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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 12, Issue 816, 8 January 1867, Page 3

Amplification. — Jean Paul says that a lady officer, if she wanted to give the word "halt" would do it in this strain : "You soldiers, all of you, now mind, I order you, as soon as I have done speaking, to stand still, every one of you on the spot where you happen to be : don't you hear me ? Halt, I say, all of you." Upon this a^ady in an American paper makes the following, comment : — "Now, Monsieur Jean, it was an unlucky day you wrote that sentence. May you 'halt' wifeless through life ; may your buttons be snappish, your strings knotty, and your stockings holy. May your bootjack be missing, your feet corned, your shaving water be cold, your razor dull ; your hair stand up, and your dickies lie down ; may your beard be porcupiny, your whiskers thinly settled, and your moustaches curl the wrong way ; may your coffee be muddy, your toast smokey, and your tea be water-witched. And with a never-dying desire for affection, may you crawl through creation a meek, miserable, nasty, forlorn, fidgety, fussy, ridiculous, ruined, dojcnted, ragged old bachelor. Amen."

Canterruby Tunnel.— The Press states that the driving at both ends of the tunnel is, and has for some time been, through soft rock, allowing the work to be carried on witli great rapidity. Only 170 yards remain to be driven, so that unless the hard rock is again met with, the tunnel will be opeif in April next. The shots at the Lyttelton side are now distinctly heard at the other or Heathcote face. This proves that there are no cavities nor any quicksand within the intervening space.

BuTTON-HoLKS ON BoTH SIDES. A gentleman in Charlestown, who entertained a good deal of company at dinner, had a black as an attendant. This servant, who was a native of Africa, could never be taught to hand things to the left of the guests at table. At length his master thought. of a plan which he imagined would be infallible ; and, as the coats were then worn in Charleston single-breasted, in the. present Quaker fashion, he told him always to hand the plate to the button-hole side. Unfortunately, however, for the poor fellow, on the day after he had received this ingenious lesson, there was among the guests at dinner a foreign gentleman, with a double-breasted coat, and he was for a while completely at a stand. He looked first at one side of the gentleman's coat, then at the other, and, finally, quite confounded at the outlandish make of the stranger's garment, he cast a despairinglook at his master, and exclaiming, in a loud voice, "Buttons on both sides, massa," handed the plate right over the gentleman's

head

Inbiauubber Type. — A manufactory for making printer's type of vulcanised indiarubber has just been started at Dalston. This new kind of type is said to be as easily made as the common type, 'and to be fully equal in quality and durability, the cost price being only one-third of the latter. It offers the advantage of less weight as compared with metal type, and it can be remoulded when worn. It presents particular advantages for stereotyping. The invention is American, and is said to be making rapid progress in England.