BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIV, Issue 36, 12 February 1900, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

Chahqeable woatner oontinues. Gold en&p Saturday, brilliant sunshine yesterday, and been this morning. Peouliar oiroumßtanoe ox oold snap oi B&turday was that while a fall of hail oooarred a oonple of miles away nothing of the bind was experienced m town. General Bailer not yet at Ladysnoitb. After being heavily Bhelled be bas again withdrawn aorosd the Tagela River. The general is evidently aoting with wise diaaretiorj, and doeß not intend to take any xißka. He found the Boere m great Btrengtb, With masked ganß~"Long Tom," Nordenleldtf, Ac— and deoided to retire. He will go, probably, for a snorter out. Tbe tßllest applicant for service ifl Sooth Afiioa, with the Auckland Rough Riders, up to the present, ia a yonng fellow from Kihikihi, who Btanda 6ft Tin ia his Btooking feet. . 4 . A boy, Henry James, aged 11, committed ■aioide at Hobart the other day by hanging. A dreadful yaobtiDg acoident— by whioh four promising young men lost their lives, hat ooearred m the* Wellington harbour. A Bquall;-Bhe6t tied.-oapsiae Every Boer farm bouse that the New Zealanders come across they quiz all over and ' have a look to Bee what is m the oupboard.' . I There are indications of an important movement Xt Modder Biver. Field-Marshall Lord Roberta bas arrived there, and Major General Frenoh with cavalry have alßo reaohed the same place. The New Zealandera will probably experience stirring times. Britain will triumph m the long run by iheer force of numbers, bat long ere this is brought about Paul Eruger'a prophesy will have been fulfilled— a price will have been paid that will Btagger humanity. An intimation— alas, too late— comeß to m irom Auckland to attend the opening of the flrat lager-beer brewery m New Zealand. It is said that the Prohibs. have taken another hitch m their pants since they heard that a lager-beer foundry was to be etarted m Auokland. A Beoret memo, presented to the Volksraad shows that the Boers had 230 modern guns previouß to the declaration of war. They had been getting ready for it for years. A cunningly devised eoheme to entrap the Britißh baa again failed, By means of a war balloon the British discovered a dozen cleverly masked guns at Doorlikloop, commanding Ladyßmitb. In England the legal age for a child beginning work is 11 ; m France, Holland, Bußßis, and Belgium, 12 ; m Germany, 13 ; m Switzerland, 14. In Queensland it is also 14. Good International Law.— Jabbers : "I tell you, old man, it's a terrible thing when your wife quarrels with her mother, and the old lady lives with you. Whioh side do you tike ? M Havera : '« Neither. I preserve an alarmed neutrality." While engaged m working on tbe Dorrigo Boad, Bellingen (New South Waleß), on January 26, a man named James Kelly was instantly killed through a body of rook falling, and pushing a crowbar through bis body. Another picturesquely o!ad traveller has turned up m Wellington. Hie name ia Mr Jesse Brandini, and, m the costume of " II Trovatore," be is indulging m a saunter round the world, visiting all the oapitala, and existing solely by his own efforts as an entertainer. Of oourse, be is doing all this for a wage?. Doctor: "Well, old man, what's your trouble?" Patient: "Ob, doofcor, I have unbearable noises mmy head— a regular jingle, jingle that never oeosea." Dootor: " Quite a common complaint lately : nothing serious, lon've got a mixture of ' Sons of the Bea' and 'Soldiers of tbe Queen.' " A poor woman was m a London shop buying some tobaooo and a pipe for her boy m South Africa, and the little parcel was being directed for her, when the paper oame m with the list of casualties at Modder tiver, and among the killed was the name of her boy. She took the paroel homG to weep over. More war news made m Germany.— The Staats burger Zeitung learns that the day after the battle of Modder river the following telegram was sent by direction of the Queen to " a related Court" (meaning probably Germany) :— " Our troops beaten with great Blaughter. Majority of the officers fallen." On the West Coast a miner bailing from Kewoastle, England, was m the habit of keeping a sovere gn out of hia pay every fortnight. His wife, finding the plant, ehaDged the boy. for a half boy. and covered the plant over again. Poor Geordy, un flovering it a few day a after, gazing sadly at it, exolaimed : l% Ay, binney, how thous pined ?" The New South Waleß " dog bill " for 10 yearß, 1839 98. reckons the number of sheep destroyed by dingoes and other dogs at 1,814,628, valued at £448,980. It is said that dingoes are rapidly on the increase m tbe western districts, owing to the number of rabbits alwayß available for food when mutton ia" off." A Boer captured near the British camp at Frere by the outpoßts of the Irish FusiHere, was dresßed m a khaki uniform, with a marksman's orosE-guna on the left arm, presumably one of our men's uniforms. He ib about 20 yeara of age, and looks like • Natal Pntohman.