Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 17, Issue 935, 4 February 1871, Page 2

A brilliant meteor, seen at Auckland, passed from N.N.W. to S.S.E. on Saturday evening, Jan. 14. It was apparently very low, and it burst like a rocket into fragments after descending some distance.

Lady Pigot, of Branches Park, near Newmarket (well known in the agricultural world as a breeder of shorthorns), is now at Metz for the purpose of attending to the wounded. Her ladyship, in a letter which she has sent home, states that there are no other English ladies at Metz. She adds that she has to " rough it," but she is well and happy. The Prussians she describes as " loud and consequential," the French as "pale and haggard." The Prussians seem to her ladyship, however, to be weary of the war.

One of those ingenious statisticians with whom we occasionally meet has been calculating Mr Gladstone's eloquence during the past session, and finds that he spoke 178 times, and that his speeches occupy about 80 columns of tho Times, As a characteristic climax, we are told that those 80 columns would reach to the top of the monument, which seems to be the standard measure in these calculations.

From the Evening Post we learn that a clever political cartoon has been posted on one of the walls in the Empire city. Jt is in the style of a circus placard, and represents Dr Featherston in the guise of an acrobat, falling from a tight rope. The reason of his fall is apparent. He holds in his hand a balancing pole, pne end of which is provided with a very Jieavy weight, marked " Expenditure," gfld the other with a very minute one, }ghe|{ec| "|apon}e t "