Who irons smoothly all my clothes,
And mends and darns my woollen hose?
My Mother.

Who makes my suits and flannel shirts,
And who my feelings never hurts?
My Mother.

Who doth attend me when I'm ill,
And gives me castor oil and pill?
My Mother.

Who cleans and sharpens all the knives,
And takes good care the garden thrives?
My Mother.

Who helps me with my weary task,
And answers questions which I ask?
My Mother.

Who saves my father many a pound
By prudence and advice so sound?
My Mother.

Who tries from noon to night to please,
And casts aside all thoughts of ease?
My Mother.

Who oft gets scolded and jeered at,
When tired and weary with all that?
My Mother.

[We publish the above verses by a young contributor as a tribute to filial virtue.-ED. Once a Week.]

Who breaks our peace, destroys our bliss,
Coils on our hearth with frequent hiss-
Connubial rapture's Nemesis?
Her Mother.

Enough! But has it not a flaw,
That Act which says I may not draw
Two wives, and yet makes mine in law,
Her Mother?

TOWN GOSSIP.

OUR friend the Vagabond is anxious to know why a certain schoolmistress at Ashfield gives her young charges impositions when they are caught reading the Sydney Morning Herald. Why, of course, because of the tendency to go to sleep which such reading is calculated to produce. "She reads it herself," says the Vag., "and in doing so aggravates her fault." But does the lady in question read anything in the Herald except the advertisements? If so, and she is in the habit of wading through the leading columns, she must be eminently wide-awake, and therefore suited to the position she holds. Parents do not usually send their daughters to school to read the morning journal. We have found a good deal of the pabulum supplied by the Vagabond very hard to digest, and we think the schoolmistress he blames has shewn a wise discretion in forbidding its introduction into her class-rooms.

only be got to take to his heels after

a

continuous clapping of hands, and was immediately pounced upon and killed. Another ran towards the dogs and not from them, and was as speedily torn to pieces. It is urged by the upholders of this pastime, that coursing hares or pigeonshooting from a trap are equally cruel amusements. All sport which aims at the death of the object pursued is no doubt a crime in the eyes of the tender-hearted, and it is, perhaps, difficult to draw the line. In coursing, however, Puss has a chance of escape-some friendly cover which she may possibly attain; but to turn out a defenceless bunny on an open piece of ground with only a few yards' law allowed her, and then to set the dogs on her is butchery not sport, and an outrage on the name of coursing.

Decidedly, the Young Australian Coursing Club are in bad odour, and the sooner they break up the better. Public opinion is against rabbitworries as well as cockfighting and all other displays of wanton cruelty to animals.

Question for a debating society: Which does most for the good of his country, the man who goes without a drink, and gives his sixpence to a charitable fund; or the man who takes two drinks and puts sixpence into the box each time.

Here is an idea for parties about to furnish suggested by a visit to a large ironmongery establishment in George-street, where we had an opportunity of inspecting some very handsome stoves with mantelpieces, etc., complete, enlivened by the inser

tion in every available space of tiles hand-painted in various designs. In place of the ornamental figures on these tiles, why not have likenesses of the members of the family, their relatives, and friends. To group

around the domestic hearth the wellknown faces of one's relations in this way would be literally as well as figuratively to cement the union which should exist in all well-ordered families.

Some month or so ago, on the outskirts of a suburban municipality, in a spot where population is scarce and traffic next to nothing, a speculative man determined to erect an inn. So did another man! And the other man not only got his tavern run up first, but got himself and it licensed before the plaster was dry on the walls of his hostelry, or the floors quite laid on the joists of his rival's! This was rough on speculative man No. 1; but what we feel certain our readers will feel to be much rougher on the public is this, that the Sydney magistrate's sense of the fitness of things having determined that both houses (though next door to one another) were needed by the neighbourhood, two licensed victuallers are now engaged in seeking to push a business where there is not in reality room for one-to the manifest benefit of the adulterating brewer and of that "speciality alone.

So William Cullen Brigent, poet, journalist, lawyer, has passed away at the ripe age of ninety-four. Few possibly have read his "Thanatopsis"; yet it is a work of great power, and the encomiums somewhat too agonistically piled upon it by Washington

lamentation, notwithstanding the exceptionality of Sydney to the tenor of its strain. How long under present land alienation systems will this exceptionality last though? Big half yearly dividends look well; but they can be paid out of capital! Our own notion is that Sydney will soon number a dead bank or two with any amount of wild time growing thereon, if for the Association principle there be not speedily substituted a healthy free trade in banking operations.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

George.-Your letter received with name and address.

W. G. B..-We cannot quite endorse the opinion on your sonnet expressed in the letter you sent us; but we laughed heartily at "King Cheops," which, however, we are obliged to decline as unsuitable to our pages.

Help Hope.-In our next. Correspondents must adhere to the rule that only one side of the paper should be written upon.

Omega.-You will see in this number that your rights are protected.

X. We have received several sugges tions and embryo schemes in re the establishment of a penny daily newspaper; but, as none are based on the principles which we have laid down on the subject, we cannot entertain them.

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SANITARY REFORM

"WISDOM Crieth aloud in the streets, and no man regards her" was said by a wise man of old, and no saying could apply with greater force to the

apathetic disregard of sanitary matters in the City of Sydney.

On the 10th August, 1876, the Board appointed by the Robertson Ministry" to enquire into and report as to the best means of disposing of the sewage of the city of Sydney and its suburbs, as well as of protecting the health of the inhabitants thereof" repeating previous recommendations,

urged strongly upon the Government the necessity which existed for legislation on the following points:-The appointment of a Central Board of Health; the passing of a Building Act, giving extended powers to Municipalities to construct drains or open up thoroughfares through private property, and providing proper dwellings for the working classes." They recommended that a Board of Health and Works be appointed "to consist of a small number of members, who should not be subject to popular control, and who should have a secure tenure of office, and sufficient power to carry out necessary works and to compel the observance of sanitary laws."

The Board among other recommendations, advised the Government in respect to the nuisance arising from the Glebe Island Abattoirs, and submitted a new set of regulations which would have had the effect of removing it.

They expressed themselves strongly on the subject of piggeries in Alexandria and elsewhere supplied with offal from Glebe Island.

Also, with regard to the evil arising from the practice of killing calves and lambs by butchers surreptitiously on thelr premises, they submitted evidence which pointed very clearly to the only sensible remedy.

Exhaustive evidence was taken and published on the subject of over

crowding, and its attendant evils; and practical suggestions from the Board placed the Government in a position, had they been so minded, to take action at once.

The

What has been the result? Glebe Island Abattoirs are a greater nuisance than ever; the blood still pollutes the harbor, and the pigs still fatten on the offal; houses are daily occupied in the city and suburbs which have been built without the least regard to the simplest conditions of healthy living; the absence of any drainage system is producing its natural results; typhoid fever is raging in certain quarters of the city; no effort has been made to prevent the accumulation of filthy matter arising from the killing of calves, lambs, and sucking-pigs on private premises, and the concealment of the entrails and refuse to the injury of the public health; no additional powers have been given to municipalities to enforce sanitary regulations; no Building Act has been passed, and the evils complained of in connection with overcrowding in the city are repeating themselves in the suburbs; the deathrate is out of proportion to the average of other centres of population possessing similar advantages, and no alarm is felt, no indignation expressed that in these vital points we are so far behind all our neighbours.

Were the subject not so serious, it would be amusing to note the oft