was 210,641, the cost per head per annum was under £3 10s. All musicians will learn with regret that it has been found necessary to shut up the celebrated piauikt Hans yon Billow in a lunatic asylum at Paukow, in the environs of Berlin. For some time past Hans yon Biilow had shown signß of mental derangement. Mr Sawle let off with a caution to-day a man who had not been drunk for two years. Mr Hawle was lenient with him as he promised with great earnestness , to never j get drunk any more, and go straight off to a job that was to last all the winter. Sir Edward Watkins proposes, if ever he gets the channel tunnel cut through, to run trains direct from London to Gibraltar, transfers carriages by boat to Tangier, and thence along the north coast of Africa, through Egypt, down the Persian Gulf to Kurrachee, and so on to Calcutta, without change of carriages. As a sample of the style in which the public service ot New South Wales has been carried on, it may b? mentioned that the cost of the paper and envelope in every official letter was 3d. The embossed stamp on the envelope wan gilt, and the paper was of the richest quality. Now, however, retrenchment is the order of the day, and very common paper and envelopes are u«ed. The case is reported by the Nelsc 11 " Colonist" of a milkman who, at the time of the earthquake, as he was about to supply a customer, looked up and saw five chimneys falling, and his horse became so frightened hat it bolted with the cart. Generally the effect upon animals, etc., seems to have been to have filled them with fear, and some newly introduced swans showed unmistakeable alarm. Fair average RivewPlate sheep can at present be laid down at a cost of less than 2Jd per lb ex ship in England, that price including all freezing expenses, freight, and insurance, so that Australian shippers must prepare themselves for a lower range of values than hitherto they have deemed a minimum in the London market. This Argentine mutton is the closest rival Australian h is. The following figures will be interesting as showing the quantity of colonial wool imported into the United Kingdom during 1892 by the Undermentioned firms:— Messrs Dalgety and Co., Limited, 119,000 bales; the- New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, 115,000 ; Messrs Saunderson, Murray, and Co., 99,500; the Australian Mortgage, Land, and Finance Company, 88,000; Baok of New South Wales, 59,000; and the Union Mortgage and Agency Company of Australia, 57,030 bales The " Rangitikei Adupcate " reports tha* a discovery was recently made in the Ponkiore bush, which offers scope for any amount of romantic conjectures. Someone was under-scrubbing in the heart of the bush there., when the slasher struck a metallic substance hidden by the leaves and soil, which, on being turned up^, proved to be a part of the copper sheathing 61 a ship's bottom. The point at which it was found is estimated at about fifty miles from the coast, and is in the heart of a large area of dense bush, and the problem is haw it came there. It is said that very extensive improvements are in progress on some oi the largest land estates in Hawkp's Bay. The estates of Mr Purvis Russell (Woodburn) and of Mr Sydney Johnston (Oiuawhare) are referred to as special instauc.es. It is affirmed that these and other large es.tAtes.will.be subdivided so as to exclude them from the operation of the progressive land tax and bring them within the lir.provemeht and exemption clauses of the Land Tax Bill. The Government claims these facts as proofs of the efficacy of their land policy, and v being really in conformity with the intention of tho Ministry which led up to the initiation aud passing of the new land laws of the colony. It is also stated that there is an increasing demand for land in Hawke's Bay. The establishment of dairy factories in the district, at Norsewood and Maharahara, has contributed greatly'to the prosperity of the district, which requires subdivision of large estates into grazing blocks of convenient area. & very pretty squabble was lately in progress at Chicago between the local hotel proprietors and the managers of the different railway lines centering on the World's Fair city. A public meeting was called by the citizens to urge upon the railway companies the issue of cheap tickets to the World's Fair this year. The most prominent speakers at this meeting were some of the hotel -keepers—and these men had a great deal to say about " tho duty of citizens to make the fair a grand success." The railway officials at once offered to make a reduction in their regular rate of thirty per cent if the hotel-keepers would reduce their charges twenty per cent. But this was carrying the patriotism business a littl« too far to suit the money loving "hosts" of Chicago, and without one exception they treated this counter proposition as a piece of of impertinence, saying they intended to manage their own business in their own way, and charge what they liked. As one individual tersely put it, "I'm not in business for my health, and I ain't running for Congress." And the railway officials said "that jf $his patriotic sauce is not good for both' railway goose and hotel gander, they will not make any reduction in rates.