PITH AND POINT.

Western Star, Issue 1968, 5 December 1894, Page 2

PITH AND POINT.

A mother is a mother still—tho holiest thing alive.

A man's manners are a mirror, in which he shows his likeness to the intelligent observer. Some anxiety felt in Tnvercargill about tho non-arrival of the cutter " Pride of the Ocean " from the southern sealing fields. Tnvercargill publicans applying for extension of closing time to 11 o'clock. Mr Hugh Carswell, Invercargill, is to be one of the valuers for the South Island under " The Advances to Settlers Act 1894." Wallace Licensing Committee meet on Friday at noon. Warden's Court meets on the same day. Mr Cooper, solicitor for the Crown, addressing the court at the conclusion of the Wairarapa disaster enquirysaid if Capt. Mcintosh were alive it would be his duty to ask for the cancellation of his certificate ou the ground of recklessness. The English wheat market is strong and its tone unchanged. The American i 3 changing a little for the better.

New Zealand Government is calling for tenders for timber for shipment to England. Sawmilling will soon boom.

Saleyards company formed at Orepuki. Mr Geo. Rourke, of Riverton, was chosen leader of tho Orepuki prospecting party to Lake Hauroto. He is a thoroughly pactical and reliable man.

The subscriptions to the Western District Miners Associatiou (headquarters Eiverton) are coming in well.

Western District A. and P. Show to-day. The entries in all classes are good. Large increase in rabbits this season. Summer poisoning needed. Many farmers from this district attended the Dunedin Show, and speak in terms of praise of the exhibition as a whole.

Shearing is now general throughout the distiict. The Board of Commissioners have paid a visit of inspection to the Merrivale Station with a view to purchase. Capt. Mclnnes and Lieut. Burton, of the Army, farewelled at Rivorton on Sunday and Nightcaps on Tuesday. Stern duties may not speak sternly. He who stood firm before the thunder worshipped " the still, small voice." When no interest is taken in science, literature and liberal pursuits, mere facts and insignificant criticisms necessarily become the themes of discourses ; and minds, strangers alike to activity and meditation, become so limited as to render all intercourse with them at once tasteless and oppressive. Pansies, verbenas, petunias and similar bedding plants are very liable to wither off if watered heavily during summer. To keep them they should be shaded from the sun and kept rather dry; their stems will thus become lignified or woody, and remain almost dormant until ih.& autumn rains.

Modesty and the dew love the shade. Each shines in the open day only to bo exhaled to heaven. A young lieutenant going out to India with his regiment, writing homo about the country, says, " the climate is magnificent, but a lot of young fellows come out here and drink and eat and eat and drink and die, and then write home and say it was the climate that did it." Moderation is the insensible companion of wisdom, but with genius has not even a nodding acquaintance. Equality.—He (angrily) : " Look at this bill. Five pounds for perfumery—for mere odors that fade away for ever." She (calmly): " Gone to meet the smoke from the last eight boxes of cigars you have consumed during the last three months."

The opportunity to do mischief is found a hundred times a day, and that of doing good once a year.

The soul of man createth his own destiny of power; and as the trial is intenser here, his being hath a nobler strength in heaven.

"If a child has swallowed anything that will not digest," says a noted physician, "particularly if it is sharp, let him eat immediately two or three pieces of dry bread. This is very apt to surround tho object swallowed with a sort of coating. In addition, let the food for several days be more solid than usual, and under no circumstances give purgative medicine. The chances are that the child will feel no trouble from the carelessness.

Facts from Natural History.—Old Mr Soakley (to his wife) : " Just think dear, a camel caia work eight whole days without drinking !" Mrs Soakley (with a withering look): " That's nothing ! 1 know an animal who will drink for eight days without doing a bit of work." Mr Soakley sighs resignedly, and turns to the sideboard.

An ins tance of the ruling passion being strong at death was exemplified by Elijah Cockroi't, the jockey who was banged at Ballarat on November 15th for the murder of Fanny Mott. While standing on the scaffold and shortly before the fatal moment came he surprised the officials by asking what horse won the Melbourne Cup.

A. man who was sentenced to seven, days imprisonment at Palmerston North for drunkenness gave the justice to understand that as work was so scarce he would be glad to bo fed at the expense of the State for a much, longer period. The President of the United States, in a proclamation issued on Sept. 27, has granted a pardon to all the Mormons convicted of polygamy under the Edmund's Act of 1882, and he restores to their civil rigbts under this head, except those who are stilj efying the law,