BRIEF MENTION.

Observer, Volume 9, Issue 523, 29 December 1888, Page 11

BRIEF MENTION.

— McCarthy, of Dunedin, seems to be distinguishing himself at the Tasmanian Rifle meeting. — Great demand for Observer Christmas number. ' Money turned away from the door«, i as the show people say. — European Mail thinks « the tide has j turned ' in New Zealand, and that there is a good time coming very speedily for Maorilanders. —-The police (acting on Observer tip) raided Chapel-street rookeries. It would be in. teresting to have a list of the 'visitors' discovered at the houses raided. — We are given to understand that the long expected order of the disbandment of the Auckland battalions has at last arrived. There will be plenty of brass spurs, etc., for sale. —Colonial Secretary has advised, the City Council that the Government are not prepared to advise the Governor to comply with the request of the Counoil that the CD. Act be repealed in Auckland. —Towu ia full of country cousins. They are arriving by every train and boat, at the time of writing, and money appears tolerably plentiful ' considering.' The long expected boom is requested to hurry up. — Fashion decrees that ladies shall wear sandals over their boots. They are to oome up to the instep and extend to the— ahem ! — calf. Girls who wear No. 2's may like the new fashion, but how about the girls who take 9's P — An article is going the rounds of the papers headed ' How to Select a Wife.' Its rules are very scientific and interesting, but when a young man falls in love he doesn't ponder over rules. He just shuts both his eyes tight and grabs frantically in the dark. —They are solving the question : What to do with our rabbits at Blenheim by tinning them and shipping them off to London where they fetch satisfactory prices, and, to use an originial phrase, ' give pleasure to all.' Isn't the example worth following in other places P — The annual competition between newspaper proprietors as to who can tell the heaviest lie about the circulation of their respective ' Christmas numbers' is now on. The Herald is well to the fore with its ' 840 miles of printed matter.' We could go one better than that, but we are modest, very modest. — Dunedin Friendly Society's Journal gone bung. In the last issue the editor heaps reproaches on the heads of au unappreoiative publio. ' How far have our many kind friends (?) been true to their original promises P' he wails, and expresses surprise and disgust that ' a paper of sixteen pages, teeming with literary excellence and fraternal information, new and sprightly each week,' has not been better supported. Sad, sad. —This is how a writer in a Sydney paper describes a hot day in his city :— ' The sun rose like a red-hot cannon ball, and the air was filled with a murky fog as thick as pea soup, people were suddenly stricken with sickness in many parts, and others not only took off their skin and sat in their bones for coolness but some actually scooped the marrow out of their bones, so as to establish a draught right through.' No wonder so many Australians have to ' send for their blankets ' after departing this life. —The switchback railway is one of the most popular amusements in Sydney and Melbourne. The sensation as you shoot down the steep incline Bends your heart into your mouth. The ladies always scream, bless them, and require a great deal of attention. And talking about that we are reminded of an advertisement recently appearing in a Melbourne paper : ' £2 reward is offered to the nervous young lady who clung to the gentleman on the switohbaok railway on Thursday if she will return his watoh and chain.'