Local and General.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVIII, Issue 4291, 10 September 1897, Page 2

Local and General.

Thfl next sitting of the District doC.rfc Ashburton takes place on Monday at 2 p.m. The dramatic performance and concert in aid of the funds of the Football Club takes place at the Oddfellows' Hal! this evening, A Frenchman has written a book to prove that Englishmen will very soon be the masters of the world. Mr John Holmes, the flax Commissioner, on his way to Gape Colony, Europe, and America, is at present in Adelaide. There are ten pipers in the new Scottish Thistle Club jusb formed in Wellington. The formation of a pipe band is talked of. A number of hogget sheep in the Masterton district are suffering from a peculiar disease which causes the wool to come off in patches. I The football match Southland v Wellington, played at Invercargill on Wednesday, resulted in a win for Wellington by three points (a penalty goal) bo nil. The dress of the elderly wife of a London city magnate, newly rich, who was presented at a recent drawing room, cost 3000 guineas, and will never again be worn in the form it was Been by the Princess of Wales. £1000 a year is by no means an unusual dress allowance for the wives and daughters of London's magnates. One lady rcently expressed her inability to dress properly under £3000 a year, and she declared, when sable tails were introduced as an artio'e of dresa, that she would require £600 more unless she were to go into society unfit to be seen. In the matter of shoes, it will be recollected that the trousseau of Princess Maud of Wales comprised 100 pairs. A very interesting case has been treated (says the Otago Daily limes) within the pist few days in the Dunediu Hospital. A child who experienced a difficulty in her breathing was brought in from the country. The trouble was caused by something which the pntienb had swallowed, thought by fchu mother to be & pic.cc of hard potato picked up by the child while playing about on the floor. Tracheotomy was performed, jyjth the result that part of a crayfish claw, from lin to l^in long, was extracted from the air passage, in which it had lodged. Fortunately, as it happened, the daw was hollow, and the consequence was that the child was ,sbj.e .to breathe through it, otherwise .the case would have terminated fatally. The child has singe frhj operatise !nade a capital

