Local and General.

Ashburton Guardian, Issue 4361, 2 December 1897, Page 2

Local and General.

" My Friend from India " to-nigh^. The i^ahinttpua, with the southern San Franciso'd mails, left Manukau yesterday afternoon for the aoiith. A woman in the country dislocated her Jiw the other day whilst yawning.' She came into where 3he hac| it ri^^tedi. 1 Bats sire reported to he overunning the Infanta' School at Wanganui, and in several o»se« the rodenta have made off with the littw ones' luncheons. A discipla pf J»»ak Walton, indulging in " ■«■<■- tt»« Spit, landed a his favorite pastime - f *-- QB§B?d,

In dismissing a charge of committing a breach of the peace in a hotel lately, the Magistrate gave it as his reason that the b»r of » publichouse was a public place within the meaning of the Act, — N.Z. Times. Wr 0. D. Shaw, a member of the Gore Brigade, has just died from inflammation of the luuga, brought; on through becoming chilled after working the engines while attending a recent fire in that tcwn. Letters from places beyond the colony addressed as under were received at the Ashburton Post Office during the month of September, and are still unclaimed.— H, T. Beview, James McLean. During the hearing of a case in the Supreme Coart at Dunedin on Tuesday, His Honor Mr Justice Williams remarked thati »■ man mighb bteik all the bylaws of the City Council—he was going to nay of the Decalogue—and yet be an honest man. A Dunedin physician advices cyclist* thus: " Never ride on an empty stomach. It will interfere with the heart's action and &Iho with respiration." All an exchange has got to say is that if it catches a oyclist riding on its utomach—empty or otherwise—there will be trouble. Whilst fche Very Rev. Father Devoy was ia .Sydney (saya the New Zealand Times) he , saw a gold watch made in 1632, and owned : at one time by Dr Oliver Hunkett, the Bishop of Armagh, who wm beheaded on lybnrn Hill ia the 17th century. He also saw a breviary which had been owned by Mary Queen of Mcotts. The relics are in possession of Cardinal Moran. It is laid that a country M H,R. was accidentally looked in one of the chambers of a freezing works a few days before the present session opened, and was only rescued when on the point of becoming j frozen meat himself. The only consolation I he got was from a brother politician, who said: 'That's nothing, old man, to the reception you'll get from your constituents uext election. Me Lionel Broad, who has been transferred from the CooJgardie branch of the Bank of Australasia to that at Invercargill, has taken to rowing, and we find a paragraph in the Southland Ncvjs, which shows that he ie nearly as successful at that branch of athletics, as he used to be at pedeatrianiem when he was iv Ashburton. He stroked the winning crew in the tourth and final round of the contests recently concluded betweeen fours of the Invercargill Rowing Club. The race ia described as a very interesting struggle from start to finish. At the meeting of the committee of the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday evening it was stated that a case had recently been decided in England in which it was held that the posting of a cheque constituted a legal payment. This decision was, however, upset on appeal. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce wishes to impress upon all concerned that a cheque should always be crossed to the account of the person to whom,it is tent; that business people should not sell blank cheques to anyone, and should cash no cheque unless thoroughly acquainted 4 with its drawer.

A deputation consisting of Sir M. O'Rorke and Messrs Crowther* Houstan, Lang and Holland (representing Auckland), Mr J. Hutchison (representing Wellington), Mr J. Allen (representing Otago) and Mr R. Meredith (representing Canterbury) waited on the Premier last evening, and asked him if there was auy chauce of the Technical Education Bill being passed this session. Mr Seddon said as this was a policy measure, the Government desired to pass it into law this session, as by so doing they would be complying with the wishes of the people of colony. Every effort would be made to pass . -c measure this session. As the result of the Conference of Ministers :tmi IH tiers held during a meeting of the Pr-sbytf-rian Synod in Dunedin, a Church Defence Association has been formed there, with the name of the Presbyterian Church of Otago and Southland Defence Association. In objects—(l) To instruct and interest the office-bearers and people of the Chuich in he principles of Presbyterianism, and as to their rights and privileges as Presbyterians ; (2) to sco forth the bearing on the organisation and work of the Church of Otago and Southland of a union with the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand on the basis adopted by the last Synod ; (3) to secure, in the event of union the retention of the Otago Synod as an ecclesiastical court, subordinate to the representative assembly of the United Church ; (4) to secure that union on any basis shall not be completed until the basis, in its final foim, has been submitted to, and accepted with substantial unanimity by, the Presbyteries and Sessions, as representing the Church.

Professor Thompson, of the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, writing to the | London Daily Chronicle on the subject of ; Marconi's experiments in the matter of wireless telegraphy, says it is not the case that no successful attempts to signal through considerable distances by electric waves had previously been made. " Nearly two years ago Mr Rutherford successfully signalled by means of these waves between the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, and a station about three-quarters of a mile away This result was attained with apparatus of very moderate dimensions though the land between the. stations is thickly built over. Mr Rutherford used a detector of his own invention, and not the Branly Lodge coherer. The experiments where described in the 'Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.'" The Mr Rutherford mentioned above was formerly at Canterbury College, and being awarded one of the Science Research Scholarships offered by Her Majesty's Commissioners at the exhibition of 1851, he went Home some two or three years ago to prosecute his studies in electricity, his work being of such promise that the scholarship, at the end of two years, was renewed for a further term of a year.

