Established 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING Wednesday, June 25, 1902. LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 146, 25 June 1902, Page 2

Established 1866. The Marlborough Express PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING Wednesday, June 25, 1902. LOCAL & GENERAL NEWS.

Rifle Club.—The meeting of the Tua Marina Rifle Club convened for Monday last was postponed to June 30bh, on account of the wet weather.

Meteorological. — Captain Edwin wires as follows : —Strong wind to galo from between southeast and south and southwest, glass rise, sea considerable, tides good, weather colder.

The Bank Holiday.—The banks, having advertised a holiday, will have to close to-morrow, there being no machinery under the Act by which they can cancel a holiday once pronounced.

Volunteer Ball.—The Volunteer Ball Committee met at two o'clock and decided to hold a combined meeting of the General Committee, and the ladies at the Drill Shed this evening at eight o'clock.

Mutual Improvement Society. — The lady members of the Mutual Improvement Society, not being amphibious, were conspicuous by their absence from last night's meeting, which consequently fell through. Only one lady (not a member of the Committee) attended, and the five or six members present adjourned till next week, when " impromptu speaking" will be the order of the day.

The National Anthem.—lt would seem almost incredible, in these days of Board Schools, when most children are taught to sing, that any village school children living within 60 miles of London should not know the National Anthem. A writer in,,£ounfcr> Xife vouckes-ler- fcufc-fcfutff of this. He says "That on May Day, the "garlanders" who came round with their May greetings, sang such hymns as " There is a green hill far away" and " When shep herds watched." The weather had probably led them to mistake the season. To divert their attention to more seasonaole themes, the correspondent told a party of the children that lie would like to hear " God Save the Kiug." The result was curious. The smallest child looked at the biggest, and the biggest looked at her toes, and then a middle-sized one said, "We don't rightly know it, but perhaps all of us together might do it," and they bravely started on a mixture which ran something like this, "God save the King, for Britannia rules the waves, and may he be glorious, long may ho reign," to a tune entirely of their own composition. This party was composed of girls ; the next garlanders were boys. When they were asked for " God Save the King" one cheerfully rep'ied " We don't know it. We did learn one verse two years ago, but they haven't taught us nothink since." Not more than ten out of 72 children had any notion of the National Anthem.

The latest garment for the present season for Gents' wear is the Chesterfield Coat, in three-quarter and full lengths. All sizes stocked. —Dee and Sons.

The Guava Plant. — When the writer arrived in Rarotonga first nearly twenty years ago, writes the Rarotong3 correspondent of the New Zealand Herald, there was not a single guava plant on the island, and there was a stringent law against the introduction of it (which I believe is in force to this day). But soon after some of the children of one of the managers of a firm on the island managed to get some of the fruitover from Atiu, and planted the seeds surreptitiously in the yard, and soon there was a flourishing growth of young plants. When the late Chief Judge, John Manurangi, ordered them to be pulled up, he was assailed with a storm of abuse and tears from the children, and beat a retreat, getting a promise from their father that they would be destroyed, which was never done. The pest will some day be past coping with.

Coronation Ball.—All gentlemen who are going to attend the ball should purchase one of our noncreasable Dress Shirts, at 7s 6d, 8s 6d, 9s 6d.-—Dee.and Sons.

Rat Poison.—What becomes of the rat poison, and where do the rats go ? was a question which the Wanganui Harbor Board was unable to solve at a recent meeting. The Foreman of Works reported that he had, as instructed, laid rat poison under the wharf and along the river banks, but had not seen a single dead rat, though the poison had disappeared. The opinion was expressed that it was little use the Harbor Board poisoning a few rats, when nearly every business place in the town was over-run by the rodents. It was thought that one day should be set aside for wholesale poisoning throughout the town. "We have Arbor Day and other days," said one member, ."and why not have a Rat Day?"

Coronation Ball.—The correct thing in Gents' White Kid Gloves, at 2s Gd, 3s 6d, ss. Dress Bows for the million. —Dee & Sons.

The Brought in Australia.—The following is an extract from a private letter received in Dunedin from Tutnat, New South Wales "• —" Over nearly the whole of New South Wales and Queensland the pastoral, and, to a large extent, the agricultural industry is on the verge of ruin. This is the fifth or sixth year of the drought, and the present year is by far the worst. On one station it is costing £2000 a week to feed the sheep, and on another £200 a day for hay. One squatter here bought up all the available stacks of grain (oats and wheat) to feed 50,000 sheep he was taking down from the mountains to Riverside. Horse feed has doubled in price during the last month, and will probably be three times the price within a fortnight." 1 ARE YOU THE LAUNDRY MAID?' If you are, don't forget that to turn out finished work, you must have Empire Company's Royal Blue,