Captain Edwin has been informed that a cyclone was passing near Townaville on the coast of Queensland on Thursday and travelling in a north-westerly direction. He calculates that it will be near the North Cape of New Zealand on Sunday. Condensed milk, to the value of npwarda of £10,000, was imported into JNew Zealand last year, and yet we are exporting a large quantity of dairy produce to England. At the Ellesmere Agricultural and Pastoral Association Committee meeting on Tuesday last Cxptain Willi9 moved, and Mr Robert Lochhead seconded, the following motion on which discussion took place: —"That steps be taken to bring before Parliament; the urgent necessity of protecting the barley growing interests. That at the present time barley to a very large extent is being supplanted by sugar, glucose, and other in gredients in the manufacture of beer. That beer made from substances other than malt is injurious to the drinker. That the demand for the sale of barley would be largely increased if brewera were compelled, except under heavy restrictions, to use anything but barley in the manufacture of beer." Happy the melodist who hits off a music hall song to the taste of the audience. One such ditty scarcely heard outside the free and-easy wall* brought its composer and author, in loyalties alone, £600. The music hall artist commands more money than the best actor on the boards legitimate. Mr Albert Chevalier is receiving from four music-halls quite three to four hundred pounds a week, and a successful song in those halls of dazzling light is worth to its composer a small fortune. We have some great singers too who cannot be tempted by opera. Mr Edward Lloyd was offered by the late Carl Rosa a blank cheque to fill up if he would sing in " Tannhauser," his dramatic instincts being great, but he re fused. And dear old Sims Reeves gave a refusal also of a " blank cheque to fill up " to sing on the opening of the Old Oxford Music-Hail,

THE WEATHER.
