The Victorian Reform Bill. Melbourne, March 11.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1358, 15 March 1881, Page 3

The Victorian Reform Bill. Melbourne, March 11.

In the Legislative Assembly last night the Reform Bill was under consideration in committee of the whole. As the GoTernment declined to submit to any amendment, the Opposition abstained from the discussion, and most of the clauses of the Bill were passed through committee.

That the adoption of the moustache is benefical in a sanitary point of view is evident fiom the fact of the wearer, no matter how confined his occupation, having daily more and more of the fresh (h)air. A little boy in Springfield, after his customary evening prayer, a night or two ago, continued, " and bless mamma, and Jenny, and Uncle Benny ;" adding after a moment's pause, the explanatory remark, " His name ia Hopkins." " This ia George the Fourth," said an exhibitor of waxwork, pointing to a very slim figure. — " I thought ho was a very stout man," said the other. — **Very likely ; but if you had been without victuals half as long as he has, you'd be twice as thin." "I shouldn't like to be an oarsman," said Jones. — "Why not ?'* asked Green. — "Because an oarsman has so many pull backp," replied Jones ; and then the two youths shook hands, and went out to buy something. The London Agricultural Gazette has discovered the "coming sheep." The Cotswold (it says) is going out, the Southdown ceases to be a rival for popularity with larger and more profitable, if less shapely breeds, the Shropshire have had their day, and the Oxford Downs, although their rise has been rapid, have an unfortunate predisposition to foot-lame- j neas. The " coming sheep " are Hampshire, which, although they have not been pushed or taken up by the great ( whoever they may be), have a brilliant future before them. There is no race in England, or in the world, says our contemporary, which can vie with them in the production of large-sized lambs of from 6 to 8 months old. At this age it is not uncommon for them to realise as much as •ixty or even sixty-five shillings per head. Their enthusiastic chronicler is confident that if instead of selling lambs at the Autumn fairs, breeders keep them till ten or thirteen months old, they would make prices which no other race of sheep would j touch. Glasgow many yeaeb ago.— Before the appearance of the " Waverley .Novels even the author's countrymen knew little of the country they lived in. There were coaches plying on the great high roads, but the hills and glens of the Highlands were rarely accessible to the lords of these barren wastes, who reached them, weather permitting, by the most primitive and miscellaneous conveyances. It was nothing unusual to see a defined chieftain homeward bound, bestriding a shaggy pony, while the baggage that accompanied him to the tower of his ancestors was distributed over the back of his gillies. He surveyed his hills with an eye to the head of cattle or black-faced sheep they might carry, or admired the picturesque valleys and corries with reference to the cover ; for grouse and red-deer, The thriving j citizen of communities like that of Glasgow, growing rapidly rich by the trade with the colonies, still regarded the unknown regions beydnd the "Highland line" with the feelings of horror so elo- , quently expressed by Baillie Nicol Jarvie. They uevor cared to stir far from their homes in the Saut-market, or their wharves on the Broomielaw, and would as soon have sent their families on a seatrip to the Gold Coast as into summer lodgings beyond the blue shadows of the hills which loomed on their horizon in frowing grandeur. Ctmiotrs Incident at a Marriage. — A carious occurence has taken place at Hadstock. A couple visited the parish church for the purpoie of gettiug married. The bridegroom is a railway servant, and the bride a member of- a respectable ;,family among the working population of the village. At early morning a young lady left Bath and visited Radatock. Jyhen the ceremony Tras in : progress, this young lady endeavoured to "forbid the b*nna" on the ground that the bridegroom had courted her for three years,' .while he had only^ known the bride-elect for two months;, Mr Ward, the clergyman delayed the ceremony, until he had. heard her statement, *nd was then obliged to inform her that her 'objection, had no legal bearing. There were about, 100., , persons ,in ,the church, and the disappointed girl - wajb. much pitied- espepially >by .many females preset. „ ' • ■•■ ' •■ * * ,