ON THE WING

Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 9, 30 December 1893, Page 23

ON THE WING

The last “Australian Summary” to hand is a catalogue of suicides, murders, and tragedies. Mr. Charles Algernon Swinburne, the poet, is en route to Australia. Algy left London by the Orubu on December 1.

Last month the Melbourne Customs authorities condemned 5,4001b5. of Tndinn tea as unfit for consumption.

The Colonial Bank has been hard hit by the failure of Messrs. Adolph Joske, Best, and Co., of Melbourne, wine and spirit merchant's. The Bank will probably drop £90,000.

The partnership between Mr. Evan Prosser and .Mr. E. Taylor, of Brisbane, has just been dissolved. Mr. Prosser resides at “ Porthamel,” Darling Point, Sydney, and is a very successful commercial man. He was a partner in the wellknown firm of wholesale druggists, Messrs. G. Prosser and Company, of O’Connellstreet, from which firm he retired some mne ago. Mr. Prosser still holds a large interest in the same particular branch of business in New Zealand, and only a week ago dissolved with Mr. E. Taylor, of Brisbane, where the business has been long established, and will now be carried on in m r ; & osser ’ s interests only —Melbourne Table Talk.

The Manawatu Dailg Standard is responsible for the following:—“ There is a

Cricket Club in Picton, composed entirely of ladies, and it is enjoying a flourishing existence. A Blenheim paper thus refers to one of the Club’s matches Sides wero picked and a good game played, but the outfielders were placed at a disadvantage, having periodically to wade the creek in order to recover the ball, which some too vigorous batsman had thoughtfully sent to the other side. Report credits the ladies with some good catches.”

“ A man never looks to sqo if there is a women under the bed.” American exchange: No, noe as a rulo, he generally—but there, never mind.

The intelligent comp, was more than usually to-the-point when he assorted ias he did recently in an English newspaper) that “ the ship-owners of Hell have refused the demands of the strikers."

Sarah Francisco, a South Australian, beats the record for numerous convictions. She has been convicted 154 times and has spent her Christmas in gaol for the last 11 years. Sarah’s pet sin appears to be drunkenness, and she would evidently require the attention of a whole inebriate asylum to her own cheek.

A contemporary in speaking of Vincent Pyke, the recently returned M.H.R., say that “ the people who know Pyke are divided into two' classes; those who would gladly lend him every cent they have in the world, and those who would go a long way to see him hanged.” It is to be hoped that the latter are in a minority.

Mashonaland, the territory which the British South African . Company has burgled, is now called Rhodesia, after Cecil Rhodes, the South African laud pirate. We would suggest that after Matabeleland has been plundered and cemented to the “ga-lorjous British Empire ’ ’ with blood and powder it should be called “ Maxima Christiana ” in recollection of the grotesque combination of Christion Missionaries and Maxim guns by it was acquired. God save the Queen.

It is a curious coincidence that the letters V.R., which rear up and stare us in the face all over the colonies, stand for something else besides Victoria Regina, viz., Vive la Rejtublique. Can this be looked upon as anything in the shape of a prophecy ?

There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding between the trustees of the proposed Convalescent Home and the City Council. It is to be hoped that the matter will be amicably settled, and some equitable arrangement made, as we certainly are in need of an institution of the character of the one proposed.

Thus the Sydney Bulletin, “Dr..Renwick’s chances of getting a knighthood are now said to be almost nil. So many Australian knights have done objectionable things of late that in future the Order is to be distributed withi; extreme caution.” Poor Renwick, we feel for him in his disappointment, for years he.

has striven with a great strive for the privilege of attach ug the oovotod letter's, K.C.M.G., to the luui part of his name. He has toadied and intrigued and now it seems that it all ovor to no purpose.