MEASURING THE BABY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 163, 8 July 1873, Page 4

MEASURING THE BABY.

■ 0 We measured riotous baby Against the cottage wall; A lily grew at the threshold, And the boy-was just as tall — A royal tiger lily, With spots of purple gold, ' And a heart like a jewelled chalice, The fragrant dew to hold. Without the blackbird whistled, High up the old roof trees, And to and fro at the 'window . The red rose rocked her bees; And the wee pink fists of baby Were never a moment still, Snatching at shioeand shadow That danced the lattice-sill Ah me ! in a darkened chamber With the sunshine : cut away, Through tears that fell like bitter rain, We m easured baby to-day. * And the little bare feet that were dimpled* And as sweet as a budding rose, Lay side by* side together In the hush of a long repose. Up from the dainty pillow, White as the risen dawn, A fair little face lay smiling With the light of heaven thereon; And the dear little hands like rose leaves Dropped from the rose, lay still, Never to catch at the sunshine That crept to the shrouded sill. We measured the sleeping baby With ribbons white as snow, For the shining roEewood casket That waited him below. And out of the darkened chamber We went with a childless moan, For to the height of the sinless angels Our little dear one had grown. ll ii i ' ' ~ ~ An exchange says: — His Excellency Sir George Bowen has attended eleven, dinners and banquets, three public balls, four theatres, two lunches, two concerts, a Mayor's reception, three garden fetes, and has been so much employed in receiving the hospitality of the colonists that he has , had no time to give any invitation to so much as a dinner in return. " A point of importance," says the Bfibllarat Star, " arose thn other day in a case before the Smythesdale Bench. A man was summoned for the maintenance of two step-children whose mother had died, and his defence was that, the mother b_ing dead, he was no loader liable for the maintenance of the children, The defence is, prima facie, inhuman, but it" may be good law. With a view to determine this tbe case has been remanded." From a late Fiji Times we extract the following :—-" For Sale— The Island of Nananu-I-Cake, with fourteen head of imported labor, a new M'Carty 40in. knife gin, iron house, windmill, wbaleboat, &c. About sixty acres have been recently planted with cotton. Apply by letter, stating method of paymen t, to Dr M'Grath, care of J. C. Smith & Co., Levuka." The Fiji Gazette animadverts upon Dr M'Grath in no measured terms for his assumed right to sell * ' fourteen head of imported labor," and asks " Does Dr M'Grath imagine that men in Fiji are to he sold like cattle ? Does he know that by common law the sale of a human being is illegal, and ' that tbe purchaser is not bound to pay for his purchase ? " How many people are aware that there is a single public mining company in Victoria whose shares — saleable at the current market — represent the respectable value of £800,000. And this mining property was created solely by local shareholders, without any outside capital, and is situated in a place so remote and so obscure that a Victorian Minister of the Crown — with his colleagues on the festive rampage — not long ago confessed his ignorance of its existence ! There is at Stawell another Bendigo, and people will presently begin to find it out. — Australasian. A few weeks ago we (English Mechanic) referred to an experiment about to be made at Suresnes, on the possibility of preserving vines from the action of frost by artificial clouds. In a vineyard of twenty hectares there were placed 360 iron vessels containing a heavy oil. All these firepots were lighted at once, and a thick black cloud was interposed between the vines and the sky. When the weather is calm and the sky clear (and it is in su'h circumstances that the frosts whioh so injure vines in spring mostly occur), tbis cloud continues all the time necessary to exercise its protective influence. The cost of the op.ration (including pots, oil, and labor) was estimated at about 5 francs per hectare, or 2 5 statute acres; and all viniculturists expressed them as struck with the advantages of this means of preservation. The Tamworth News has been furnished with the subjoined particulars of a shocking case — unexampled we believe, in the district — of almost simultaneous deaths in, a family resident at Wallabadah. Mr William Porter, Public School Teacher, at Wallabadah, was seized by illness early last week, and died on Wednesday, f 28th ultimo. On the following day one of his children died, and on Friday the corpses of father and child were consigned to earth. Meantime Mrs Porter had sickened, and on Saturday, death, unsated with his already fearful ravages, claimed a third victim, and Mrs Porter died. Two children only now remained, and up to 1 Wednesday last, very slight hopes being then felt of their recovery. These dreadful incidents have created a great sensa-

tion at Wallabadah, where Mr Porter was well-known and much respected. It ia said that these awfully sudden deaths were caused by pleuro-pneumonia, attended by typhoid indications. A Plague of Horses.--— The losses sustained by the sheep-farmers and stockowners in Victoria by wild horses running in herds a thousand strong, aro almost incalculable. A Melbourne journal says : — "Three years ago some hundreds were trapped and shot upon the runs, but they now muster as strong as ever. It is unnecessary to point out the havoc that they commit, destroying, as each does, sufficient to fatten two head of cattle at the lowest computation. Lately, after a fortnight's bard work in scouring the runs, some 430 head were yarded, and, notwithstanding that many showed a good deal of breeding, all, with the exception of thirty, were killed by cutting their throats. Numbers of station horses have joined these wild "mobs, and yet only two or three were secured in the recent raid, so that the herds must be very numerous. The matter is a fit one for legislation, as horse breeders annually suffer very great loss from the presence of the animals upon their runs."