our

grams and sphinx-like puzzles which usually fill this department of current literature, and should commend the production to parents. We hope the new organ will enjoy a longer term of existence than some of its predecessors.-Namoi Independent.

THIS serial contains well written papers and sketches, entitled "The Public Health," "Muff Cricketing," "Best Dog in the colony," and a general summary of the Russo-Turkish War. Altogether Once a Week promises well; and without country readers (who will probably support it best), the 170,000 residents of Sydney should keep it going-but we doubt it. The price is 6d., and the publishing office 279 George-street,

Sydney.-Molong Express.

ONCE A WEEK.-This is the title of a new pamphlet, edited by Mr. C. H. Barlee, of Sydney. We have received a copy and were highly amused, as well as entertained, with the writings; there is such a versatility about them that all must be pleased. It is notified that a summary of the events of the present war will be given for the accommodation of its readers, and so do away with the tedious task of perusing the complications daily appearing in our metropolitan journals. Among numerous articles, in various strains, there is a very humorous writing, entitled "My Balloon Adventure;" but to our fancy, the most amusing is one called "The best dog in the colony.' There is a very good article, termed Et cetera," which gives an abstract of the events of the week. In next issue a story will be commenced, under the impressive heading of "The Mystery of the Wiseman's Ferry Road." It is a useful, handy, little book, and well worth patronage. The price is sixpence.-The Australian.

THE Moruya Examiner says:-We have looked the book carefully through and can confidently recommend it to our readers and predict its success.

THE new candidate for public favour contains a number of smartly written original articles and some well-selected extract matter. It is got up in good style, and well printed, containing twenty-four demy octavo pages.—Albury Banner.

THE new publication is both instructive and entertaining: it is deserving of a good circulation. -Border Post (Albury.)

THE new publication is both well got up and very readable.-Western Post (Mudgee).

THE Bathurst Free Press says::-It contains a large quantity of interesting reading matter-grave, gay, ponderous, and light. The editorship is evidently in good hands, and if the editor's hopes are realized the paper will take its place with

"The pleasant books that silently among

Our household treasures take familiar places, And are to us as if a living tongue

Spake from the printed leaves or pictured faces." For he makes his bold assertion: "We shall do our best to force ourselves into notice, and to compel attention." Once a Week is well worth the sixpence that is charged for the single copy.

Another attempt has been made to establish a literary magazine in Sydney. The new venture takes the title of the Sydney "Once a Week." Its type dress is admirable, but then the printers are Messrs. Gibbs, Shallard, and Co. The number before us very fairly sustains the aim stated, and we shall be glad to see the magazine prosper.-Maitland Mercury.

It is very creditably got up, and judging from the matter which this number (No. 1) contains, it is a magazine that will no doubt receive a large measure of support among Australian readers.Western Examiner (Orange).

"SYDNEY ONCE A WEEK."-We have received the first two numbers of a small neatly got-up magazine bearing the above title, which, in view of its superiority to the majority of weekly publications lately issued from the Sydney Press, we feel it our honest duty to notice with approbation. Its contents (those of the two issues we have received) are not only well written, but are for the most part original and local. They comprise a great variety of light and instructive reading matter, which should commend ONCE A WEEK to public favour. Politics, the public health, and other grave matters are ably treated in its leading columns. There are also well written original humorous sketches-we note specially "The Best Dog in the Colony" and "My Balloon Adventure,"and a few happy clippings from comic exchanges; a page of town gossip; and an epitome of the week's war news Admirably written papers, entitled " Gossip with the Boys," appear in each issue, and

are, it is said, to be continued regularly. The verses in the first number, entitled "An Australian Idyll" are very far above the average of contributions to the "poets' corner." It is an affecting story, well told.

After the custom of English magazine conductors, the proprietors of Sydney ONCE A WEEK offer prizes to successful competitors in the riddle arena. In the second number appeared the prologue of a story called "The Mystery of Wiseman's Ferry," which is to be the piece de resistance inthe way of serial romance. ONCE A WEEK, which is edited by Mr. C. H. Barlee, a litterateur of lengthened colonial experience, and published by Messrs. Gibbs, Shallard, and Co., we can conscientiously recommend as a weekly magazine, entertaining, instructive, and of high tone. Those who have not seen this publication should buy copies, and judge of its merits for themselves. We are certain they will endorse our opinion.-Cumberland Mer

cury.

by arrangement.

[PRICE 6D.

WE shall feel obliged to our Subscribers by an early intimation of any irregularity in the delivery of weekly numbers, that it may at once be rectified.

