Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1890. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2330, 16 January 1890, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1890. LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The Marquis of Lome baa made his first essay as a novelise in " A Canadian Love Story," which will shortly appear.

L'lndustrie Parisienne says that in some Frenoh laundries boiled potatoea are preferred to soap for the olaansing of Boiled linen.

Mr P. K. MoCaughan, formerly M.H.R. for Eiyerton, haß made a donation of £150 to the building fund of St. Joseph's Cathedral.

In Gisborne, at the freezing works, Bheep are slaughtered and dressed »c £1 per hundred, and an expert van get through aa many aa eighty in one day.

The " New York Pioneer " says:—The prohibition State of lowa haß paid off her last dollar of State debt, and taxes are now to be reduced one-quarter.

Prinoe Bismarok, in consequence of recent illness, haß lost the few hairs that were on the top of his skull, wfioh is now aa smooth sb a billiard ball.

Many of the new apartment houses being ereoted in London are fifteen Btorieß high. The air at that height is fresh and cool, and is Baid to be like living in the country.

In a few years, sayß Mr Edison, the world will be just like one big ear. It will be unsafe to speak in a house until one has examined tbe walls and furniture for oonoealed phonographs.

The Czar Buffers horribly from his nerves, and is ac times bypoohondriaoal. Tbe Empress is as muoh tortured by nerves aB her husband, and has long periods of intense prostration.

One of the largest shipments of horses that has ever been sent from Australia to India left Melbourne on the 28ch ulc. by the s.s. Bauooora. The shipment ooneiated of no less than 425 head.

PrinoeES Militza of Montenegro reoeived 1,000,000 roublea as a wedding present from the Czar of Russia. Immediately after the wedding she bestowed the whole gift, to be divided among needy inhabitants of Montenegro.

In describing the murder of a man named Jorkins, a reporter thus commented on the event: " The murderer wc.s evidently in quest of money, but luckily Mr Jorkins had deposited all his fundß in the bank the day before, bo that he lost nothing but his life."

" AH the Spanish Ministers have resigned,'' remarked Snagga as he read the evening paper* '* They have received more profitable calls to churohes in other countries," commented Mrs Snagga ; "but what will they do in Spain for preaohers."

Almost all the large houses in Cape Town and other South Afiioan cities and towns are approached by enchanting carriage drives through thick groves of giant palms or other mon'Bter treeß. One of the finest of the groves leads to " Biahop's Court," one of the most ilelightfully situated private residences in Cape Town.

At a special meeting of the Timaru Sohool Committee on Tuesday evening, Mr Blake, ssaond maßter of the Waimate District High Sohool (son of the Rev Mr Blake, of Tinwald), was selected from among four applicants for recommendation for the post of temporary second master—for six months during the head master's leave of absence.

Monsignor Sbrossmayer, the son of an Austrian peasant, who has risen to be Bishop of Diakevatz, has had his property sequestrated by order of the Emperor of AustriaHungary. He is charged with malversation in respect to the revenues of his diocese, the total amount of^the alleged defalcations being £800,000.

A woman in the waiting-room of a railway station the other day bad a great deal of trouble with one of her two ohildren—a boy of seven or eight—and a man who sat near her stood it as long aB possible and then observed; —" Madam, that boy of yours needs the strong band of a father." " Yes I know it,' she replied, " but he can't have it. His father died when he was six years of age, and I've done my best to get ano'her man and failed. He can't have what I can't get."

Farmers and croppers are invited to inepeoj the new steel frame reaper and binder by Howard and Sons, Englißh manufacturers, now on exhibition at Steele's yards, West Street- This machine h built specially to compete with American makers and will be entered at the competition on Monday next at Mr Bonifant'a farm, Wakanui, when Mr Howard, junr,, will be in attendance, and in oharge of the machine.

There are birds that seize and suspend fireflies as chandeliers lor their dwellings. The bottle-nested sparrow, or baya, is one of the kidnappers. Its nest is closely woven like oloth in the form of an inverted bottle, with the entranoe at the:orifice of the neok. It is divided inside into chambers, profoundly dark till lit up by fireflies oaught alive, and mercilessly fixed to the walls or ceiling with pieces of wet olay for soonoes.

The " Press " reports that the other day a stoat, which had reached a homestead at Loburn, caused a commotion in the family of a barnyard hen, whose chickens it killed, and, not satisfied, it sucked the animation out of a few kittens. The old oat sat for a day at tbe hole of the stoat as if meditating revenge, but his stoatship was overtaken and receiyeel summary retribution from a fox terrier. Farmers naturally feel alarmed that tho stoat nuisance is getting nearer the small holdings every day.

Happily it ie seldom that the community iB touohed as it has been this week (writes fho •• £'ftus "of tbe 27th ult) by the terrible mortaltty oi th<3 family of Mr W. fl. Steel, SspecS-Generai C< PabUc Works. A week ago that family was intaofc, but it has been almoßt annihilated by the eoourge of diph. tharia, which on Saturday bore off two fions, on Monday took away a daughter, and on Wednesday proved fatal to the fafher, leaving the mother with one infant.

A young girl named Emma Adams, about sixteen year* of age, met with a frightful accident last week at a hat factory in North Fitzroy. During tbe lunch hour the girl was seated on a length of baiting, detached from the machinery but hanging loosely from its upper pulley, in the carding room. The power shaft was revolving at an ordinary rate of speed, when suddenly the weight of tb.9 girl tightened the belting and caused it to beoome connected with the machinery. She was swiftly carried up to tbe roof, under the upper shaft, and dashed against the rafterß< The machinery waß at onoe stopped and the girl rescued, but it was found that both her legs had been '.severed and her right arm badly fractured. 3ho died shortly after the aooidsnt.

