BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXV, Issue 86, 17 April 1901, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

A blustering nor'-wester. Autumn leaves thickly strew the ground.

.We stand on the verge of winter. Energy and good fortune are twins, but energy was born first. A sea-cow, the weight of which is

said to be a quarter of a ton, is on view iv a Wellington lish-shop. Victory belongs to the most persevering,—Napoleon.

Poverty is the test of civility and the touchstone of friendship.—Hazlitt.

Wisdom is ofttimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.—Wordsworth.

Persecution is not wr.ong because it is cruel,7- but cruel because it is wrong. —Whately.

New Zealand's Federal escort will be trained at Christchurch, and the 22nd is spoken of as the date of their probable departure.

Hook, at a civic banquet, at the fifth course, laid down his knife and fork, and declared that he would take the rest out in money.

The Bishop of Ballarat (Dr Green) says that, owing to the gambling spirit which so largely prevai s among them, the people of Australia are rapidly becoming a nation of fatalists.

The young people are not heard to acknowledge Providence in the affairs of life. , When anything happens they do not say it is " providential," but it is "just my luck,"

The shareholders in a Newcast'eowned steamer bave received a dividend at the rate of IGO per cent, per annum. This was due to a handsome sum for salvage services.

Some idea of brewers' profits. Last year the South Australian Brewing Company netted £33,467, and after paying a dividend and making ample provision for bad and doubtful debts they were able to carry forward £22,614.

Lord Ranf urly has expressed regret at losing the conscientious and valuable services of the Hon. Mr Caclmau, who recently resigned from the Executive Council.

The Bishop of Bath and Wells (formerly Bishop of Adelaide) has refused to conlirjn candidates from one church in his diocese where incense is still used.

New railway carriages just arrived from America will be ready for use at the time of the Royal visit.

The booking office at the Government railway station, Wellington, was " burgled" on Sunday night.

The keys of the safe, which the clerk was in the habit of hiding in the office, were secured and £40 annexed.

The United States lias still 400 million acres of forest, Australia 00 million, India 45 million.

. His Shortcomings.—Ethel: "Have you noticed how Blinker drops his aspirates?" Fred: " It's nothing to the way he drops his vowels. I've got more than a dozen of his lOU's myself."

The annual loss in France caused by the ravages of hailstorms is said to amount to about 83,000,000fr. From 1873 to 1895 the figures varied from 40,000,0.00 to 134,000,000 francs. It is in the vineyards that the principal damage is done.

From the Seat of War.—Assistant: "Here are more despatches about that Jjatt^itf m Past," Editor; «wiiat

do they say?" Assistant: "It appears that both sides were greatly outnumbered, but each defeated the enemy with severe loss."

Nurse Mary Anne Soal, who nursed Her late Majesty in her last illness, was trained at the Royal Free Hospital, co nplcting her period of four years' training on April 30, 1898, when she was called on as the late Queen's nurse at Osborne, which post she held to the last.

The value of an oath has been called into question by magistrates of all ranks lately, and it is apparent that from the ease with which the biblical osculation is performed, and the subsequent fairy-tales indulged in by attestants, that the statutory " swear" is little use in getting at the (•ruth.

The lady who was asked by the official "Do you know the nature of an oath?" replied "Yes, y'r honor, since me 'usband is a bullocky," was not required to guarantee the truth of her remarks in her husband's way.

The recent lady whose experiences of police courts gave her, in her own ojrinion, the right to self-administer the oath, did so originally. She had stolon a shirt, and gave a sworn denial thus:—

" The evidence I'm goin' to give (smack) is the truth (louder smack), the whole truth (osculatory explosion), and nothing but the truth (volley), and I didn't take the shirt." She had taken it, however, and an x unconvinced justice sent her eeKwards for a week's spell. .

Would be Glad of a " Lift."—ln Manorhamilton Fair. Policeman (to farmer overcome by frequent applications of "mountain dew"): "If yez don't get up out ay that Oi'll be aft'her liftin' ye.'' Farmer (drowsily):'' Truth and Oi'll be obliged for a lift; the sorra fut can I walk at all at all."

A returned colonist informs a contemporary that the Sydney pickpockets " went through" some New Zealand visitors like a grass fire through a wire fence. A Napier man despoiled by a Sydney pickpocket decided to pawn his gold watch, but before he got to the shop the watch was gone too.