OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 203, 27 August 1910, Page 16

OVER THE TEA-CUPS.

DESIRE. Let mc sing a little, A catch, a stave, 1 iSo I can say I gave 5 One moment's rdeasure to a single soul, ! G?o one one moment that of joy was wbole; So when at last there comes a dimming of . the light, 1 I shall not fear to say "Good-night" : Let mc love a little, 1 A man,_,a child, A love all undented. Pour out my little love perchance nnkiS wn. Content to squander all on one alone; So when a withered heap all loves and _ passlots lie, = I shall not fear to say "Good-bye." - Let mc praise a little, a A god. my God, . Though I should feel His rod, I Praise Him although, my eyes be blurred with tears; j Content to guess a Pnrpose past the years; So when I lie at last with good deeds all too 1 few, I shall not fear to say "Adieu." 8 — ~~~_ ____ IDEAL WIFE. a . With the object of showing that the t lady typist is as well fitted for domestic 1 life as her sister who stays at home, the J British Association of Shorthand Writers 3 and Typists held an exhibition of their domestic work at the Passmore Edwards Settlement, Tavistock Place, last month. Fancy needlework, cakes, trimmed hats, ,_ sweets, darned stockings, and many other things done by lady typists in their spare time, challenged the criticism of the ' visitors. c The hon. secretary, Miss Eleanor Fitzf gerald, stated to 3, London Press representative that the" lady typist made the '_ ideal wife. These included her reasons. " Having had to live on 25/ a week, she knows the value of money. She knows what it is to be tired at the end of the day, and will not expect her husband when he comes home to 1 listen to her little worries. 0 She will know the value of punctuality. • It is not possible to talk all day in an ■" office > and she will be les% likely to chata ter. c "In fact," continued Miss Fitzgerald, "I think every girl ought to earn her living for at least a year before she a marries. This exhibition proves it. Just " look at those cakes." jj 13,000 FLATS WITHOUT .KITCHENS. Owing to the continuous increase of the already exorbitant rents in the poorer districts of the city of Budapest, tenants are organising a general resistance against 'the landlords. They refuse 0 to pay their rents and ignore all notices to quit. In some cases the landlords have tried to eject them collectively, but " they have appealed to Ithe Courts, and not infrequently defeated the house- , owners. _, The housing conditions of the working classes in Budapest are said to be perg haps the worst of. all the great capitals of Europe. According to ithe latest statistics available, there are more than thirteen thousand flats or apartments— there' ai_-no cottages—without kitchens. And between seventy a_d eighty per cent a of the wage-earners live in one room, c sometimes with kitchen attached, but j more often without. These places are in--3 conceivably filthy; doors and windows cannot be closed, and there is frequently s only one water tap for some ten or £ twelve parties. 3 And for such wretched' and insanitary quarters tbe working-man must pay very c often forty per cenft of his weekly , wages. The wonder is that the' revolt a against these intolerable conditions did not begin long ago. Possibly the people would have endured it still longer had p it not been for 'the constant demands made upon them for-higher rents. c COCKATOO 112 -___RS OLD. r J Cockatoos are well known to live ' to patriarchal age, and probably the oldest bird in the world whose age can 9 be traced with certainty flourished in a s well-known hostelry at Tom Ugly's 3 Point, near Sydney, New South Wales. a When he had feathers enough to dis- '■* tinguish his species he was recognisable : " as a lemon-crested cockatoo, but as he a had been "under bare poles" for half a '• century, few living people can remember •J when he had more covering tha.n be * shows at present. » He was owned for eighty years by a '• well-known master mariner of Sydney, '■ who died at the Solomon Islands in ISB7, i aged eighty-nine. The bird was presents ed to the captain when the latter was '- nine years of age, an£ he was then maa formed that Cocky was just the same n age. t The bird was left as a legacy to a - Mrs Bennett, of Sydney, but she did not n get him until IS9I. Since that perioi a the bird has lived at George's River, - within sight of where Captain Cook a landed, and when "the first flee.' ant chored about the year of his birth c None of his faculties is weakened, and 3 he is as loquacious as youngsters of his 1 tribe who may be a hundred years t younger. In hilarious moments he will flap his stumps—you could not call them wings—and yell, "I'll fly—m fly! B gee 111 fly." a palpably men d ac i 0U 3 c statement. a "VICTORIA, DAUGHTER OP i MACULLU__ MORE." - The Duke of Argyll's sister, Lady Vie- " tona Campbell, who died early in July ~ took very little interest in the excite- .. ments of London Society, and her visits . (says "M.A.P.") to town were exceedt mgly rare for a woman in her exallted ,] position. She was, indeed, something of (1 a recluse—a warm-hearted spinster :, whoso whole career was given over to c good work's, performed, for the most v part, in a distant corner of the country :- "far from the madding crowd." 3 Lady Victoria lived nearly all her life 3 on the island of Tiroe. a remote isle* 1 it off the West Coast of Scotland. The* ine habitants of Tiroe, numbering about r 2000, almost worshipped her. Nearly all g her time was sacrificed to the pleasure t- and profit of tho islanders. Until rea ce_tly,hh r labour of love was hampered d by a defective knowledge of the islande erg' language, so she secured the services d of a schoolma-ster and thoroughly mas:t tered "the Gaelic," a by-no-means easy c accomplishment. Lady Victoria, bein<* o greatly interested in nursing, wished to i- provide competent nurses for the sick s islanders. She (therefore addressed a s letter 'to them on the subject, written if entirely in the Gaelic tongue and si«_ed c "Victoria, daughter of Macullum More." n The fisherfolk and crofters in the s islands of Lorn, Argyll, and lona have c also every -joed reason to remember this c benevolent lady, who went from cottage i- to cottage day in and day out, providil ing the inmates with comforts and nee cessities. In appearance, like all her c family, Lady Victoria Campbell was fair- :- haired, small-featured, intellectual, and