N.B-Advertisements for "SYDNEY ONCE A WEEK" will be received up to six o'clock on Thursday evening.

DEATH IN THE GLASS.

DR. DORAN says pithily, in one of his delightful compilations, that the Romans, who adulterated their wines with lead, were ignorant and godless heathens; and as nothing like their crime has ever been known as a characteristic of some of the professors of a better dispensation why our righteous indignation against them may be intense!

A good many publicans in this colony will possibly appreciate Dr. Doran's remark, which, as their mother wit will doubtless make clear to them, is meant for what Artemus Ward called "sarkasm." A good many drinkers, moderate as well as immoderate, will also enjoy the "lyttel geste," knowing, as they do by bitter experience, how very difficult it is to obtain a good honest glass of good honest liquor. Charles Lamb rested his excuse for being late in arriving at his office on the ground of his leaving it so early; and it may be with somewhat similar logic that the ordinary vendor of wines and spirits hopes to justify his doubly decep

tive action-if my liquor be very bad, I give you very little of it. If he adulterates his spirits, he curtails the measure by which he dispenses it; if his grog is half poison, the glass in which it is retailed is false-bottomed, and so he is less of a murderer by being more of a thief. We should very much like to see incisive action taken against the adulterators of wines and spirits. Why should a subtle rogue, who purveys to you an astringent, aperient, and poisonous drug as a wholesome wine, be allowed to go scot free, when the utterer of a forged note is haled off to Berrima? What right has Mr. Boniface, though thrice a licensed victualler, to fill your stomach with a concoction of cider, sloe-juice, alum, and powder of catechu, when it is your creditable desire to warm it with fine, old-crusted port? A little work, called "The Publican's Instructor," published some year or two ago, professes to give several hundred receipts for the manufacture of cordials and liqueurs in the greatest perfection. This "Instructor," among other things, thus tells how to build up a very choice brandy:"To ten gallons of rectified spirit put two ounces of bitter almond meal, half-an-ounce of mace pounded, half-an-ounce of orris root sliced, and one ounce of cassia ground; shake it frequently for a fortnight, and then add one ounce of terra japonica finely pulverised, two ounces of sweet spirits of nitre, and half-a-pound of prunes; let it be well roused up, and after it has stood another fortnight it may be considered fit for use. Colour with brandy colouring, if you need it darker." We by no means wish to insinuate that the publicans of

New South Wales personally go in for such scientific adulteration as the above; but that at least two-thirds of the total quantity of spirits retailed by the publicans of New South Wales has been concocted by means equally fraudulent we are morally certain. If the actual counterfeiter of honest drink cannot be got at, make the utterer of the concocted article responsible for its issue. Is there anything unreasonable in the notion ? Cannot our legislatorsmost of whom love a drop of good drink-see to this? Are the vested interests of certain potential traders for ever to stand in the way of seeing that fair play is accorded to those who contribute so largely to the revenue as consumers of wines and spirits? The appointment of inspectors of liquid articles of food is urgently needed, as also the enactment of a simple measure giving them the powers needful to make their duty real.

We trust the present Government will see its way clear to taking up this subject in a practical manner, as the victims of adulteration are annually increasing in number, at a rate positively alarming. "Drugged" would be a fairer definition of the condition of many a poor fellow, whose name appears on the police sheet, than "drunk." Many a man, before now, who has gone up to a bar perfectly sober and called for a glass of brandy, has been converted into a fit subject for police supervi sion by tossing off that single glass; and that such is the case is not to be wondered at, if there be truth in our "Publican's Instructor," which tells us that a fine bead can be put on fifty gallons of weak spirits by taking one ounce of oil of vitriol, one drachm of oil of sweet almonds,

gallons strong spirits of wine, five gallons raspberry juice, one pint ale finings, two gallons boiling water, cold water, thirty pounds of lump sugar, salt of tartar, raspings of red sanders-wood, two ounces alum; rouse well up." A young teetotaller, who takes his raspberry (as some young teetotallers do, believing it to be a temperance drink), deserves protection every whit as much as the non-abstainer who takes his glass of spirits, believing it to be spirits, and vice versa; at least, it appears to us that the consumer deserves protection, not so much at the hands of the policeman as at those of the analyst and his subaltern inspectors.

While on this subject, we would give a hint to the drinking public: Eschew the practice of calling for a glass or nobbler, and insist upon being supplied by measure, by gill, half-pint, pint, quart, or gallon. The ordinary bar glass is a patent fraud, and only excusable on the supposition that, in nine cases out of ten, it exercises a mitigating effect upon a fraud of a character a hundred times more dangerous, though none the less mean.