BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXII, Issue 29, 4 February 1897, Page 2

BRIEF MENTION.

A waster, 78- m the shade at 9 a.m. The next highest, Auokland and Wanganui 73-. The Minister of Justice intends to be m Auoklacd for the opening of the Rifle Championship Meeting. Poor Finne; ! Quiet, unassuming, and deservedly resp'eoted. Why he was tired of life is not understandable. Hosts of friends mourn his Bad fate, and think of his untimely death with genuine regret. There are 162 patients m the Wellington Hospital just now, of whom 25 are obildren. Madame Fatti Bang at the Albert Hall recently to an audience of 10,000 people. Two wealthy Jews cf Bagdad now own all that remains of the anoient town of Babylon. A Frenoh florist has offered £1200 to anyone who can produce a plant whioh will yield blue roses. Canaries that are fed on too much sugar will be ruined so far as their singing is conoerned. Forty thousand pounds is spent eaoh week m keeping telegraph lines m Great Britain m order. " Father caught you smoking one of his cigars, did he ? And what did he do — Hole you?" "lio\ wish he bad." "What, then?" "Made me smoke it — right through." The toll gates m the Wairarapa North County produced £78 last month. Melbourne Clearing House returns show an increase of 9£ millions for 1896. A desoendiog cage etruok J. Booney, an engine-driver m the Proprietary Mine, and killed him. A railway contractor named Slater was run over and killed by a train near Moe, V otorio, recontly. There are 108 patients m the Ooolgardie hospital ; 70 were admitted during the first 15 dayß of the year. The wives of Siamese noblemen out their hair so that it sticks straight up from their heads. The average length of it ia about an inoh and a half. A little girl wished to prepare a gift for her saintly grandmother, and was allowed to do so unassisted. It proved to be a cardboard motto, seleoted by herself, and bore m eoarlet worsted: "Go, and sin no more." The Auckland brioklayers have demanded an increase of 3d an hour. They are at present receiving Is 6d per hour. la Hamburg a dog is taxed aooording to his size ; a little tax for a little dog, and a big tax for a big dog, "Paw," said Tommy Tucker, "am I descended from the monkey ?" " Not on my tide of the house," replied Mr Tucker, with muoh positiveness. In one of his astronomical leotures Professor Proctor says that 300,000 world?, the eiza of our earth, could be stored inside the eun, The Czar has purchased m London a costly suite of moiher-of pearl furniture, which was made for the Empress Josephine, the first wifr.^f Napoleon, Tbe threepenny-bit is not the popular coin it used to be with ohurobgoers m England. An analysis of a reoent collection at 8t Paul's showed that there were 564 sixpences as against 219 threepenny«bits. Judge: "Colonel, I understand you are acquainted with warfare m all its forms ?" Colonel: "No, Judge— no; not m all its forms. I'm a baohelor." In South Greenland the color of the hairlibbon whtoh a woman ties round her head denotes the sooial condition of the wearer —whether she be maid, or wife, or widow. An interesting oensu3 report reoently issued m Amerioa shows that if the wealth of the United States oould be realised and equally divided, there would be about £200 for eaoh inhabitant. It costs 403 and oosta m Manchester for a man to kiss a girl at a railway station m mistake for his sister, and now he ia sorry that he didn't pick out a pretty girl, A woman appeared m the Dunedin Police Court last week, who spent eleven months and five dsya of last year m gaol, having been convicted fifteen times for drunken* ness. She start 3 this year with a sentence of two month?. "Yon kain't set down no fixed rule o' conduct m disher life," eaid Unole Efaen, " Samson got inter trouble 'case he done got 'iB hah out, an' Absalom got inter trouble 'case ha didn't. On the application of relative?, a lady of wealth, aged forty- five, has been declared by an English oourt to be of unsound mind and incapable of managing her own affairs, She had delusions that every man she met desired to marry her, and unless placed under restraint would marry anyone she oame aoross.