Local and General.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVII, Issue 4093, 16 January 1897, Page 2

Local and General.

Sporting matter, and a letter to the Editor will be found on the fourth page.

The Wellington Exhibition will be closed on February 3 with an appropriate ceremony.

Mr Porter, of Ashburton s was one of the judges of flowers, etc., at the Geraldine flower show on Thursday.

A sharp frost at Norsewood and Ormondville on Christmas Eve out down crops oi potatoes and pumpkins.

There has been a great mortality among foals in the Hawera district this season, and the reason cannot be accounted for.

The Queen was a grandmother at forty, and her descendants either now occupy or are destined to occupy seven thrones.

Estate duty has just been paid on £97,119 as the net value of the personal estate of the late Sir John Millais.

The Kaiser is building a gigantic cathedral in Berlin, the dome of which is to eclipse that of Sb Peter's at Rome.

Twenty-four years ago electricity as a mechanical power was unknown. Now £190/00,000 is invested in various kinds of electrical machinery.

A Nelaon telegram says:-—The weather is fine again. Three inches of rain fell in two days after a long spell of dry weather, with only occasional breaks of rain.

The departure of the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Buapehu has been postponed till the end of this month. The definite date of sailing will be duly advertised.

An exchange says that the cost of the Euapehu accident to the New Zealand Shipping Company will be about £6000. The Union Company receives £2500 for towage, etc. A general average of 10 per cent, has been struck and ia now in course of •ollection.

Amongst the millionairesses of to-day Signora Isidora Consino is said to be first, with forty millions. She is now an old lady, still extremely beautiful, and is a South American by birth ; she lives at Santiago, Chili. Miss Hetty Green, an American, comes next, with ten millions; then Baroness Burdett-Coutts, with four millions.

Mr Fred Tompkins, of Rongotea, Rangitikei, was savagely attacked a few days ago by a boar which he was driving out of a paddock. The animal's tusks inflicted serious rips on Mr Tompkin'a thigh and stomach, and one of his lungs was reached. His life was in jeopardy for some time, but according to the latest reports immediate danger is considered to have been averted. The New Zealand Shipping Co.'s steamers will call in future at Rio de Janeiro as well as Monte Video. The Ruahine, March 18, and the Rimutaka, May 13, will go Home through Magellan straits (weather permitting), calling »b tne port of Puntas Arenas. This will give travellers an opportunity of witnessing some of the grandest scenery in the world, which ia not bo w«U'known m tin 014 World. <Q»n«ry t

The Temuka riMes have gone under canvas for a week.

The marriage of the late Mrs Polian to her first husband in 1863 was the first celebrated ia the Ashburton district.

The County Council publishes a notification with reference to the penalties that are intended to be enforced against persons committing breaches of the by-laws re water races.

The recent excessive heat in N.S.W. has done an immense amount of damage to the crop of table grapes. The damage has been particularly severe in the Hunter River district.

At the funeral of an unmarried woman in Brazil scarlet is the morning hut?. '1 he coffin, the hearee, the trappings of the homes, and the livery of the driver must be scarlet.

In the junior scholarship examination, the only local candidate who was successful was Percy Prebble, of the Flemington school, who stood fourth on the list of successful candidates.

Edinburgh has just received from an anonymoua person, through its Lord Provost, an offer of £100,000 towards building a town hall. In the last few years the city has received nearly £400,000 in gifts.

The Rev. T. 6. Brooke will be the preacher at Wesley Church to-morrow and at the evening service the subject will be 11 What is mam?" or " Man the subject of divine benevolence." Visitors are invited.

Lord Glasgow when at Wanganui stated that "he would shortly be leaving this beautiful country, but he would always regard New Zealand with pride, and oouot his stay in it as one of his most pleasant reminiscences."

Six hundred consumptives out of eight hundred, who have been pronounced incurable, are said to have been cured by Dr Oroote, of Paris, with the aid of electricity and antiseptics. A commission of niedioal experts will investigate the doctor's method.

According to the latest census the population of Johannesburg in July last was 102,078. Of these, 50,907 were V. uropeans, or whites, and 42,533 belonged to native Kaffir tribes, the remainder being classed as Asiatics, or as mixed or other races.

A lady of the Eketahuna distriot, who went to school with Mr G. W. Russell, the rejected of Biccarton, said tint the girls at school used to call him the Great Western Bailway. His initials fitted in, said the lady and, besides, he was all " blow."

The Cabinet has decided to recommend a remission of the remainder of the sentence on Thomas Barrett, now in Dunedin Gaol, as he is partially blind. The prisoner was sentenced in June, 1890, to ten years' imprisonment for wounding at Pine Hill.

Mrs Hessell, Bangiora, lost a horse in a rather peculiar way. The lady had driven to a relative's outside of the town, and while the horse was standing in the buggy it was stung by a bee. This excited it, and after rearing two or three times it dropped dead.

Writing of the Barrytown claim in which a number of Ashburton people are interested, the Grey mouth correspondent of the Canterbury Times says:—The mode of working will be new to the West Coast, and the results will be closely watched. The gold is there in payable quantities, and with proper machinery splendid returns should be obtained, "for the sand will yield three shillings' worth of gold per load.

Last night about half-past ten a sound of falling glass was heard ia Burnett street, and those who heard the smash fancied all sorts of things but the right one. On investigation it turned out that one of the large panes in the shop window of Mr John Wilson had been broken, and the fall of the debris on the asphalt had made the noise. How the breakage occurred no one knows, but the break presented all the appearance of having been dene by eomebody falling against it. But the person whose weight was more than the bearing strain of the glass has not yet been manly enough to come forward and own up.

Beferring to a statement in the Waipawa that it had good authority for saying that Mr George Fisher ia to become a member of the Ministry, atd ia to receive the portfolio of Colonial Treasurer, the Wellington correspondent of the Otago Daily Times writes :— "So far as I can judge, there iB little likelihood of this coming about. No doubt there will sooner or later be a reconstruction of the Ministry—indeed, I do not see how Mr Seddon can hope to rule for another Parliament unless he changes his team, some of the members of which are notoriously weak, and do not command the confidence of some of the Government party."

Somewhat of a sensation was caused at Lithgow (N.S.W.) on the 4th inst. by the experience of a lad named MoPherson, 14 years old, son of a selector at Lowiher, 16 miles off. He was three times bitten on the band by a tiger snake about 4ft long. His "—■Met ligatured the wrist and arm, and the i"""' j * ' itl"«»w in one hour, knocVing boy rode to i*. . ii-««n£els borrowing up one horse and at J30... ■ -A° another. Dr Leeper, of Lithgow, matwo injections of strychnine before half-past 9 a.tn., and gave him whisky and ammonia during the <3&y. No bad symptoms having set in by 9 p.m., the recovery of the lad is expected.

iir C. A. Cooper, editor of the Edinburgh Scotsman, who is in New Zealand in pursuit of health, arrived in Ashburton yesterday and put up at Britton's Hotel. Mr Cooper was visited by the Mayor and other gentlemen last night and welcomed to Aahburton. This morning early he was driven by Mr Ferriman to Longbeaoh, to have a look round on " the finest farm in the world." Though controlling one of the leading papers of the world, Mr Cooper is very modest, and declines to be interviewed by pressmen, unless in the friendly way of felloweraffc, and we respect his fee'ings, but we may say that the distinguished journalist is very favourably impressed with what he has seen of this colony.