MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 2178, 27 June 1890, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS.

A Western man, announcing the illness of the editor, piously adds " All subscribers who have paid cash in advance are requested to mention him in their prayers. The others need not, as the prayers of the wicked avail nothing." This is pretty rough on the clergyman who had been getting free copies.

Combating tha assertion that the Light Brigade charge was objectless, "Francis M'Donald, who belonged to the Sanspareil, whicii was peppered by Fort Constantine and the Wasp Battery, writes to the ** Age ' that " only for that charge taking place Balaclava would have been lost to us, for once had the Russians captured the heights surrounding the harbor a few field pieces would have blown every ship to atoms, as the Tiger was served whilst on shore under the heights close to Odessa. Eight or wrong, the charge ended gloriously to our colors, and proved one of the be3t orders ever given on the Crimea." An instance of the old customs and ideas still remaining among the natives of Ruratonga is recounted by Mr Banbury, the charterer of the New Zealand schooner Sarah Pile. This vessel recently took the troupe of Raratonga natives who had visited Auckland for Jubilee celebrations to theirisland home, and on the voyage was beset by head winds. The natives became alarmed at this and vowed that some " Jonah " was on board. A meeting of enquiry and inspection was held amongst themselves, when it was discovered that several of the dusky beauties had presents of various kinds in their possession, such as silk handkerchiefs and other articles of personal adornment in which tbe feminine mind of the darkey as well as the pale face delights. They could not give any satisfactory reason for their possession of these treasures, which were at once confiscated, tabooed, and thrown overboard as a propitiation to the wind god. Strange to relate, after this the passage was as favorable as could be wished for, and the Raratongans are convinced that they did the proper thing.