LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXIX, Issue 7824, 17 June 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The work of the Technical Classes Association continues ; to make steady headway in several desirable directions. One of the latest instances of this is disclosed by the following letter received in Wellington on the 15th. instant by Mr, W.< Nosworthy, M.P. ;for Ashburton: '' Minister's Office, Education' Department, Wellington, June 15th, 1909. Sir,— Referring to the te.legram to you, dated the 10th June instant, from' Mr W. Hodgkins, regarding the recognition of a class for repousse work and enamelling at •Ashburton, 1 have now to inform you that the North Canterbury Education Board, tho controlling authority of the class in question, is being informed that the class has been recognised. —I have the lionour to be, sir, your obedient servant, Geo. Fowlds, Minister of Education." The Gazette of the 10th instant contains ,a notice fixing the closing hours for the shops of all drapers, clothiers, and bootr-merchants in the borough of Ashburton, in terms of the tehops and Offices Act. The hour of closing for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday is 6 p.m.; Thursday, 1 p.m. ; and oaturday, lJ p.m. The effect of the notice is that all shops in thei trades mentioned must be closed at the time stipulated; and, though customers wlio are inside at closing time may' be served, the shop doors must be locked, or .effectually closed against the public^ The Buildings" Committee reported to tiie iNcrtn Canterbury Education .board yesterday that, a rurther letter. Had been received trom tne ■ Department stating that the board's request ior payihfc~L of the whole of the grant lor nee"' books could hot bo complied with until the. Department had been furnisned with information. in regard to the sums expended. It appeared that- the Board would, be able to. ot* tain a refund of sums expenued without having to furnish a complete ana detailed return of the expenditure. ;,, According to the Dominion, the pastor of one of the Wellington churches cannot remember any winter when he had more destitute people appealing to him for help than he has now. It would appear that the Grey Borough Council is in a'bad way financially, as it has* jusfciischarged ten'of its employees because it had no money with Which to pay them. Some of the men had been in the service of the Council, for over twenty years; The Bpard of Governors of. the Lincoln College met yesterday,. with the. Hon. E. C. J.'-Stevens (in the,,chair). With regard to the election of members of the Board, the chairman said that it had been: suggested that, instead of having three members elected by the various Agricultural and. Pastoral Associations of the jirovince, the province should be divided into three' districts; the Associations in each district to elect one member. The matter was discussed, and it was the opinion of members that the present system of election was quite satisfactory. ' : A Westport Press Association telegram says that the Hon. J. A. Millar has telegraphed to the Chamber of Commerce the following reply to the resolution passed by that body regarding the shortage of trucks to receive coal on the east coast :—"The Department is doing its best in the matter, but cannot find trucks to keep several vessels discharging coal night and day at the same time."

■Ml- Bates telegraphed to-day; as .fol-! lowtf:" Expect southerly winds with .a fallittf glass soon, increasing to strong j winds and then to a gale; ram \P*°-\ bake/, and the weather will probably j be Colder'. 1 Leave of absence was granted yestel'day by tfe Education Board tovMTS I. Anderson,' mistress at Riverside", for two' months. , The following -appointments were made—Elgin, Mrs E. N. Donald, mistress, sole charge ; Hinds, Miss F. Kent, mistress. \ - During the progress of the senior football match, Methven v. Ashburtoh, yesterday, an Ashburton forward, had his .slioitlder dislocated && & Result of overreaching himself arid falling heavily i» the ground.^ He attended .a doctors ajid had his injuries attended to, aiidC>will be unable to follow fiis Usual vocntioh for at least a fortnight. I Ilpon the arrival of the "first express I foff the south' at Ashburton this morn-1 ingyjorie vof the first-class carriages was discovered to be on fire. The fire was I c'a'iised by friction, and, originiiting in the axle-box, i* caught the wood-work surrounding it. The- passengers upon hearing Vwhat had happened, -.became slightly alarmed, and quickly left the carriage; which was afterwards ed- from, the train and the, fire extinguished. •; : .. '■ The Council of the Canterbury .Acclimatisation Society received a.letter on "Wednesday evening from Mr Burnett Cox a resident i.ii the Chatham Islands, stating that there were a large richer of black shags on the islands, and they did a great deal of damage by eating young wild ducks,and eggs, .He sugPested. that';the. Society | Should- encourage the: destruction of shags \hj_ offering a reward for each shag killed. liie Council decided to ask.Mr Cox to furnish evidence that the shags-, were responsible for the destruction of young ducks. The weekly meeting of the'Ashbiirton Good. Templars' Lodge was lield last evening, with Bro. H. Rands, presiding, and there was an attendance of abcrat forty members. One candidate was proposed for membership and one was: initiated. . Alter the transaction of formal business; the remainder of the evening was. passed in'dealing with the contents of, a qtiestion'box. > Speaking