The Cleveland Leader tells the following readable, if not quite original, story:—Mr Cyrus Bulwinkle is a man of good intentions, and the possessor of a heart about the size of a load of hay f but recently he fell into the habit of swearing. JS'ot that he thought it smart to swear, or that he was prone to lose his temper, but somehow he got to interjecting wicked oaths into ordinary conversation with a recklessness that tended to frighten people — especially ladies—who were not used to his ways. Mrs Bulwinkle worried over it a great deal. She remonstrated with her husband, and begged that he would be more careful. " Pshaw ! ' Mr Bulwinkle would reply at such timet;, *' what's the use being so fußsy ? My j swearing doesn't amount to anything. It's all from the surface—merely a habit, you know. I guess it's because the boys in the office swear so like - —~." Seeing that it was impossible to stop him by any ordinary means, the lady resolved to apply heroic treatment. So, a few evenings ago, when Mr Bulwinkle came home from the office he took a look at the lawn, and then bounded up the front steps to the porch, where his | wife was awaiting him. " Henrietta !" he exclaimed, " why don't you have the man mow our grass and fix up the yard. i. It looks like ." " Oh, I dc,n,".t care a ' | how it lookB,"' shs calmly replied. Mr Bnl- ' winkle stopped as it he had been shot. He turned pale "and looked at his wife in amazement. For a moment he thought his ears must have deceived him. Then he noticed a slight twinkle in her eyes, and, going «p to her and putting an arm around her, he said—"All right, dear j 141 $uit," And he di|»

Just in Time fob Christmas,—ln order to keep " up-to-date" with our steadily increasing business we have deaided to effect considerable alterations to our I premises, and to make room for the builders Hwo have' resolved to greatly reduce our 1 stock before Christmas. We have therefore culled a large quantity of our Tweeds and Worsteds, etc, to clear at the following reductions :—Men's suits to measure, usual price 90s, now 70a ; Men's trousers, usual price 255, now 15a 6d; etc. We have also pleasure in notifying that we have just been appointed agents for the famous "British Won* and Bicycles (both gents* and ladies'), which we are now selling with all the " up-to-date " improvements at the lowest cash prices, or on the most liberal terms to suit the convenience of our customers. (Every machine guaranteed)—Craighead and Bkbryman, the |e.ftto» Tailors and Outfitters. Smie Nm Vims,

The Maripoaa'« mail*, which left Auckland oh October 30, arrived in jbondon on November 28—three days early. Rusßia is said to own 30,000,000 horses, or nearly one-half of the whoiu numbor in existence. Most of them belong to the peasants of that vast empire. Mr 0. W. Steward, who has been connected with the local branch of the Bank of New Zealand, has been promoted to the lireytown branch, and leaves for the north this evening. At the mealing of the Charitable Aid Board held on Wednesday, the Mayor of Ashburton, and Messrs Dunlop, Harper, Rennie, and Weatenra were appointed the committee for the year for the Ashburton Old Men's Home. A gang of pickpockets travelled by the train which left Dunedin for Chriatcburch on Saturday night. During tha stoppage at falmerstott a passenger was relieved of £22, and at Timaru another was robbed of a purse containing £10. About 16,000 rabbitskins were delivered to the Government Inspector at Kihikihi, I Waikato, last week by the Datives, who 1 received the Government bounty for the skins. The rabbits were all kilted in the King Country ia the vicinity of Kihikihi. At Ohristchurch yesterday about three hundred children attended the funeral of Ruby Josephine Doyle, youngest daughter of the late Dr Doyle, The deceased bad been in attendance at the Barbadoee Street Convent •SbhooJ. A requiem Mass was said in, the morning by tho Rev. Father Qalerne ; and the Very Rev. Father.Cummings, V.0., Father Hegarty and Father Galerne were present at the funeraL Mr J. A. Henderson, poultry expert, has (says the Wellington Post) successfully initiated poultry competitions in three publio schools—Levin State Farm, Lower Hutt and Blenheim. At each of these placet ten willing youngsters have been supplied with a sitting of eggs each, all of the same kind, and a prize is to be given to the most successful hatcher and rearer of the sittings. There have been several successful batches already, . The libel action brought by Mr Mills, M. H.R., against the Press newspaper was concluded yesterday in Blenheim, when the jury after an hours' deliberation returned a unanimous verdict, for the defendant journal. It will be remembered that the Otags Daily Times, for publishing exactly the same statements with regard to Mr Mills, was unsuccessful iv the action he brought against it, and has to pay damages £150 and costs. Such is the glorious uncertainty of British law. Mr Thomas Wilson, of Heaview, brought to this office yesterday a slip of paper which he had found in a bottle on the beach near hia house, and which he thought might be of some value seeing that it referred to Mr Robert Elston. Upon showing the paper to Mr R. S. Elston he was much surprised, as he had thrown the bottle into the sea at New Brighton more than a year ago. That it should show up at the nearest point possible to where be himself lives is certainly very remarkable.

Synopsis of Nxw advkrtisements. Friedlander Bros.—Final Sale of Mr H. Zander's stock. J. Burns—Star \v heels for sale. Misses Rund!e—Dressmakers wanted. J. H. Jewitt—Fresh fish to-night. George Sbellock—lmpounding notice. Lost—Cap off waggonette. James Harrison, Cleat Hills—Shearing notice.