LOCALAND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2859, 28 December 1892, Page 2

LOCALAND GENERAL.

A Ballarat photographer was fined 10s for " taking " a football team on Sunday. The Queensland oftjcial trustee q'f insolvency has filed his own schedule. It is estimated that to compensate Sydney publicans on any of the schemes proposed to be incorporated in the new local Option Bill will mean an expenditure of, at the least, £3,500,000. In Japan if a woman is not married by a certain age, the authorities pick out a man, whom they compel her to marry. Tliis may Keep down tke %ld niajds, but it increases the number of male suicides, T he Victorian Secretary for Agriculture is in receipt of a letter from the Government of India slating that the number of imported horses suitable for army purposes which it ig $.ntioiEate4 will be required during 1*893-04 will be Js;|s, ' The following postal appointments are gazetted:—T. P. Fernian, postmaster at phertsey, October 31 ; A. A. Campbell, postmaster at Mount Somers, October 27 ; H. jSneight, postmaster at Riverside (Wakanui), January f, }592, Riverside to be a post office troni January }, 18t)3,

A man is charged in London with'a, iiovel mode of theft. He is alleged to have driven along the streets while his collie dog snatched umbrellas from pedestrians, ana then ran after the vehicle with the stolen property in its mouth, When arrested six umbrellas are said to have been found in the cart.

A chairman of a school committee in the Wauganui district some time ago married the teacher, and he is now in the unhappy position of being consulted by the Board as to the advisableness of dismissing his wife from her scholastic position. A young lady from out West was filling a 1 bottle with seawater, at Coogee, the other day, to take home for medical purposes, when a cruel joker reminded her that as it was low-water she'd better only half fill it, or when the tide rose it'd buist her botde. Aud the poor creature arrived back 742 miles west, with only half a bottle of the saline cure. The sequel is announced to a strange experiment, lately tried at Ferignan, in the south of France. Two or three years ago that little town elected a Socialist, town council, who were pledged to create public workshops and to make all sorts of other innovations for the amelioration of the conditions of the poor. Now a new council of more moderate views has had to be elected to raise a loan of £550,000f. The Glenavey correspondent of the " Waimate Times " says :—The contractors' crops of wheat on Mr McLean's estate in the Waihao, about 2500 acres, are the largest and best lot of wheat ever grown together in the district. There is an infinitesimal portion under oats. One enterpiising cropper has nearly 700 acres in wheat. I would put Mr Scott's crop first on the list—from its appearance it ought to yield about fifty bushels to the acre-—and that of Messrs Ross and M.Govern second; Viewing it all routid in ear at the present time, it is a grand sight. Recently a deputation from -the Civil Service Association, consisting of Mr FitzGerald (president), Mr Richmond Beetham (vice-president) and Messrs L. G. Reid and Waldegrave waited upon Mr Seddon in reference to leave, as mentioned in the recent circular sent to heads of Departments. The deputation asked whether there was any ground for the assumption that it was intended to stop leave except on the ground of sickness or other pressing necessity. Mr Seddon replied that it had been found that in certain quarters a practice had grown up of regarding annual leave as a right, and that Ministers thought it well to state definitely that no such doctrine could be entertained. The circular was not to be considered as making any change in the law or practice where it consisted in each application being placed before the Ministar and duly considered on its merits.

A correspondent of the " Press " says : The bear, which for some time has been a great object of interest to the visitors at the Opawa fish-breeding establishment, is occasionally troubled with an apparent outburst of temper, and recently suddenly attacked its keeper in such a ferocious manner as to arouse the indignation of an intelligent monkey, who quickly came to the rescue, causing the bear to release his sharp grip in order to defend himself from an adversary apparently dropped from the clmids. For some minutes a struggling, leaping, scratching, and biting contest was vigorously carried on till the bear beat a hurried retreat, minus a quantity of its beautiful fur. One good effect of the punishment has been that the bear has never since offered to bite, even in p'ayful sport. The monkey, who so gallantly showed his aversion to ungrateful conduot, was presented to the establsliment some mouths ago by Mr W. Langdowu.

A libel case with some amusing features was heard ia Sydney on December 7. TJ ie plaiut'ffs carried 011 a boarding establishment in Victoria street, Darlinghurst, and the defendant was a greengrocer and poulterer. Failing to obtain payment of a small account which he claimed to be due to him, the defeudaut adopted the measure of employing a man to walk up and down in front of the plaintiffs' house wjrh. a large placard over liis breast marked "Bad debt collector," who occasionally knocked and sting at the door. The defendant meanwhile sat in his van on the otber side of the street and kept the man strictly to his duty. After a performance extending over two hours, during which a large crowd collected in front of the plaintiff-, lious", a constable appeared, and the de.ojJuUi. and his assistant, fcemporarly retired, but they gave a second performance in the afternoon. The plaintiffs claimed £5Q(j damages. The fury ' found a verdict fqr £3Qfy, in addition lo 40i paid into court. The Wellington ■' Evening Post" of Saturday last relates the following ;—" Here is an hjcideqt which, if told in a Qliristmas story, would be at once set down as a very poor stereotyped kind of made up yarn, yet it is absolutely true. A certain man, who had become so poor that his wife had to assist by her own industry to make a living, and so ill and crippled with rheumatism that he had to become an inmate of the hospital, was worrying over vays agd. n}qins to, carry hisi h.Q,u§ehQl<t through th,e Christmas season. In colonial parlanoo, he was completely " stone broke." Scanning through the shipping column lie uoticed that a vessel, of which a cousin of his was an officer, was in port, and he made hia way to the wharf, feeling sure of a helping hand from his relative. Their first greetings over, the next object qf the v.isjt wss b'rqached,' when the cousin, in a surprised tQne, said, ' Hay^e you seen Hislop, the lawyer?? '"No,' said the ' other, ' What should J see him for f' .« Why, our \\wH ha« died, and left you ft share in £16,000 !' The poor fellows-poor no longer ! —was not long, crippled as be was in reaching the offices of Messrs Brandon, Hislop, and Brandon, where he announced his name, and was then informed that this firra had been enquiring fof ; him, for some, time past, and the statement of his cousin was connri^ed.' Qn Christmas Eve he received a cheque fqr a portion of hi§ inheritance from thjj solicitors mentioned, and a very happy Christmas is certain for one Wellington household at lea.^,