on the question of Bible reading in the Public Schools at yesterday's meeting of the Education Board, Mr H. W. Peryman said that the Bible had done a good thing for the British nation. There was a strong, movement in New Zealand to-day to b.elittle the Bible, and he must strongly protest against it. The day? that the British Empire gave up --Bible would be the beginning of the-;■■.jLm-pire' s decay. He hoped ; his children would see the day when the Bible would be the most prominent book in 1 all the schools of the world. " After the House of Representatives adjourned last evening, "thfe members of the Parliamentary - Press gallery waited on Sir Joseph. Ward in the Cabinet room and formally wished him farewell prior to his departure for London. The chairman and vice-chair-man 'of the gallery thanked the Premier, for the courtesy always extended by'"'him to the "fourth-estate,'.' and conveyed to him the best wishes, of the Parliamentary pressmen for;: his" success in his mission to the Old' Country. Sir Joseph (replied in a characteristically ; happy speech,, arid said he only regretted that frequently he could not give,the Press representatives, many " tit-bits " in the way of news-which came his way. He concluded; by expressing the hope that all would meet again in October when; Parliament reassembled., : ; • • A social was held on Tuesday evening in the ante-room of the Tabernacle in connection with the Baptist Young Men's Society. The attendance,,which was fairly large, included a number of ladies, together with.: members/of the society. During the evening a .capital programme consisting of vocal.and instrumental selections, recitations and games, was carried put, those. contributing items being as follows:;Miss.L.. Palmer, vocal solo; Miss Butterjck and Mr Pitt, recitations; Mr Claridge, vio- v lin solos; and,Mr Watt, clarionet solo. The accompaniments'were played by Miss Gates. There were various competitions for prizes. Supper,.provided by the young men, was handed round, and after the usual votes of. thanks had been proposed and carried,; the meeting was brought' to a close .with the singing of the Doxologjv- ; >. "Phenomenal" and "unseasonable" are some of the terms adopted inldescribing the weather experienced oi late- Yet it may be said that, so far, no ordinary winter weather has prevailed and as a proof of this one has only to take a trip through some of the country surrounding Ashburton. Fields that at the present per.iod , are looking green and fresh would have under ordinary circumstances been brown and almost denuded of stock feed. Oats and wheat that were sown early have, in the absence; of ■• continuous frosts, made wonderful headway, ■and so vigorous has been the.growth that in many cases oats are ready to be fed-off by stock. Although rather early to .make any definite statement; it is pleasing to note that so far there are no signs of the grass-grub working in the crops, although farmers state that the plough -reveals large numbers of worms in the soil turned over. Unfortunately, while crops and- grass have made rapid growth, weeds have also shown a corresponding tendency to increase, which shows.that the land has been overtaxed; and that; it, is in need of some form of phosphate, _as Mr Hugo Friedlander . and others' (including this journal) have, urged from' time to/.time. Still,- the agricultural, and pastoral prospects, taking everything into .consideration, are most encouraging, and the present indications-point to. 1 another successful season for; the farming community. .- .,'■:'.■.'',;■'■. A few weeks ago a number Of the permanent workers at the > Fairfield freezing works held a. meeting, .and decided to hold "an annual ball. The matter was warmly taken up', and a strong committee was appointed to mako the necessary arrangements and carry .chem out. The ball waa ; held in the Oddfellows' Hall last evening, when there was an attendance of over two hundred people. The hall has seldom presented a more attractive '"appearance than it-did last night/admirable taste having been shown in arranging the evergreens and miniature „ flags, 'which formed the main features of the decorations; , The stage; had been arranged as a sitting-room^ for those- who did not dance. The floor was in capital order for dancing; music was provided by Terris's hand;.. and Messrs R. Ro.oke. and .J. ..Kavanagh officiated as Masters of the Ceremonies. :.A : firstclass" supper was provided in', the-large room at the rear of the< hall, and- was laid .out in Mrs Elliott's "best . style. .Mr! and ..'Mrs.-A. C. Elliott provided!,the supper..and decorated . the hall, and their efforts were much appreciated by the copimittee. ( ,_ ,-.;■' , The following sales were effected. at -the Addington market on Wednesday on account of Ashburtoii county farmers: Wethers: For F. Reesby (Lyndhurst), at 14s 7cl; T. Dowling (L6wclifFe), 39 n l-. 13-:- 8d to 14s 7d; E; J. iJangley (Chertsey), 30 at. 13s sd. ;Ewes:, t T. Richards (Rakaia), 60 at 10s l|d" to 12s;.:Canon Brothers (Ashburtoii), 63 at 10s Id tolls 7d; W. "■ Wilkinson (Chertsey), 60 vat lls; T. Dowling (Lowcliffe), 152 at 9s 2d to 10s lid; J. !T. Mangin (Methven), ] 59 at 9s 6d to Us; G. Hartnell (Rakaia), 64 at lOs 6d.';to 10s 9d; R. Oakley (Overdale)/64 at 9s 6d to 10s 9d; R. F. Reesby (Lynd■hurst), 110 at 9s. 6d to 9s7d; T. Longley, junior (Ohertsey), 31 at 8s 6d; E. •T. Loriglev (Chertsey), 30 at 7s 3d." Fat lambs: W. Young (Highbank), 30 at los od; T. Langley, junior (Chertsev), 129 at 13s 6d; T. A. Protheroe (Highbank), 36 at 12s 6d.