In a vary interesting article recently published by the " Popular Science Monthly " on the •• Directive Faculty in Brutes," the foray of a tribe of monkeys on a field of oorn is described. When they get ready to start on their expedition an old monkey, the leader of the trjbe, with a Btafi in his hand, bo as to stand upright more easily, marches ahead on two legs, thus being more elevated than the others, so as to nee signs of danger more readily. The rest follow him on all tours, ' The leader advances slowly and cautiously, 1 carefully reconnoitering in all directions till tho party arrive at ihe oorn field. He then assigns the .sentinels to their respective' ; aostg. AH being o°W in readiness, the rost of tho tribe ravage and eat to their hearts' content. Wheit *hey retire eaoh pne parries two or three ears of Corn, and from thjs pjroyjsion the Bentinels are regalea C" *neir prrlyajl at tb,ejr lair. Here we ,see ability to rule and a willingness to submit to rule ; a thoughtful preparation of mpans to the end in view and a recognition of the rights of the A^ntinels to be suitably rewarded at the close pf the expedition. Wherein does all this differ from a similar foray of a tribe of savage men ? Tbe only difference that really exists |i in frgtw \ otbeiwlft it ie m& tbe !§oo, '

A child, named Wright, has been killed | near Whangarei, by falling from a cart. i

Owing to the fallimg of a tree, Mrs Erneste, wife of a homestead settler, was killed at Mareretu, her skull being smashed,

At Ober-Ammergau great preparations are being made for the performance of the Passion Flay in 1890.

Mr P. E. MoCaughan has given £50 to a fund whioh is being raised to make a presentation to Inspector Weldon.

Mexico was ravaged for eight days by a blizzard, Twenty thousand sheep and. hundreds of head of cattle perished in the drifts.

A boat aooident ooourred at Mimiha, near Whangarei, on the 12th instant, when a young man named Williams, the owner of the Owai Hotel, was drowned, ;

South Afrioan farmers are greatly annoyed by baboons. The animals kill their sheep, rob their beehives, and tear down their fruit trees.

Sir Monier Williams, in speaking of the over estimate of Buddhism, says:—" It has entirely died out in India proper, the place of its origin, and is rapidly dying out in other Asiatic oountriea."

Abboteford, onoe the resideooe of Sir Walter Soott, is still ao popular a resort that the fees paid by tourists usually exceed £400 a year, so that it ia twioe aa profitable to show the plaoe as to let it, for the rent ia only £200 a year.

At a meeting oalled by the Social Reform Association, Dunedin, it was decided to raise a guarantee fund to defray the cost of a visit from Henry George, who will deliver leotures on land nationalisation. A Committee was appointed for the purpose,

The Tarawera is expeoted baok on Saturday from the Sounds trip, Ihe Beoond excursion on Jan. 20th, and third on Jan. 29th, promises to be a great suooees, both filling up rapidly, and already over eighty pasdengors are booked for eaoh trip.

The Poßtal Department has reoeived an official oable message from the Agent-General in London, stating that, according to latest adyioes to hand from New York, the Australian mails were not destroyed in the train which was wrecked at Nabraeka on Saturday laat.

Vaooination is compulsory in England and optional in France' In large cities in Franoe the number of deaths from smallpox was 1956, or 3*l per 1000 of the living population. In the large oities in England during the came period the number of deaths was 332, or 04 per 1000. Does not this, asks the " Hospital," say something for vaooination 2 :

At tbe Paris Exhibition a Florentine friar shows a watch only a quarter of an inch in diameter. It has not only the two regular bands, but a third, which marks the seoonda, and a miorosoopio dial which indicates the days, weeks, months, and years. It also contains an alarm, and on its front lid or cover an ingeniously oak figure of Bt Francis,

' At Wloolawek, in Poland, a man named Pawiikoweki faas jaat died at the age of 115. He fought through Kosoiusko's wan and through Napoleon I. 'b Russian campaign. He was working in the fields up to last year. His father is said to have lived to the age of 126, and one of his brotherss died at 116, Ha leaves three sisters aged 102, 99, and 93 respectively. Women's rights are imagined to exist only in Christian countries. Uganda, in Central Africa, is sertainly an exception to the rule. Here is a passage in proof from Mr Ache's book on that country—" Sometimes women hoeing near the roadside will oapture a passer by, and on pain of a severe castigation or of cobbing him, will make him take a turn while they have a smoke."

The weekly session of the Star of the East Lodge, 1.0.&. T., was held in the Templar Hall last evening. Tbe Lodge was opened at 7.45, Bro Edwards, presiding. Three new members were initiated into the Order, and four proposed for membership, and a considerable amount of business was transacted, the lodge being closed in due form at 10 O'clock.

The "Napier Telegraph " says a day or two ago a resident in Munroe Street waa delighted to find that his little terrier had returned home, after an absence of about six months. Its owner had gone on board one of the Union boats, to see a friend off to Sydney, and the dog, which had followed his master, was forgotten. Master terrier travelled to Sydney, and waa seen on the wharves there. How he got baok to New Zealand nobody knows, but from his emaciated appearance and sore feet it is evident he trotted overland from Wellington.

Prinoe Christian, the eldest eon of the Grown Prince of Denmark, who is at present serving this year in the ranks of the common soldiers, is the tallest Prinoe in Europe. Heretofore the Emperor of Eussia has had this honor, but Prinoe Christian, as was disosvered during the Czar's recent trip to Fredensborg, U several inches taller than that monarch. When the Emperor was reoeived at the station bis regiment was ordered as the guard of honor and Prinoe Christian was obliged to "present arms" while the rest of his family greeted the Emperor. The only mark which distinguished the future King from among the peasants about him was the Maximilian decoration which he wore on his breast.