LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 3882, 11 May 1896, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The income of Rockfeller, the famous oil king, is about £5000 a day. Mr Joseph Iveaa is repotted to have disposed of his latest newspaper, the Levin Express^ and bo have set up m Levin as aland and commistijn agent. The Mariposa with the English mails of April 18 lefb San Francisco for Auckland on Thursday last, time table date, and she ■ Is due m Auckland on the 2lst inst. Robert Barlow, the half caste, who captured Winiata, the Epsom murderer, m the King Oonntry and brought him to justice, died a few days ago m the north of Auckland. The Wellington Acclimatisation Society has been trying to obtain a lease from the Wellington Council of the reserve (about 4000 acres) north of the dam at Wainui-o-mata for the purpose of breeding deer. Yesterday (Sunday) Mr John Blaok, Methven, died suddenly at his residence. He leaves six children, his wife having died some months ago. An inquest was to be held to-day. The Hokitika Gtuirdian states bhat it is reported that a reef 15 feet thick, and carrying payable gold, has been found m Bullock Creek, a tributary of the Mokonul river. . An application was made to the Govern* 1 to admit ' linotype ' machines to the colony free of duty. The Cabinet has decided that the importers must pay the 20 per cent fixed by the Customs Dnties Act of last session. The Ashburton Oaunty Golf Club will hold its formal opening for the season on Thursday next ; play will begin at 230 p.m, and afternoon tea will be provided m a marquee at the Pound house. The playoff m m the road leading past the brewery. A match between tides drawn ly the President and Secretary will be played. Terders are invited to be sent m to the Commissioner of Crown Lands on or before noon on Monday, May 18. for the purchase of and tight to feed off 833 acres of turnips on the Highbank estate. The acreage is divided into five lots. Mr Frizzell, Treasurer of the Excursion — Brunnerton concert informs us that the total receipts of (he concert were £18 18<9d and the expenditure £5 16s, leaving a balance of £13 2s 9J. Th s snm he has hand.d to the Chairman of the Excursion Committee. The Qaeen has a curious needle. It was made at the celebrated needle manufactory at Redditch, and represents the Trajan Column m miniature. Scenes f roTn the Queen's life are depicted on the needle, so finely cub that they are only discernible through a microscope. During the first eleven months of last year, the value of goods imported into the Transvaal was £8,864.135. Machineiy was responsible for £1,853.389 of the total amount, and iron and metal ware for £556.316 The value of imports during November alone was £1,046,896. Peart, the diver, whose death was cabled from Sydney on Friday, was always haunted by a presentiment that he would be killed whilst performing the feat. On more than one occasion, while the Company were m Christ church, before going up he expressed his fear of the event which has since happened. A Sydney burglar burgled a suburban residence the other day and annexed £40 worth of goods and chattels, but ' while engaged m maturing his felonious little plans,' as Mr Gilberb expresses it, he dropped a roll of notes worth £200 which the householder promptly popped m the bank. Fair exchange is no robbery. The ways of auctioneers m different parts of the world vary greatly. In England and America the seller bears the expense of the sale, bub In France the purchaser bears the ccsfc, five per cent being added to his purchase. In Holland it is still worse, the buyer being required to pay ten per cent additional for expenses of the s»le» The Czarina is one of the few royalties who still make a practice of wearing State jewels. At her coronation m May she will wear a crown worth £1,750,000, and the Czar's crown is still more valuable. It reads like a fairy story by Hans Christian Anderson, but it is stated on excellent authority thab there is a vault m the Winter Palace at St Petersburg containI ing drawers full of diamonds, pearls, and ' other precious stones, from which the Czarina may borrow at pleasure. Wherever the Empress Eugenic goes, a little wicker basket goes with her, which she looks after herself when travelling. Many people would long ago have liked to know the meaning of this, and now a gossip tells the tale. That little basket contains a most important piece of