LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1432, 24 November 1885, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Temuka Monthly Stock Salk.—-Mr K. F. Gray announces that he is now booking entries for this sale, which tikes place on Friday next. Postponement op Sale.— Mr K. F. Gray adveitises that- the sale of Mr J. Harrop’s household furniture, etc., has been postponed for a fortnight. Cleaeiks Sale at Geealdink. —ln another column will be found the particulars of the live and dead stock to be sold for Mr Wm, Young on Wednesday, 2nd December, by Messrs J. Mundell and Co. The lonic. —Shaw, Savill and Albion Company’s steamship lonic sailed from Lyttelton on Saturday, at 2.45 p.m., for London, via Bio. She has taken away a Urge cargo of colonial produce, and is & full ship. Gebaldinb Dairy Factory.— The daily supply of milk to this factory reached a total of 700 gallons at the end of last week, and it is expec.ed that fully 100 gallons more will be received daily during the coming week. The Wool Season. —The railway authorities have reduced the freight on wool from Temuka to Timaru to Is per bale. Farmers and others will be glad to hear of the concession, slight as it is. Social Purity Movement.— The Rev. T. A. Hamilton will deliver an address to men only (persons above the age of 16) in St. Saviour’s Church, Temuka, to-night at half-past seven o’clock, on the social purity movement. The movement is making great headway in Christchurch and other large centres in the colony, and is said to be doing much good. Lkotubb. The Rev. Geo. Barclay’s lecture at Geraldine on Sunday evening was very well attended. The subject chosen — “ Chapters in Church History,” was a resume of a few of the chief incidents in the early days of the Reformation in Switzerland. As this subject would furnish material for a number of lectures, Mr Barclay only lightly touched upon a few lead ing points, in order to give his hearers a conception of the nature of the work and the characters of some of the reformers. The audience were very attentive and manifested great interest throughout. Nabbow Escape. —The Temuka Presbyterian Church had a narrow escape from being destroyed by fire on Sunday evening last. At a quarter to six o’clock, Mr Phillips, the caretaker of the Church, was engaged in lighting the lamps in the large chandelier in the centre of the Church when it fell to the floor. The kerosene was scattered about the aisle, and some of the lamps being alight at the time it was soon ablaze. Mr Philips, with great promptness, however, took off his coat and beat out the fire, all danger being over in a very short space of time. The cause of the accident was a simple one. The rod by which the chandelier is suspended from the roof is in two parts, one part being screwed into the other. There is also a swivel at the top, but this did not work easily, and as the parts screwed together were not secured by a pin, they gradually became unscrewed when the lamps were lit and extinguished, and on Sunday evening they parted company altogether. Yesterday steps were taken to remedy the defect in the chandelier and there is now no possibility of a similar mishap again occurring. S.O. Salbyabds Co. —The annual meeting of the shareholders of the South Canterbury Saleyards Company, Washdyke, was held on Saturday, about 25 being present, Mr Balfour occupied the chair. The report stated that since the first sale in March last there have been passed through the yards 9 horses, 1148 head of cattle, 32,205 sheep, and 248 pigs, the fees for which amounted to £BBl6s Id. The number of sheep put through the dip to 3lst October last was 10,380, yielding £7B 19s in fees gross. The Directors were of opinion that the scale of fees charged was too low to allow i fair dividend to shareholders upon their capita], and recommended that the sales should be held weekly instead of fortnightly. The Directors had decided not to recommend a dividend this yen. The balance-sheet showed a balance to profit and loss account of £92 16s 3d. The report and* balance-sheet were adopted. Messrs Groy and Chas. Bowker were elected Director*, and Mr J. W. Cook was appointed auditor for the ensuing year, the renumeration to be £5, If. was decided to hold the next annual meeting on the last Saturday in October 1880 the books to be closed on IheSO'h September of the same year, and the meeting terminated. The Wealth or the Queen. The statement having been made at a gathering of Kentish Liberals that the Queen has laiely invested £1,000,000 in the purchase of ground-rents in the City of London, Major Ross, M.P., communicated with Her Majesty’s private secretary on the subject, and has received the following reply:—“Aix lea Baines, September 18ib. My dear Ross,— There is no foundation for the statement that the Queen has purchased ground-rents in the City of London. You may make any use you please of the above contradiction. The Queen has bought nothing and possesses nothing in the City of London. 1 She has invested no money in groundrents, and she does not possess a million to invest. I refer, of course, solely to ‘ the Queen ’ as an individual, ‘ The Crown’ is another matter. The Crown lands are for the time being in the hands of the Commissioners of the Woods and Forests for the benefit of the nation, and their proceedings are annually reported to Parliament, I hare not got the Blue Book here. A reference to it would show if any of the funds of the woods and forests were invested in ground-rents. I should think this was most improbable At any rate none of the Queen’s money is so, or has ever been so, invested. Yours very truly, Henry Ponsonbt.”

