LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 3134, 20 November 1893, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Next Sunday will be Temperance Sunday in Ashburton. December 5 is the date fixed for the Wesleyan District meeting to be held in Ashburton. A meeting of the Women's Political Association will be held in the Templar Hall on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Cp §$nday afternoon, as Mr Anthony Thomson, o£ Springfield, was driving a young frorse jbbr.ough T ipwald ; with Mr Daniel Fitzgerald, they turned <Jowu Ford's i Road a Bhort dstance, to avoid a coining train. The train having passed, they were returning to the South road when, in turning the corner, the trap came in contact with the wire fence, throwing the occupants heavily to the ground. Mr Thompson who is a man of great stature (about 6ft 6in) I and 77 yeasa $f &S?j na<* his shoulder dislocatedi and* recewe'd internal injuries of a serious nature, $fr Fitzgerald had hjs face badly torn by the wire, and his nose nearfy eufc off. Mr Thoft?psc» Hep in a precarioug condition but th# graft of ftfr Fitzgerald's nose bids fair to strike mil, and he will nc> be much the worse for the acoideut. Both patients are in Dr Tweed's hospital. By the arrangements which are being made in connection with the Friendly Societies Sports, it appears that the affair will be what the placards announce—a monger gathering. For the Fire Brigades competition tyo tesuwß from Christchurch, two from Rangiora,"one irb'iii lojx}tuxx, and one from Thnaro have promised ti)' con)pet,ei Mr G. A. M. Buckley faa« »grw4 t» present, in place of hia five guinea trophy, five m«ds.!s valued oni ?&»*» Bach *° the Bucces»f»l team. The Secretary has' juterylewed the railway aiithorities on the question of an* cxcursiojj trs>u> Jt>*4 epscial rates from Christchurch on the day 'of jthp cporjts, aad the manager has promised to recomraed to the Commissioners that the revest be granted. An application will also be made for similar consideration in respect to Timarcu The whole of the Druids from Christchurob ytty take 'part in the progwion,

The three shops occupied by Mr S. Burnard, James, and Madden, in Eait street amd owned by Mr T. Bullock, are about to be pulled down and new buildings substituted. Mr R. M. Cuthbertson invites the electors of the Rangitata electorate to meet him at the Schoolhoase Mount Somers to-morrow (Tuesday) and at the Sohoolhouse Alford Forest on Wednesday, 22nd instant, on both evenings at eight o'clock. On Sunday evening, at the Baptist Church, the Rev A. Ager introduced a new feature ioto our church life by exhibiting a large oil painting of the camp of Israel before Mount Sinai, and his first lecture of the series was listened to by a very numerous and appreciative congregation. There is a common belief that alcohol gives new strength and energy after fatigue sets in. The sensation of fatigue is one of the safety valves of the human machine ; to stifle the feel ng of fatigue, in order to do more work, is like closing the safety valve so that the boiler may be overheated and explosion result. A French railway company, the Chemin de Fer dv Midi, is in a terrible fix just now. A short time ago a fire broke out in a pine forest in the south of France, and £75,000 damage was done. The fire was caused by sparks from a locomotive. For all this damage the company is held to be responsible to French law. Roots draw enormous quantities of moisture from the soil, and by this means it is discharged in the atmosphere. For example, the common sunflower was found to exhale twelve ounces of water in twelve hours, and an oak tree with an estimated number of 700,000 leaven would in the nme way give off something like 700 tons of water during the five months it carries its foliage. The average speed of trains in America in not equal to that in England. The journey from New York to Boston, a distance of 234 miles, is got over in eight hours, and that from New York to Niagara, a distance of 444 miles, in sixteen hours, while the trip from New York to San Francisco, the longest railway journey in the world, takes eight days, the distance traversed being about 3400. The Kelso correspondent of the " Otago Witness " writes that the Greenvale estate, which was owned by the late Mr James Logan, is said to be under offer to the Government. The estate consists of twentyfour thousand acres, twenty thousand of which is first-class agricultural land, well roaded, fenced, and close to a railway station, all down in English grass and other «rops. The estate if cut up should add at least fifty or sixty farmers to the district. The November edition of " The Triad " ia to hand. This popular musical magazine is more than usually interesting containing as it does a volume of useful and interesting information of music, science and art, interspersed with many humorous items. There is also enclosed as a supplement a selection of pictures from the Otago Art Society's exhibition* These pictures are admirably reproduced. Evidently " The Triad " has a local correspondent, as Ashburton news are faithfully chronicled. On Saturday last Mr S. Burnard, butcher, had on exhibition, enclosed in some hurdles opposite his shop, a six-tooth Hampshire Down-cross wtther of extraordinary size, measuring from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail four feet nine inches, and two feet ten inches ia height behind the shoulders. In other respects the sheep was well made and in good condition, though not particularly fat. The wool was of even texture, fine, and six inche3 long on the ribs. The sheep was bought by Mr Burnard from Mr James Brown, Netherby, Wakamii. The steam passing through the engines in the United States approximates 600,000,000 tons per annum (according to an American authority). Does this enormous quantity effect the amount of rainfall? asks our contemporary. It probably does, but the processes of nature are on so grand a scale that even this inconceivable amount may sink into insignificance. The annual rainfall east of the Rocky Mountains varies from 20in in a very few places to over 63in in others, with an average of not less than 36in. This amounts in that territory to some 9,000,000,000,000 tons, so that if all the steam made in the whole country were confined to this side of the Rocky Mountains it could add not over 1-150 ef 1 per cent, to the total rainfall, or l-4Coth of an inch—not enough to furnish one evening's dew.