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T
|iEN AHD MATTERS-
princess Alexandra.
A corespondent writes:—My beautiful
-Princess Alexandra parakeet was particularly
menr and,bright on Thursday morning.
As I gazed at the glorious blending of
jniocns. blues. and pinks I recalled the fact
that the first specimen of this exceedingly
rare bird was obtained by the late Mr. F.
G. Waterhouse on John McDouall Stuart's
famous journey across Australia, the jubilee
of which will lie celebrated to-nigbt. It
•was from this specimen of the xara avis—
•which .Tras named by the naturalist Princess
Alexandra;-after the. then Princess of
Wales, now Queen Alexandra.—that Gould,
the great ornithologist, made hie painting
io'r his! invaluable work "Birds of Australia."
; 3Iy parakeet was bred in captivity
by SJr-.E. li. Grundy, who with Mr. L. C.
JS: Gee obtained several young ones from
' the. blacks -when they were in the interior
at'Australia a decade or more ago. Mr.
. Grundy gave the old pair to Mr. E. E. P.
Osborne, who possesses the best private
collection of birds in Australia.
Daffodils. 1
Winter gardens become more beautiful
•when the green coverlids of the daffodils
open and -the golden flowers are free. The,
gardener who for days has been watching
a'bud 'straining to escape from tie sheath,
jone morning awakes to find a blossom
swinging from the stalk. . Some 'inner im-
" poise rends the veils' of all these lusty
young flowere,and for a, while their gca-
' cious presence, is the glory of the garden.
JvarcissnB lis, only a foil to £be lady daffodil.
Bat die, .too, has her lovers, and the
jonguilp 4<5 not waste their sweetness. Winall,
they are "pleasing to the
• eye. .from the time when the tender
' leaves ifeegin, to thrust their green heads
Ajjovefthe earth the growth of these plants
; is fiiftof interest. Perhaps the flowers
:
aredierished Ijymanv chiefly because poets
•• haxk- Enng their • beauties. Shakspeaxe
eii9ciaied a emmner bird with, daffodils,
ithich, in England, "come before the swal-
'iowis dare." Herriek's lines arc familiar
io-evdj one, and Wordsworth's tribute is
''enshrined 'in immortal verse. The lake
poetsaw a."host of golden daffodils," tost
ing in the'wind, and the sight made his
mournful .spirit glad. He daffodil has
message of Joy for poets, and its beauty is
offered freely to all who cultivate a. garden.
The flowere look as beautiful in a. tiny plot
'of ground before a. cottge as in. the plea-
' eaunce of a Tttiilionaiie, where peaccoks
«rntupoo- terraces ot white marble.—-Melboorne
Herald.
IMe in Uganda.
According to a'lady-cemtributoc to The
Entpire-Slajpzirie, the country of Uganda
is moat fascinating, and the Muganda, al-
' though he"*can toe iiritatmg, is a thoroughly
jrcodtfellDW, very genial, with a keen sense
'.'"sol hnmor aitd the greatest respect for the
.i governing white race. It has been found
thktfour years is usually the longest period
for -.ifhich. one can work successfully in
' Uganda without 12 months' rest' and
change, which is almost invariably spent
- • in jSorope. In -Uganda' no real change is
• ' • '• piifcilflr, as the country "is all so much the
' 6aitoe. The general health of the white com-
^^SSeemstobe ju^^^toanydtt^^&ti^
:. si ttere ,T*sed ! to be. 'iSomfiof'ibje -natives'
Bre tCTiied for tcaiieES, -andwhen certifi--
cated go nbt only' throughoat Uganda, bat
bJbo to ihe^ Euoounding cotmtries. There
• -- arenorinaj.^hoolsfdr bcrys and' girls, and
boardiisfscbools for .the eons of chiefs and
alsp'for other. more advanced- natives
ot standing, sons of native clergy, and
' ctfaflrB. .The girls enjoy the same privileges.
- There is a. secondary school at Budo where
.' natives go through a' three years' course to
jifepan: them for work for church and
': .Sia±e/as clea^y, interpreters, clerks, &c.
and'where ftey learn trades, including the
1 principal Crafts of carpentry, printing,
bricklaying, blacksmithy, and the like.
Old Newspapers as Wall-paper
;In Newchwang old newspapers have a
commercial value" from the paperhanger'a
point of view, according to a report by
•' H-M- jGonsul at Newchwang on the trade
of thit 1 district in 1911. Mr. W. Ji Clennell
states:—"In the customs statistics • of
" NeWchwang for 1911 there appears as
«j)Mate, item'under the heading of paper
• s aa importation of 37,606 cwt. of old news-
Jeper.i^lued at £14.618. This is a new
- feature. 'These old newspapers, which appear
to be mostly British, are in extensive
demand in: the Newchwang district for
wallpaper for native houses and cottages.
Land Hanger in Canada.
One of jibe most remarkable scenes in
the annals of -colonization jras recently witnessed
' at Lett&ridge, Alberta, where, on
May 1, the Mclntyre Ranch, in the Milk
Bivar liistrijit', was thrown open for free
Jiomeeteading. "The ranch (reports The
United, Empire) was one of the last large
' tracts citaud in the immediate neighbourhood
wiiich -i-emained open for settlement,
and consisted 'bf about 69,000 acres. On
March 28;the first applicant-took up h\
• 'stand outside tl>e local land office, and from
:
that date to April 10 a constantly increasing
ctaam of lindseekers secured positions,
waiting for the office.to 6pen on the first
diy of May. All records for theatre queues
were, completely eclipsed. By an unwritten
law each comer secured an inviolate right
to his j>i£ch- so long as he was in its immediate
neighbourhood, •and. public opinion
' made it impossible for any intruder to
**jump another's claim." Tents sprang up
along the road, temporary beds were improvised,
cooking was "done on the premises,"
and the approach to the land office
looked like the fist day of a new mining
town, save that.men and women were patiently
waiting in line for the opening of
the ofHife three or four weeks hence. On
April 10, however, the Mayor intervened,
and issned; to each applicant a deed of one
eqtlare foot on the public roadway on which
• they were standing, the deeds expiring on
May 2./ The landseekeis went away conteinted/with
having secured the right to
stand>in line "on their own ground!' on the
opening day, and consequently to a share of
the^IcIntjTe xiancb. A similar scene was
enacted in liJ08, when four men died from
pneumonia due to exposure. The scene
typifies more than anything else the dogged
tenacity of those who are building up the
Canadian West.
When Doctors Disagree.
A German doctor liaa discovered that
most of us drink far too little water, and
fac ias riiade'experiments cn patients which
prove to his satisfaction that the nervous
ailments that, modern people suffer from
-can .be cured to'a great extent by taking
hot or cold ^fater in considerable doses durini
the day: ' But just as one has made up
•ione's mind to fouow the advice of this eminent
doctor in The Frankfurt Zeitung
comes along another physician, writing
tins time in. a French paper, who warns
us that we all drink too much. The presence
of a large glass and several smaller
glasses on a table before -each guest would
seem", he declares, a servile concession to
habits formed long ago, rather than due to
the real need of the normal aane and wellbalanced
organism. This doctor would
have us abolish not only our drinks, but our
glasses also, for he believes that we drink
much more than "oar phyalogkal needs
require.'" This is an ajnusing example of
iha "way fch«.t doctors disagree. ,
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