The Ashburton School. —At this school the annnal examination has just been held. The number of children presented was 195, of whom 119 passed, the percentage being 61. Obituary. — We learn that Mr G. C. Williams, who is well-known in South Canterbury, having followed the business of saddler in Timaru, Winchester, and Geraldine, died at'Christohuroh on Friday evening. Mr Williams was a Mason, and was Master for several years of Lodge Southern Star, Geraldine. He was buried with Masonic honors on Sunday. Drought in Austbalia, —Reports of the prevailing drought from parts of the NorthWestern interior of New South Wales ore appalling. No rain has fallen since tbs beginning of April, and stock are dying in thousands. The Baron and Nnmoi rivers have dried into a chain of waterholes, and stations carrying from 80,000 to 200,000 have removed every hoof. The present prospects are terrible, and cattle are dying everywhere, A Big Cauliflower. —The Taieri Advocate says We pride ourselves on the fertility of Taieri soil. We can grow gooseberries, carrots, turnips, etc, of enormous size, but the Bruce Herald man has caught a cauliflower that we have never seen equalled. He says that “Dressed for the pot, it measures 4ft in circumference, and weighs I7ilbs.” We console ourselves a little with the fact that we have a • ben that laid an egg the other day that weighed within a fraction of a quarter of a pound, but wo shall not be happy until a Taieri man grows a cauliflower to beat the one mentioned above. BatbinNkw Zealand. —Ten years ago Archdeacon Stock told us of the existence of a large bat in New Zealand, and others may have done so since. The rev. gentleman wrote;—“ln 1874, at half-an-hour after sunset, and moon at full, I saw at Faikakariki a large bat, It flew across about 20 feet, and was about that distance from me. I saw it perfectly. The body was far larger than that of a mouse, and somewhat smaller than an ordinary rat. The spread of the wings was certainly not less than 18 inches. The late Rev. Mr Taylor informed me he had seen a similar sized bat at Wanganui.” Scandalmongsbs.— The Bruce Herald, writing on the subject of scandal-mongers, says : —No language is sufficiently strong wherewith to describe the detestable character of these venomous gossips. But there is another side to the question. There must be talebearers as well as talebearers. Were there not a large number only too glad to li ten to scandal, those who delight in telling it would soon get tired. The only effectual cure for such a state of affairs would be the revival of an old law which has been in abeyance since the time of Elizabeth. According to that law both the talebearer and the talebearer were adjudged worthy of death, and on the offence being proved might be sentenced to be hung, the talebearer by his tongue and the talebearer by his ear. The Aspirate in Victorian Schools.— Inspector A. C. Curlewis, of thi; Victorian Education Department, in a recent report, remarks on the serious want of attention paid to the pronunciation of the aspirate in most of the State schools of that colony, " The children,” he says, “ drop their h’s without correction, and in some cases the teachers set them the example. From the Cockney gand Cornish, the disease has spread to the Scotch and Irish. We are in a fair way of becoming a nation without an hin our vocabulary. From the average choir you will be pretty sure te hear 1 'eaven ’ and ‘ ’ ’ell ’ and £ ’oly, ’oly, ’oly.’ The average porter shouts out ‘ ’Awthorn’ and ‘ ’Awksbury,’ and the average cabman £ Emerald ’ill.’ There are other weak points in Victorian pronunciation, but this, I think, is the worst.” A Large Model. —There is now to be seen in shop formerly occupied by Messrs Nelson, Moato and Co., in High street, Christchurch, (says the Press) an object very interesting to most New Zealander*. It is a model of the Now Zealand Shipping Company’s steamship Kaikoura, one of the finest of their fine fleet of direct steamships. The model, which has only recently arrived from Home, was made by Messrs Elder and Co., the great contractors who have built the Kaikoura and so many other noble vessels. It is 12ft long, and the tallest of its three mast* reaches about 4ft from the keel. In the minutest particular it is an exact miniature of the Kaikoura, and it cost some £3OO of £4OO to make. All the brass work is exactly reproduced, and polished to perfect lustre, the boats, masts, rigging, anchors, screw, propeller, gangways, and all the other parts of the vessel are most delioately finished, the decks are made of little tongued and grooved planks, and even the painting is scrupulously correct, and long lines of round portholes showing out from the black, which covers the side of the vessel above the water-line. The shop where the model is will no doubt attract a good many visitors, even in Christchurch, where the direct steamers have long been known and admired. Afterwards the Company intend to exhibit the model in Melbourne and Sydney, where the direct steamers have of course never been seen ; and the appearance of the model is expected to send hither a large number of tourists. We understand th«t Dr. von Haast has offered space for rhe model in the Museum, but it is not decided whether it will find its ultimate resting-place there. The Museum certainly seems a very suitable place for an object which recalls so forcibly (he completeness with which the colony has secured for itself the most valued triumphs of civilisation. Good fob Babies.—" We are pleased to ■ay that our baby wai permanently cured of a serious protracted irregularity of the bowels by the use of American Co.’s Hop Bitters by its mother, which at the same time restored her to perfect health and strength.”— hb Fabbhts. See Adyt. Don’t Du in thb Houib.—" Sough on Bate ” clears out rats, mice, beetles, roaches bed bugs, flies, anti, insects, moles, jack rabbits, gophers. Kempthorne, Prosier and 00., Christchurch. 1 SYNOPSIS OF ADVERTISEMENTS. ,£ White Cross Army”—Address by Rev. T. A. Hamilton on the Social Purity Movement in St. Saviour’s Church, Temuka, tonight. J. Mundell and Co.—Publish particulars of Mr Wm. Young’s clearing sale of live and dead farming slock at the Geraldine Saleyards on the 2nd December. K. F. Gray—Holds monthly stock sale at Temuka on Friday next, and is now booking entries; notifies that the sale of Mr J. Harrop’e furniture, etc., has been postponed for a fortnight, Allan and Velvin—Notify that thov have dissolved partnership. Mr J. W. Yelvin will carry on the business, and will pay all moneys owing by, and receive ail money’s owing to, the late firm. ,