property m the shape of a hedgehog. It is the one and only pet of the Empress, and she look? af cer It entirely herself. Its basket is lined softly and comfortably with padded silk. Potatoes (remarks Work) can be made almost exactly like ivory by the following simple process :— The potato must be a very good one, not bruised at all. Wash' it m dilute sulphuric acid till quite clean oa the surface, then boil it slowly m the same solution it; wai washed m until it is quite solid and dense. Wash thoroughly m tepid water followed by cold, till quite free from aoid, and then dry m a warm cupboard or some such place. It will turn or carve beautifully and take nearly any dye. Hood's * Song of the shirt ' is (says the Hobart Mercury) wailed every hour of the day and night m marvellous Melbourne. Blucher bopts made ab 4d per pair, trousers at 4s 64 per dozen, shirts at Is 101 to 3s 4d per dozen, are oa sual items picked out from long arrays of starvation wages. White slavery also prevails m a multitude of other cases. Day labourers are content to accept 2a to 3s per day j butchers work 90 hours a week for about 253 and their food, many for even less. In other trades matters are no better. In the Victorian vineyards, the cheap Italian labor Is ruining the Industry, for the work is done under a sweating system of the vilest sort. Try Wright's Family Brand Coffee ; to be obtained from all Grocers and Storekeepers

Cardinal Moran when m Wellington told i a nioe Jictle story of what they any i» : Dunedin about Wellington. * They say, observed his Eminence, wiih & smile, * that Wellington mining m thelapof a volcanic range, likely to blow up at any moment, and (hit the harbour is only a hole m th< ground caused by the sinking of » cratp* ' 'lhe Wairarapa Star says :— Mr W. Gillespie, of the Masterton Pot.* «. a i'eii graph Office, made rather an import ai t discovery the other day. Ha found tha by manipulating the telegraph wires m ■- certain mannner and connecting them with the telephone, he could procure telephonic communication with auy part of <h? colony. Accordingly he conversed wit.? operators at boih Napier and Wellington. Applications are invited by May 27 for tha appointment of London agent to tht Now Z -aland Farmers/ Co-operative Association and the Canterbury Farmers' Co-operative Association. This is to fill the vacancy caused by the acceptance by Mr George Jameson of the post of manager of the Farmers Co-operative Association ab Ohrlstohurch. Mr E. Sullivan announces his intention of opening classes for the teaching of step dancing m the Templar Hall on Thursday evening- Mr Sullivan Is perhaps the best all round step dancer we have, and ought to make a good teacher. He is as well up m Highland steps as he is m Irish, and ab dancing a sailor's hornpipe few can beat him. The chief centre of the wild-beast trade is Hamburg, where the price-list is aB follows : — Lions and tigers average £76 apiece, leopards £18, and black panthers range from £140 to £150. For spotted tigers the large sum of £240 is paid. The market value of a rhinoceros varies from £320 to £900 ; African elephants average £50 ; Indian elephants, £240. The price of monkeys is as low as £l. The workmen have nearly completed construction of the new water tank on the railway line beyond the Havelock > street crossing. The tank was ren* dered necessary inasmuch as when a I passenger train for the south was un usually long, the rear carriages, with the luggage vans, were far away from the platform, and much inconvenience to both passengers and railway officers resulted. The train could not be pulled forward because the tank, at which the engine watered, set a limit to the distance, being planted jusb beyond the south end of the platform. The new tank will add five or six chains to the ground between the watering point and the platform, and thus remove the exising difficulty. Of course the old tank will be taken down altogether, and It Is expected that the new one will be fit for use m the course of this week. The old tank had a capacity of 1600 gallons— the new one Is larger, and will carry 2000. Daring the reoent Bitting of Parliament numbers of members were affeo'ed with troublesome ooughs and colds. That largely advertised medioine, Woods* Great Peppermint Cure, waa the popular remedy. Ie was not an unusual thing to see a bottle passed around at the House, it was so effective. It is sold everywhere, at Is 63 and 2s 6d,