The Ashburton Guardian. FRIDAY FEBRURAY, 25, 1881.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 2, Issue 278, 25 February 1881, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. FRIDAY FEBRURAY, 25, 1881.

TOWN EDITION. [Jsstted at 5 p.m.]

Appointment. —Mr Hugh Hastings Ronnolly has been appointed to act as Private Secretary to his Excellency the Governor. A Dishonest Stationmastbe.—J. F, Fells, a stationmaster at Ohaupo, Auckland, has been apprehended for embezzlement. Upper Ashburton Assessment Court. —The date of sitting of the Upper Ashburton Assessment Court has been altered from the 3rd to the 12th March. The District Court.—The Clerk of the Court announces the change in the District Court sitting days from the Ist to the 6th of each month. Rakaia Railway Bridge.—The Dunedin Morning' Serald has it that the Rakaia railway bridge is to be lengthened by another 1,450 feet, owing to a change in the bed of the river. A Desperado.—A native named Himi Mitana, recently discharged at Auckland on a charge of lunacy, on his return to Mongonui got locked up for larceny. He fired the police station, which was destroyed, and escaped. He has since been captured and remanded to Auckland.

Drunks.—A first offender was let off to-day by Mr Nugent Wood, R.M., with a caution, on payment of 2s. cab hire. William Boyle, for being drunk and using bad language and for resisting constable Daly, was fined 10s. for the bad language, and had to pay for the cab that took him to the station. Carmini Morlby. This celebrated musician had a complimentary concert given him on Wednesday last in Dunedin. He is about to leave that city to take up his quarters in Christchurch. Of the Signor the Morning Serald says;—ln Signor Morley the City of the Plains will have an appreciable acquisition a thorough artist, who has rendered incalculable service to the perfect study of the divine art in this city. Village Fire Engine.—There is now on view at the store of Messrs C. B. Taylor and Co. an American fire engine suitable for small townships, which it is intended to exhibit at the Ashburton local exhibition. It is a manual fitted with the latest improvements, and the Christchurch Fire Brigade intend having it out one evening during the ensuing week in order to try its capabilities.— Press.

Mb, Martin’s Cow. —Mr G. J. Martin and Foreman Brown fought out their cow battle in Court to-day. Mr Martin denied having allowed a cow to wander. Brown said he had arrested Martin’s cow, which animal he drove away. As he proceeded Mrs Butler’s ill-mannered milcher rushed Martin’s cow and drove her on to the section. A woman named Hannah Mills saw Brown driving the cow in»Cass street, but did not see it before it got into Brown’s charge. Martin deponed to having seen Brown take the cow off a section. Witness did not know how long the cow had been there. His Worship found Martin guilty of using abusive language towards Brown (a chaige that was heard last Tuesday), and fined him fa. and costs, and for the wandering cow A fine of Is. was imposed.

The Auckland Cricket Matc h. —The gate money at the cricket match Austr.. ha v. Auckland amounted to L2f 5. ‘Tr Ivens, of the Civil Service Club, won he bat presented by Mr Gallagher to ic highest scorer. Inquest. —An inquest was held at ic Clarendon Hotel, Christchurch, yc-sterd y, on the body of the little giv), Ei ly Moore, which was found in the Avoi m Wednesday. After hearing the »-vide- e, the jury returned a verdict to the eTict “That the deceased, Emily J. Mo-j e, was found drowned, but that how or by what means she became drowned there was not sufficient evidence to determine.” Fire in Ddnedin. — A four-roomed brick house in Dundas street, Dunedin, owned by Mr P. Shirley, occupied by Mr F. S. Nicholls, was totally destroyer, by fire last night. Shirley was insured tor L 260 with the National, and Nicholls for Ll5O with the South British. The tire is supposed to have arisen from an ash bucket.

An Antidote to Poverty. —St> Rebreaking does not appear to be appreciated by the inmates of the Wellington B-no-volent Institutions. Some few weeks ago it was resolved by the authorities to n ake such men as were able to do so, work out the cost of the rations supplied to them by doing this kind of work. When the innovation was first introduced there ' ere twenty-four men on the roll, presum bly unable to find work. Now there are -Ay four, and the autorities are beginning to think that stonebreaking is unexam; led as an antidote to poverty.

A Pulse Meter. —America is agai i to the front with another wonderful in ention. A Massachusetts man has inve .'ed a machine which he calls a pulse nv‘.e’-, and it is operated by the pulse. At every beat a hand advances one degree ov -r a dial, thus recording the number of R ;its. Another hand sweeps over a gradu ded scale which shows the force or intensify of the pulse. More remarkable still, a hammer is made to strike a bell, and - ive forth a clear and distinct sound, aus making the pulse audible as web as visible.

