BRIEF MENTION.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 145, 24 June 1902, Page 3

BRIEF MENTION.

Weather, samples, throughout the colony. Premier Seddon was 57 on Sunday last. Congratulations were cabled from New Zealand. Viscount Kitchener celebrates his 52nd birthday to-day. Health in a bumper. The Ameer of Afghanistan has deposed the Mad Mullah owing to his extreme age. Kitchener has complimented the Irish soldiers on their bravery. They do credit to the land of the Shamrock. Eve must have been the first woman to complain that she bad " nodings" to wear. The other day a partner in a Christ church firm caught the message boy reading a document which had been given him to deliver. After some leading questions bad been put to him, the youngster admitted that he was in the habit of opening and reading any letters with which he was entrusted. Needless to say, that youngster is now looking for fresh employment. The reception of the Indian princes at the Impei'ial Institute was to take place in London to-day.

It is expected that the Echo Lake Crater, alongside the Great Waimangu Geyser, at Rotomohana, will break out into eruption. It is very deep, and boiling hot, and its level is about 100 ft higher than Waimangu,

The weather is bitterly cold in New South Wales, and is playing havoc with starving stock.

The Lords of the Admiralty will spend £4000 on the entertainments in connection with the great naval review at Spithead.

A story comes from Crewe (England) that at a Scripture examination the diocesan examiner asked the question, " What is a curate?" and a little girl replied, " A curate is an inferior clergyman."

In the course of a junior football match ab Warrugal, Victoria, Thomas Higgins, the captain of one of the teams, received a kick in the stomach which proved fatal.

Another Desideratum.—" Do you think that wireless telegraphy will save time ?" " Yes, if they can invent some sort of a messenger boy less device for delivering the telegrams."

A number of merino sheep from the State of Vermont (U.S,A.), were brought to Sydney by the Vancouver liner Moana on her last trip.

It is believed that the new valuations in the Hawke's Bay County will mean an increase in the capital value of property of £448,279. " So you advise me not to sue," said the client. " I do," answered the lawyer. " Well," returned the disappointed client, "it seems strange that when a man pays for advice he can't get the kind he wants." The liquor question is at present being discussed by the two Wanganui papers, one for and the other against. They have gob as far as calling each other names, but up to the present no blood has flowed. A school teacher put the following problem in arithmetic to his class : — "If one horse can run a mile in one minute fifty-five seconds, and another a mile in two minutes, how far would the first horse be ahead of the other at the end of a race of two miles ?" A scholar returned the question with the attached: " Please, sir, mother says I must never have anything to do with horseracing." It is pleasing to recollect that the late Bret Harte first attracted notice in England by his beautiful tribute to Charles Dickens. Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting, The river sang below ; .The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting Their minarets of snow. Their roaring camp-fire, with rude humour, painted The ruddy tints of health On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted In the fierce race for wealth ; Till one arose, and from his pack's •scant treasure A hoarded volume drew, And cards were dropped from hands of listless leisure To hear the tale anew. And then, while round them shadows gathered faster And as the firelight fell, He read aloud the book wherein the Master Had writ of " Little Nell." A Christchurch shopkeeper has received a letter from a lady, who asks the tradesman to find her a suitable husband—" tall and about 24." As an inducement the lady, who does not sign her name, offers to give him an order for " at the least " £70 worth of goods. Mamma: "Do you think my daughter will ever be a musician ?" Professor : " I gant zay. She may, She dell me she gome of a long-lived family."

At an inquest held on an infant at Napier, a doctor stated the child had died from the results of feeding with flour porridge. Children, he said, should not be given other substance than milk until they were 18 months old.