OUR LETTER BOX

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 911, 13 June 1896, Page 24

OUR LETTER BOX

W. J. iAbapohue.}.— Certainly. Rose Leaf (Egmont Village).— Thanks for contribution. Shall be glad to hear from you regularly.

Kohdkohd CoiiBESPONDEN-r.— Your contribution has been unfortunately mislaid. Kindly repeat it.

Stephen McGrath, Napier.— The mining property you mention is being registered this week. It lies in a good position at Kuaotunu. Robert (Wauganui). Take legal advice. The man in question, if your .story be correct, evidently belongs to that class of persons who, if they owned the earth, would never be happy because they did not hold a mort g&ge on tre heavens. Querist (Cambridge). — You have lost, and the other man takes the plug-hat. It was not Fox, but Sir Robert Walpole who, when a-tked by Queen Caroline what it wousd cost to fence out the public from St James's Park, grimly replied, 'Only a Crown, madam.'

Perplexity (Napier).— There is no royal road to prosperity. The fc »>est advice we can tender is enshrined in a homely little quatraiu that all youug fellows would do well to cnt out and paste iuside their hats : • Not last to bed, But first to rise, Never get drunk, And advertise.' Bertha (New Plymouth).— Thanks for contribution, luit we had already heard of the dxuukeii Irishman who, after beii!g told by the doctor * jf you leave off the dririK you will length- n your day?-,' informed him ou his .next visit, 'Bedail, sir, >ou was right. Yisiterday was the longest day I ever had in me loife. He is still travelling about— in the papers. Glad to hi sir he has reached New Plymouth at labt. P and Q iWoodville).— Various explanations are ottered of the meaning of the phrase ' Aiiud your P'ri and Q's.' The most likely one that we have come across is that p'sai d q's are the Anglicised version of pieds (deportment) and queu» (tails of ha-r) The grace and the tasteful airaugement of these were distinguishing marks of the exquisites of France in the time of the later Louis^ B.B.B.— Bather curious request, isn't it, to ask U3 to forward you < .B.W's. rejected poem, entitled, 'Passing Thoughts? 1 Your explanation that 'it is simply out of pure curiosity to see what thoughts were in the mind ot C.B.W.'is a bit overdone. Acorn parisou of the handwriting persuades us that C.B \Y. and 8.8.8. are one and the same person. Letc.B.W. call, and we shall be glad to hand over the M.S. of his 'Passing Thoughts.'

A Kisim; Poet.- It was quite superfluous to let us know your alleged poem, ' A Storm at Sea,' was not written by either Sir Walter Scott or Longfellow. It is certainly your very own, aud you must have felt very-3>ad, too, when you wrote it. But we felt much worse when we read your postscript : 'It is my ambition to make my mark in the world through writing poem's, and this is just one of the many 1 hope to send to j our paper for publication.' Please dou't. Warhigal (Gisborne).— Perhaps these are the lines jou refer to : — Unto the barmaid fair, ' My dear,' The artless Johnnie said, ' r l here is no head upon this beer, Nor any r-ign of head.' The barmaid -oh, her voice was kind, And, ah, her words were trueSaid, ' Drink it, sonny, and you'll find 'Twill put a head on you.'* Yellow Agony (Wellington). —We have already agitated the subject, and your contributio . merely repeats the very points enforced by us. Sydney Truth puts the question into a nutshell, thus: — ' The problem is, How shall the iufiuitt-simal white minority in these Southern seas maintain its racial purity, social integrity, and industrial and political supremacy against the mjriads of Asiatics, black, yellow, aud brown, swarming at o rvery gates? That is the question. It has to be faced and grappled with ; if not today, then to-morrow, or the day after. If Australians don't settle it, it will settle them: