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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 11, Issue 819, 19 January 1867, Page 4

A Modern Literary Partnership. — The last literary partnership we shall notice arose out of a fortuitous concurrence of circumstances, and like its appropriatelynamed product, may be said to be Quite Alone. This unlucky story, bearing the joint-names of Messrs. Sala and Halliday, claims the first-named author as its real parent. Mr. Sala had about half-written the novel when he started for America as war-correspondent of a daily paper, and nothing doubting his ability to complete it, handed the unfinished story to the editor of a popular periodical, who forthwith introduced Quite Alone to the public. Mr. Sala, however, soon found he had underrated the difficulties in his way. To guard against postal uncertainties, he was compelled to use a manifold writer which did not conduce to ease of composition, particularly when his powers of self-concentra-tion were taxed by the hubbub of war and travel. 'In a new country, among strange scenes and strange people, hurrying from place to place, badgered, and baited, and hated, always abused, often in peril of life, and under all hazards compelled to send home every week, from six to eight columns of matter to a London newspaper — in the midst of noise, confusion, smoke, cursing and swearing, battle, murder, and sudden death ;' what wonder that the unhappy novelist j broke down ? First, he lost the thread of his narrative, and next, utterly forgot the very names of the personages he had created — and when things came to this pass, there was nothing for it but to give in altogether. Meanwhile his editor at home was driven to desperation by the mails bringing no ... . ' copy,' and at length was obliged,, in order to keep faith with his patrons, to prevail upon ' another hand to finish it ; ' and until Mr. Sala returned from America, he had not the slightest knowledge as to the identity of his partner. We scarcely know who was most to be. pitied — the baffled novelist, *' another hand,' or the bewildered editor. Critics, too, grumbled because they could not find fault with a plot for which no one was responsible — 'If we object to the beginning, Mr Sala will say he meant to make it all right at the end ; if we object to the end, the other hand will naturally say he was fettered by Mr. Sala's beginning.' In fact, the beginning seems to have been ignored altogether. The introductory chapter describes the heroine as always alone ; riding alone in the Park, dining alone at a Bond Street hotel, appearing at Greenwich, Ventnor, Richmond, Paris, 'always quite alone.' She is, in short a perfect enigma; and to explain how and why she comes before the world as a sort of female Robinson Crusoe, is the avowed purpos9 of story. * Mr. Sala is evidently not quite satisfied with his uninvited coadjutor's explanation of this matter, and promises, if the fates and the public be propitious, to give us some day another edition, ending as he originally intended. It is a pity he should be balked in his desire. Quite Alone is a curiosity of literature as it is ; it would be a still greater one as a novel with two endings. — Chambers' Journal, Sept. 29, Bees. — The Marengo correspondent of the Yass Courier thus writes : — Bees, bees. Nothing but bees. Every day are persons to be seen and heard performing vigorous frying-pan fantasias, with an occasional (when stung) pas seul or pas de deux accompaniment, trotting along after swarms of young bees. Meanwhile, numbers of swarms escape from their owners into the bush, where they are generally found by sharp-eyed young natives, who " box" and carry them home in triumph. I should like to see every poor man with two or three dozen boxes round his garden, filled with these industrious, melliferous little insects ; which, after being once caught, cost their owners but little time or trouble, and nothing for subsistence, and yet supply them amply with honey (on the average fifty pounds yearly from each hive), wax, and that splendid drink (when properly made) delicious mead, the delight of our Saxon forefathers. The Curative Properties of Kerosene. — The Talbot Leader is responsible for the following: — A singular discovery with reference to some of the peculiar properties of kerosene has been brought under our notice. It seems a few days since a man saw a horse in a most dilapidated condition grazing in a paddock not far from Talbot. Its skin was partially peeled from the body, and there were several 1 sores in the flesh. With a view to put the animal out of its misery, and thinking his remedy would have this effect, the man suggested to the owner that he should throw kerosene over it. The idea seemed a happy one to the owner, and he put it into practice. A few days afterwards,. however, he was gratified by seeing his horse gyrating about the paddock apparently in the happiest state of mind possible in a quadruped, and with a beautiful, glossy, and whole skin in place, of the unsightly and dilapidated one it had before the kerosene was applied," '