A Terrible Person. —The deceased v lie’s sister is a most importunate and pertinacious creature. She has got her clain to marry her brother-in-law acknowledge ! in Ceylon, South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales Queensland, and Western Australia. She got through the New Zealand and Natal Legislatures last year, but the Queen refused to complete her happiness in regard to these two colonies. She has passed through the House of Commons seven times, and been kicked downstairs as many times by the ungallant Lords. The Property Tax.—lt does not appear to be generally known that the property tax may be paid at the Ashburton Post Office, and some of our farming friends are wroth from a belief that it is necessary to go to Christchurch to make the payments. If they would only carefully read the paragraphs on the back of the circulars sent to them by the Commissioner they would put themselvos in possession of full information of what they require to do. The two instalments of the tax are due, the first on the Bth and the second on the 22nd of March, though why two instalments were considered necessary when only a fortnight is allowed between them we cannot see.

Lithograph Stone. —In a recent ssue of the Nelson Mail, a correspondent writes as follows :—A very importanr discovery of the lithograph stone was made by Mr Jonathan Brough, of Nelson, in the year 1874, in his rambles through the Wairau Gorge where he picked up a specimen—the first found in New Zealand. After carrying it some hundreds of miles in his swag he brought it to Nelson and showed it several gentlemen, and then laid it before the Committee of the Nelson Museum, who came to the conclusion that it was a curiosity of no importance. Mr Brough was of a different opinion, and ultimately he cut it in two and presented one half to the Nelson Museum, where it can be seen at the present time, and the other half he sent to Mr John Gibson’s Museum, at Gibson town, Kaituna, writing upon it the locality where it was found. The piece presented to Mr Jchn Gibson has led to an important discovery, as he showed it to the Government mineralogist, who said it was the first lithograph specimen found in New Zealand, and one of the finest specimens he had seen of the knd. The mineralogist searched in the locality where it was found, and discovered a wall or seam, a full account of which was given in the Wellington papers a short time ago. Turnip Grubs. —The Rangitikei Advocate says :—Mr. Hammond, of York Farm, has sent us some natural curiosities in the shape of a couple of grubs and a turnip, on which they have been feeding. The turnip is completely honey-combed, and it is only a sample of five acres. One can scarcely pull up a turnip in the whole field that has not been more or less devoured by these ravenous pests. The creatures are about an inch and a half long, of brownish grey color, have heads somewhat of the shape of a snake’s and are furnished with proboscis which readily penetrate the flesh of any vegetable like the turnip. As we write the “ pair of beauties ” are in a glass tumbler in front of us. Now they try to race up the side of the tumbler ; anon they turn, attack each other, and fall to the bottom of the tumbler, coiling round each other and biting each other with as much viciousness as a couple of snakes. A moment ago we threw a moth into the glass, and they at once fell upon it and killed it in an instant. It would be amusing to watch their efforts at escape, did they not look so wicked. Now they are growing desperate, and they turn round and bite themselves, just as a snake does when wounded. Altogether they are very ugly customers, and their destruction of five acres of turnips at York Farm proves that they are just as bad as they look.

Bread. —It is a well-known fact that wheaten flour, before it appears on the breakfast table in the shape of a loaf of bread, has been robbed of a great portion of its goodness, and that part of the gluten, and a large proportion of those phosphates so necessary to health, have been cast aside in the endeavor to make the bread white. We ( Graphic ) have Baron Liebig’s testimony that the finest and whitest of flour has, of all forms of flour, the lowest nutritive value. These considerations led some years ago to the introduction of whole meal bread, and it appeared with “recommended by the faculty” as its motto. But whether it be its swarthy complexion or its extremely coarse texture which renders it unpopular, it is certain that it has not made that favorable impression upon the public at large which its high recommendation would have warranted. The well-known aerated bread is far more generally used, principally, no doubt, on account of its uniform good qality, and from the knowledge that it is made without direct hand labor. But still it has the same disadvantage as the ordinary baker’s bread, it having been robbed of some of its most valuable constituents. Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, U.S.A., has attacked the problem from a new point. He recommends the addition to the flour of those salts which it is proved by analysis are lost in the operation of grinding the wheat. Flour prepared in this way gives off, as it is made into dough, a certain amount of carbonic acid, sufficient, in fact, to obviate the use of yeast. The process, which is patented, is being worked commercially in Great Britain.