THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 6 March 1926, Page 18

THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS.

Winch is the highest known waterfall in the world?

What does philately mean? Last week’s question was answered by four Smiles: Trixie Carter, Doris Brown, Edith Wilkie and Mary Lindsay. The two given here were by far the best. Whose is next week's honour? And who will send in the next question? ROBERT BURNS The Scottish poet Robert Burns was born in a clay cottage on January 25, 1759, at Allowav. He went to school for two and a half years at Alloway, when, thinking to provide better for himself and his family, his father, William Burns, a nurserv-man, took a farm. Robert, at the age of 13, did farm work, and in two years’ time became the principal labourer on the farm. In 1754 his father died, and Robert and his brother Gilbert rented a farm. After inauv trials and much poverty, Robert Burns, went to Edinburgh to arrange for a second edition of his poems. This edition, the first Edinburgh Edition, brought him more fame than -ie had hitherto had. He married Armour and lived at Ellisland, where lie composed many wonderful pieces of poetry. After a brief illness, made briefer by poverty and pain, Robert Burns, one of the greatest poets the world has ever had, died in his house in Burns Street (then Mill-hole Brae) on July 21, 1790. —Doris Brown. Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, was a son of a small farmer settled in Ayrshire. He received a common education, during the progress of which he was employed in rustic labour. By application, however, he added to his mental acquirements some knowledge of the French language and of mathematics, besides cultivating an acquaintance with a few of the English poets. On the death of his father, he went into partnership with his brother Gilbert in a small farm, in which he was unsuccessful.

In 1755 a hook of hi.s poems was published and it was a great success. He got £SOO for a new edition. Then he again went farming, and married the original of his “Bonnie .Jean’’ poem. Hi.s letter writing was most original and vigorous. By general consent, Burns stands in the first rank of lyric poets. The centenary of his birth was celebrated in 155.9. —Trixie Carter.