Local and General.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XVIII, Issue 4362, 3 December 1897, Page 2

Local and General.

"Pro Plwrndo Basse "-9t_. inst Race Night-

Reading matter on fourth page, Up till 1775 only two stumps were used in cricket. There is a brisk demand for store pigs in Dunedin just now. The skin of the wolf is said to make the best covering for banjo heads. . Web to the length of 2j miles has been drawn from the body of a tangle spider. It is said that there are this year 60,000 pilgrims at Lourdes —so far the record figure. The Great Western Railway Company has the greatest mileage of any railway in Britain. In the Bank of England there are many silver ingots which have lain untouched for nearly 200 years. A newly-discovered spot on the sun, which is visible just now, is said to be 30,000 miles in diameter. A complete electric ploughing plant has been installed on an estate in France in the department of the Tarn. Lieutenant Peary says that the needful fiiiids for his uew expedition to the North Pole hi ye all been raised. A cubic foot of the btsl oak, when green, weights 711b lOoz ; when seasoned, tho wood is reduced to 431b Boz. The Elgin school concert; and dance takes place to-night, and Nf-wmau's drag leaves the Somerset corner at 7.20 p.m. Mr R. Alexander has purchased the publican's booths for the coming A.R C. Summer Meeting, to be held on December 9. A, B. Worthington proposes shortly to give a lecture on his experiences at Hobart, why he left, and why he returned to Christchurch. A Chinese hawker's basket has been held to be a shop within the meaning of the half-holiday Act, but a slaughteryard is not. Telephones are in common use on Sweoith farms, and even in Finland. If a traveller calls at a farmhouse, and his language is not understood, he rings up an interpreter, In spite of the closest espionage, the diamond mining companies of South Africa have had stolen from them during the year £1,000,000, of which they recover about oue half. Since the beginning of this century no fewer than 52 volcanic islands have risen out nf the sea. Nineteen of that number have

Since the beginning of this century no fewer than 52 volcanic islands have risen out of the sea. Nineteen of that number have since disappeared and tenare now inhabited.

A doctor says that persons who atiain I their thirtieth year without suffering from { any seriour, disease are likely—all things * being equal—to live till they are at least seventy-three yearß of age. A report from the office of the RegistrarGeneral of England contains the intelligence that 225 women reach the age of 100 years,;: while only eighty-five men out of a million count the milestone of a century. Attention was drawn by Mr E. G. Staveley, at jthe meeting of the Committee of the Canterbury A. and P. Association, to the exportation of humble bees to (Queensland, for which £10 per hundred was being paid, and it was decided to ask'the Minister for Agriculture to prohibit their exportation, on account of their value for fertilising red clover.

An interesting and valuable oil painting more than 200 years old has (says the New Zealand limes) been presented by the Countess Jouffray d' Abbans to the Rev. Father O'Sullivan, one of the professors of St. Patrick's College, Wellington. The picture, which represents "The Marriage of St. Catherine," is of the Florentine school of art* The advantage attendant upon £the daily gathering and careful packing of eggs has often been written upon, but toe seed thus sown has fallen on barren soil. A writer in an Australian paper says it is frequently the cisc that the "fresh" egg contains a chicken in the course of development.. In some cases the chicken is so far developed that the delicate Question 'might easily arise in the vendor's mind as to whether he should sell his produce as eggs or spring chickens. TJsi . I may state, is no exaggeration, for a summer or two ago I was present at a produce salesroom when a chicken was hatched out in the course of the sale of some eggs. Were it not for the sultry nature of this statement, it might be imagined that the story originated in the United States.

The of what rem«ins of Mr j Henry Zan _»•-* _„_.>_ive stock will take! place on Saturday at twelve o'clock, at Mr | Ziuder's shop, East street. The lawn tennis court at the High School for so long idle owing to the vasfi amount of weeds growing upon it, which even hockey playing failed to eradicate, is now being replaced by an usphalt court, which the contractors hope to have in readiness for playiiig by the end of next week. j Sir George Clifford brought up at the | meeting of the Committee of the A. and P. | Association the i-pread of. barley grass, and comment wai made on the fact that the Government had omitted it from the Noxious Weeds Bill. It was decided on Sir George's motion to send a circular to local bodies asking them to take steps to eradicate it on the roads, etc., in theit respective districts. Maliuki, the Maori prcphet, appears to have a very firm belief in the powers of the mystic number seven. According to the Auckland Star his principal outbreaks occurred every seven years ;he had seven •• angels" in his latter days; he broke twice seven panes of glass when he went on the war-path at Te Kuiti recently, and it took seven men to run liim in. In the face of I this it will no doubt seem to him in full accord that his sentence of imprisonment should be for seven years.

A representative body having certain control in a local suburban borough was asked to exercise that control in the way of ordering the removal of some structures which from their appearance would bring them under the ban of any Beautifying Association. A member of another local body suggested as an effective method the introduction of a few larrikins to car.-y oat the work of demolition, and he jokingly added that if there were none available elsewhere he fancied,he could obtain a supply. y The Hawke*s Bay Herald reports an odd case of mislaying a Government loan to a settler in the Urmondviile district. The settler applied for a loan, offered good security, and the application was granted. There was some red tape to be put straight, and the man waited and waited for the money, but it did not come. Tbe application and grant became a year old, and the settler received notice that the interest on the loan would be due in a few days, when he had to remind the Department that he had never received the loan.

A very enjoyable meeting of the Star of the East. Lodge, 1.0 G.T., was held in the Templar Hall on Wednesday last. Three candidates were initiated into the order. The Lodge resolved to postpone the open lodge until a more convenient season. It was also deoided to invue the officers of the Pride of Wakanui Lodge to preside at the local Lodge on December 15. The fraternal < greetings of the Wakanui Lodge were received. The committee's report referring to the united Lodges' picnic, to be held on New Year's Day, was favourably received. At the inquest at Christchurch on.Thursday touching the death of Edward Henry Stevens Hill, übo was killed on Wednesday through the collision of his bicycle with a baiter's cart, the evidence showed that tbe driver.of the cart was absolutely blameless. The jury returned a verdict of accidental death, and added the following rider :— " The jury are of opinion that steps should be taken by the authorities to regulate the speed of bicycles, to insure by. bicyclists the observance of the rules of the road, and to provide penalties for breaches of the regulation."

Professor Black, whose method of gold \ extraction by the use of permanganates has ! been attracting considerable attention, is i about to conduce a number of experiments j with ores from the Auckland district, which , have proved refractory, but which he believe* can be easily treated by his process. Professor Black states that he had several experimental trials with Mount Morgan ore, and the result was a saving of 95 per cent of the gold and all the copper. He estimates the cost of treatment after roasting at 5s per ton.

Synopsis or Niw Aqvkbtisbmhnts. , Lost—An umbrella. A. P. Williamson—Ladies'Gloves. Lost—Fur boa. H. M... Jones—New books and Christmas goods. G. T. Smith —A record. A. Warren—Basketmaker. J. H. Jewitt—Fresh fish. Wanted—Strong Girl.

Mr A. Warren notifies in our advertising I columns that he intends commencing busiI ness in Ashburton as a baßketmaker, and i thinks with reason that he will be able to : supply a long felt want in this connection.