LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXI, Issue 7934, 16 December 1909, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Private advices received m Ashburton from Wellington yesterday afternoon confirm the reported death of the Land Bill, for this session at any rate. A prominent leaseholder,, a member of the House, writing on the- subject, states that during the recess the more ardent land reformers intend to rouse the country to til© whole position as far as the land question is concerned. After the New Year some of them propose to meet; and the writer's idea is that they should form a National Land League, the object of which should be the preservation of the national estate for the people for all time. "This," he concludes, "ought to appeal to every freeholder, as well as to ©very leaseholder." ' Mr E. F. Stead says that the small German owls which some local bodies are importing will probably attack some of the native birds, and it is doubtful whether they will prove efficacious m exterminating small birds. The owls kill only for food, and as they aro not birds of abnormal appetite, they will probably do little good. Ho has been told that most of the owls take to the bush, and nowhere have they exterminated the sparrows. Miss Alice M. Roberts, Matron of the Masterton Hospital, has been paying a short visit to Ashburton. The local telegraph office is advised from Berne that communication with Rome and Constantinople is now restored. It was pointed out by a Marylebone guardian that the order for 28,800 pills, to be supplied to Marylebone paupers during six months, worked out at an average of 160 pupils per day for each inmate of the poor-law infirmary. Mr Cyrus J. K. Williams, engineer to the Lyttelton Harbour Board, will leave on his visit to Europe by the Moldavia from Sydney on March 3rd next year. Mr Williams expects to be absent from the dominion for four or five months, and proposes to return via America. The Rev. Canon Pollock and the Rev. H. Kennedy will. arrive m New Zealand on January 20th to arrange for the general mission m connection with the Church of, England. A Forty-mile Bush settler informed Ti Wairarapa Age representative that the present season is the driest that lias been exnerienced m the Forty-mile Bush for some time. The grass is already wearing a dried tint, and the creeks arc lower now than they were at the height of last summer. Medical inspection of schools, so the chairman of the Wellington Education Board has announced, is favoured by the boards throughout the dominion. On the motion of Mr Aitken, it was decided that a precis of the replies of tho different boards should he forwarded to the Minister of Education (Mr Fowlds).

The shipments from the WestportStookton Coal Company's mine last week amounting to 7029 tons; a rword. The meeting of thfe ebiihcii of the Ashbiirtoh Acclimatisation 1 Socioty, called for last evening, lapsed for want of a quorum: Up to date, the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society has. disposed of 692 adults' (£1) fishing licenses, 281 ladies and boys* (ss), making a total ot W6 licenses, representing £7(19 los. The Canterbury A. and P. Association has already received several favourable replies to its circular regarding the proposed conference on the dominion's frozen meat trade. The mails which left Ashburton on Novomber 4th, and connected at bydney with the Brindisi mail per R.M.b. Macedonia, arrived m London on the night of December 10th—due date. • "We are at our wits' end—that's a sober description of the case," said the Rev. Dr. Gibb at the Wellington Presbytery, referring to the dearth of candidates for positions as home missioners. A dairyman at Market Rasen has I been ordered by the County .Court judge to pay a debt of £18 by msta - ments of one penny a month. It will thus take 360 years to pay ott the debt. A floral fete, held at Hastings last week, m aid of the Society for the Health of Women and Children, was I most successful/the gross takings being £250. New potatoes are being sent to Timaru at .present, from Seachff, and are being sold m 1001 b bags at from lid to 2d per lb, according to size. They are splendidly grown for so early m the season. A shipping authority stated yesterday (says the Timaru Herald) that it was quite possible that a flat-bottomed boat which had been sighted by the Kittawa 18 miles off Timaru on Tuesday may have been the one concerned m the Rakaia river fatality about a fortnight ago. At a meeting of the General Labourers' Union at Dunedin last night resolutions were passed protesting^ against the Land Bill, and urging the Minister of Mines to introduce legislation providing for the safe working of quarries. In speaking to a Christchurch reporter yesterday, Mr A. E...G Rhodes expressed the opinion that there.,will be a notable revival of trade m England, and he says that, no doubt JNew Zealand will benefit by it. The Dunedin Council of Churches has forwarded to all the Dunedin I members of Parliament, as well as the Premier, the following resolution: "That this Council of evangelical churches of the city of Dunedin notes with sincere pleasure the- promised introduction of a Bill this session to abolish the totalisator and bookmaker, as well as to reduce the number of races, believing that such a Bill, if passed into law, would greatly reduce the gambling evil now so prevalent m the dominion. We urge upon the representatives of this city the necessity for giving their hearty support to the Government m the passage of the Bill into law." The following sales were effected on account of county farmers at the Addington live stock market yesterday : Fat Lambs—D. Hurst (Rakaia), 82 at 11s 5d to 12s 8d ; J. J. Dplan (Rakaia), 87 at 11s 4d to 12s 4d; G. M. Coleman (Greenstreet), 25 at Us 3d to 12s 3d. Fat Sheep—Wethers: J. Withell (Ealing), 175 at 13s 3d to 16s 9d ; W. F. Magson (Rakaia), 66 at 13s lOd to 14s lid ; A. D. Mcllraith (Rakaia), 122 at 13s lOd to 14s lOd ; W. Wilkinson (Chertsey), 30 at 14s 3d; F. J. Andrew (Rakaia), 137 at 13s 4d. Ewes : A. D. Mcllraith (Rakaia), 60 at 13s to 14s ; J.Milligan (Kyle), 60 at 11s 9d to 12s lOd ; W. Wilkinson (Chertsey), 30 at 12s lid ; J. Sowden, junior (Rakaia), 49 at 9s 3d to 11s Id ; J. J. Dolan (Rakaia), 91 at 8s 3d to 10s lid ; J. Withell (Baling), 63 at 10s 6d ;' Anderson Bros. (Tinwald), 26 at Bs. In the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon Mr George Laurenson said that he was very strongly of opinion that the Government should give ita immediate attention to the system under which men who held large areas of land under other tenures were able to lease educational and other reesrves. Tens of thousands of acres of land t were being leased from public bodies by men who already held large areas. The result was to block settlement and keep landless men off the soil. A return had been presented to Parliament showing that large areas of land controlled by School Commissioners had been allowed to fall into the hands of big land-owners. Native land, m particular, was being monopolised m that manner. One man, the Hon. J. D. Ormohd, who held very large areas of freehold m the Pahiatua district, had been allowed to leas© from the School Commissioners blocks of 3827 acres, 6414 acres, 449 acres and 433 acres. That constituted a public scandal, and Parliament should step m and say m no uncertain voice that a man who could not sign the ordinary declaration under the Land Act should not be eligible to lease reserves of any sort. .;"'. Carson, the Up-to-Date Cycle Man. —G. H. Carson, of Tancred street^ has something specially good m his new models of Carson popular cycles, at £12 10s. These machines-are built for speed "and durability. Being very light, they are- easily propelled; and being built by a reputable firm, they are thoroughly reliable. Carson's Dreadnought tyres are a new line; there is three years' hard wear m these tyres; price, 20s cover, 7s 6d tube. You are invited to inspect these splendid lines. No on pressed to buy. 11 00