The choir practice at St. Stephen's Church takes place this evening at eight o'c'ock. ( A Conference of Charitable Aid Boards is to be held on October 18, to discuss the proposed legislation for the ensuing session. There are 216 railway stations within a six-mile rad.as of St. Paul's Cathedral, whilst within a twelve-mile radius there are nearly 400. The respondent wife ia a divorce ease at Sydney was married on her birthday, left her husband on her birthday ten years afterwards, and they were divorced on her husband's hirthday. It is stated by the Crown lands ranger that out of a dozen sections in the Levin village settlement only one was unoccupied, and that the improvements amounted in value to £1329, or more than double what is required by the Act. Arrangements could not be made to detain the Waikare at Wellington for the San Francisco mail, and the mail was taken on by the Rotorua this afternoon. The mail bags will go south from Chriatohurch by the express to-morrow. The largest house in the world is in Wiesden, a suburb of Vienna. In this domicile there are 1400 rooms, divided into suites of from four to aix rooms each, and they at present shelter 2112 persons, •vho pay an annual rental of over 100,000 florins. Mr EL F. Bickerton, champion club swinger of New Zealand, has kindly consented to come from Christchuroh and give an exhibition at the Mackenzie Benefit on Monday night. Mr Donald McLean, with his usual liberality, has generously offered to pay his expenses. Some very candid criticism was indulged in at a recent meeting of the Melbourne Trades Hall Council on the subject of sweating in that city. One member said he had authentic information from a female friend that she had only made 5s fid for a week's work in a clothing factory, working cine hours a day. An Exchange says that three areas of land selected by the Government at Whakarewarewa and Rotorua for the propagation of various kinds of useful timbers, are now being ploughed and fenced. Over £500 will be spent in equal proportions on this work and that going on at Waietapu and the Kaingaroa Plains. A money-lender who had refused to answer a question put by a committee of the House of Commons, whether it was the case that he had lent £60, received back £58155, and then sued the debtor for £689, was bought before the Bar of the House in July last. He agreed to answer the question or any other the House might put. Says the Australasian Medical Gazette :— *' For the past seven years the compulsory clause of the Vaccination Act has been in abeyance in the colony of Tasmania, the consequence being that not two per cent of the children born are now being vaccinated. Tasmania is thus becoming rapidly an unvaccinated community, Yesterday afternoon, as one of the runners of the Ashburton Gnardian was on his round of delivery, his mare took fright in Gass Street at the starting of the steam merry-go-round, The lad had retained mastery of the mare but at the turn into Burnett Street, she plunged forward, fell, and died immediately. The lad had a very narrow escape. A singular exhibit was recently placed before the managers of the Alfred Hospital, Melbourne by the honorary surgeon. It consisted of a mass of hair, tightly matted together, weighing 21b, taken from the stomach of a female patient who had been operated upon for a supposed internal tumor. It is conjectured that the hair was swallowed by the patient eighteen months ago while in a delirious state. Writing of the Ngapara district, which only a year or two. ago was infested with r ibbits, a correspondent of■ the Oam >ru Mail says :-—" I see very few now. The thanks of the community are entirely due to the Hon John McKenzie. Where tens of hundreds could be seen a few years ago there are barely enough for dog food; in fact, they are getting so scarce that they will soon be a delicacy." The Press reports that the river Selwyn was in high flood on Monday morning and unfodable. Numbers of people journeying to Christchurpli, Springston sale, and other places were obliged to return home. This is the first time this season this river has been uufordable, and the loss of the traffic bridge has not been much felt until Monday when Borne cases of serious inconvenience weie experienced. A poor man lay dying, and his good wife was tending him with homely but affectionate care. " Don't you think you could eat a bit of something, John ? Now what can I get for you?" With a wan smile, he answered feebly, " Well, I seem to smell a ham a-cooking somewheres ; I think I could do with a little bit of that. 8' "Oh, no, John dear," sho answered promptly, " you can't have that. That's for the funeral." Here (says the Post) is yet another example of the thrift ot the Chinese and fur* ther proof that the almond-eyed gentry prefer to give their own country fhe result of their labours. The Wainui brouht from Qreymouth on Tuesday morning a consignment of 3QO sovereigns, which are being sant on to China by a West Coast Celestial, who has evidently done well, and does npt intend to let New Zealand benefit thereby. A husband enlisted, and the wife saw nothing of him for 90 years. In the meantime she married again, and on the second husbaud being imprisoned for assaulting her he refused to live with her. She thus became chargeable to the parish. The first husband being found, was ordered to contribute towards her maintenance. Against this he appealed, and a London magistrate has decided that the husband was relieved from If Ability to contribute. At {the inquest on a young lady, who died at Palmerßton North last week, the evidence showed that she had had {ben teeth dirawn, three applications of methylene being made by a doptor.. Just as the operation ended the young lady collapsed, and though the servises of a second doqtor wej?e 1 -Ktaiaed, all efforts to restore animation w"ere iraS I *"'* ffcer hearing medical evidence the jury retuT.^4 » ?erdiot f .*»* from paralysis of the heart, caL'" et* W tDe inhalation of methylene. , Owner* of stud horses, intending to enter /or the parade on Saturday, September 18, are reminded that the work of the secretary, Mr William Simpson, wilj be very greatljr facilitated if entries are mads as sopn as possible, so that a complete catalogue £an be put before farmers attending the parade. As good draught stock have run low of recent years, the likelihood is that there will be a boom in breading this year, and owners of good draught sires should not neglect the chance of the parade for showing their stallions to advantage. The legislation of the New Zealand Parliament relative to the settlement of industrial disputes and its results were referred to by the New South Wales Minister of L%bor the other night, when three members of the Assembly urged upon him the necessity of introducing arbitration and conciliation measures. The Minister said he waß having two Bills prepared, and would bestow attention on the matter during the recess, when he would confer with his colleagues. A lucky digger, who has arrived at Sydney from British New Guinea, says that after very hard work at the Woodlark Islands, off the New Guinea coast, some 200 men are miking a living. Others are doing very | well. There is some fever, but not much, and the place is free from the drawback of native interference, She returned miner said that a rush was likely to take plage j shortly to Normanby, a new field stated to be tolerably rioh in alluvial. It had not yet set io, but in New Guinea they expected it. Mr J. H. Morrison, manager of the Mosgiel Woollen Factory Company, has received the following letter from the Secretary of State ; or the Colonies:-" 40 Prince's Gardens, S W July 22. Deaf Sir,—l have received with great pleasure the communication accompanying the kind gift of a rug and two pairs of blankets of New Zealand manuacbure. J appreciate very much the flattering terms in whioS you make the presentation and am delighted to accept these beautiful specimens of your production. The Industry, must be well suited to the colony, where the raw material is so plentiful, and the quality of the blankets and style of the rug leave nothing to be desired,-1 am, yours very f*ltWuUy (iitjaid), J, Cj^WAM* ♦

f Mr W. H. Collins, ex-M.H.R. for Chrisfci church, haa forwarded a challenge to Colonel \ Olcott, inviting the latter to publicly debate on the validity of The<sopby from the standpoints of philosophy, science and leligion. The Sfadator says it seems very unlikely that the voice of Mr H S. Fish, M.H.R. for Dunedin, wi 1 ever be heard in Parliament ! again. He is suffering from cancer in the 1 throat, and is in such a very weak condition that but faint hopes are entertained of his recovery. A little mild excitement was occasioned to-day by the vagaries of a hor>e harnessed in a trap standing opposite the shop of Mr Jewitt, fishmonger. The animal in some way got one of his hind legs over the shaft, plunged and fell. He was soon extricated from hia dilemma, -none the worse tor hit escapade,