The Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1891. LOCAL AND GENERAL

Ashburton Guardian, Volume X, Issue 2353, 14 April 1891, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 1891. LOCAL AND GENERAL

An Auckland telegram states that the brood marc My Idea, dam of Nelson, died on Sunday. When Tennyson's grandfather was told that his grandson had made a volume of poems, he only remarked that he would sooner have heard that he had made a wheelbarrow. The Canterbury A. and P. Association had before them on Monday the question of diseased meat. There was some difference of opinion as to the prevalence of disease among catt'e, and consideration of the subject was deferred till next meeting. Frisky, the smart pony by Mr L. Markey's The Chief, who was bought lor £1210s after running unsuccessfully m a, selling hack race at Ashburton, and subsequently found her way to Australia and then to India, won the principal race at the Lucknovv Spring Meeting iv February. Why Amazons fight better than the regular male soldiery is explained by one who was captured by the French m a battle last spring. Each woman is promised a mile square m heaven, three husbands, and all the fish and honey she needs, and the satisfaction of killing an enemy once a week. An Indian paper says that the high-priest of Buddhists m Ceylon has given his sanction to forming a cremation company. He says that " there are no objections either religious or other, to the adoption of the practice of cremation by Buddhists m general. It would be simply a revival of a custom universal among our ancestors." The "Press "hears that the prohibition party intend contesting the Spreydou Licensing District unless the candidates nominated by the other side will give a promise to close, the Star Hotel, Addington. As it is intended to close the other hotels m Sydcnham, they consider the Star Hotel is too close to the district to be allowed to remain. An active prohibition crusade is being prosecuted m the northern wards of the city of Christchurch. Charles James, a little boy who was kicked by a horse on the Lyttelton bridle path some four weeks ago, died on Sunday night. The operation of trepanning was successfully performed on him, and a part of the brain which was protuding through the forehead was also removed. However, the shock to the system was too great for him to bear against. The census returns for the Geraldine town district show that there is a population of 391 males and 402 females ; total 793. Of 162 dwellings m the town, only six are uninhabited, and there are six tumble-down old tenements, some of which have not been lived m for years. Things m Geraldine must be on the mend. Large sums were made by the owners of lake:-! m England who charged for skating during the prolonged frost. A local skating club rents the forty acres of Wimbledon lake for £30 a year, taking* the riak whether the winter proves mild or severe. Skaters were charged Is per head on ordinary days, and 2a on Saturdays and Sundays, and during the long frost the club is said to have netted £10,000. The Sydney "Bulletin".'states that Mr J. Syuie received from his uncle David Syme, between £147,000 and £200,000 for his share —something like one-seventh—of the Melbourne "Age." David Syme is now sole proprietor, and places his son Herbert m his nephew's place as manager of the "Age's" commercial interests. If this severance of partnership be based on solid values, the "Age" may bo accounted worth from £1,000,000 to £1,400,000 as a one-maii property. The daily circulation of the "Age" averages over 100,000 copies, brobaoly a few thousands more than the total circulation of any four Sydney dailies taken together. An extraordinary surgical operation has been performed at Chicago. A member of the brotherhood known as the Knights Templars had been operated upon for cancer, and a wound nearly a foot square was left. The doctors m attendance on him declared that if their patient was to recover the wound must be covered with new human skin. Thereupon 132 members of the brotherhood volunteered to submit to an operation, which should consist of the removal of a small strip of skin from their arms, so that it might be transferred to the wound of their comrade. This operation was duly performed. The majority of the self' Sacrificing Knights Templars bore the surgeon's knife without flinching, but several of them fainted. Quite a number of premises m Dunedin were burglariously enteredon Saturday evening or Sunday morning. At Sparrow and Co's foundry on Saturday night, Mr Sparrow returned to his office about 8.30 just m time to disturb the burglars who escaped by a side window. Drawers had been pulled about, and the burglars did not get any thing, but were evidentally busy at the safe when disturbed, as ifc was m the middle of the floor, and m another quarter of an hour it would have been opened. It contained £30. Mr Joseph Sparrow's office, near the wharf was also entered, but though every thing was turned over no money was found. The New Zealand Implement Company's works m Castle street were entered and £15 taken from a drawer which was broken open with a sledge hammesr The premises of Mr'A. Burns, agent for Wood's binder, were a^so broken open but nothing was taken. A surgeon practising m the Doncaster Parliamentary Division of the West Riding of Yorkshire vouches for the accuracy of the following : C. A. male, aged 78, consulted me m November last. This is his verbatim statement: "Twelve months ago I gave evidence against Mary Anne Tinker at an inquest on her husband. After it was over she told me she would do my business for me and she said, 'You will never be the man you were no more. The first time she attacked me she took me by the back part of tneneck and driv' me across the house—l had a house of my own then. I could not see her, but I knew it was her. Some weeks back she wrote me dreadful, I could not keep a limb still or anything m me, I found she had travelled to Rotterdam then, She often pinches my hands, but not to hurt. She puts wind into me, She puts it into me by blowing into something she has made. She sends things into the room I sleep m, I can't see 'era, but I hear 'em. They hop about, from 10 o'clock till 12 o'clock at night or 1 m the morning ; they go like this 'flop—flop—flop —flop—.' That is when she is blowing into my bowels. I saw your assistant some months ago; and after that she took it off tor a time. She is a witch, and a proper witch, but how she do it, the dear Lord only knows; I don't." For the credit of education, be it said, this old man was never at school, and can neither read, nor write.