ry Tilt; above quotation is & slight mouuica tion of Shakespeare's version. With all due deference tp the immortal bard, I take leave to think that the alteration is an im provement on the original text. Had William lived in these days of sewing machines and cheap " reach-iu,e-downs " lie would be forced to admit that the apparel affords no guide whatever to the man inside it. (Vide "Sartor Sartoris.") Take the new Custom-House uniform, for instance. A liberal and enlightened Go yei'jmjent has provided the gilt buttons for that uniform, leaving the officials to furnish thq cloth and pay the tailor, which reminds

one very much of the man who brought the salt as his share of the picnic. The new uniform is eminently adapted for a cold climate, but, with the thermometer at 90 m the shade, it is only calculated to give a man a foretaste of that future state ot existence from which not even Custom- ; House officials are all exempt. The choice of such a uniform for this climate could only have emanated from the brains of a man like the Hon. G. M. McLean, " frae the far North," who has lived half a life time in the frigid region of Waikouaiti. If the officials of the Customs at Auckland are to be compelled to swelter in these thick clothes through the summer, it would be retributive justice to make the Otago officers dress in thin calico during t-lio winter. The uniform frequently leads to ludicrous mistakes, of which the following is an instance :—One of our local "detec tives in disguise," as the Customs' officers are now satirically dubbed, was refreshing himself the other day at the AVaitemata, when a gentlemanly by-stander accosted him thus : " Well, sir, pardon a stranger, but I really must compliment you upon the ex cellent manner in which you speak English. Your accent is perfect." "Well," replied the official, "considering that I was born in England, and have been amongst Englishmen all my life, the fact is not very extraordinary." The stranger looked flabbergasted, bowed apologetically, and stammered out, " I-I-beg a thousand pirdons. 