PHP - Can't Store Value In Variable ???

It seems that in the following script I am not able to make $page contain some values as it always acts as it contains 0.
The script will give you more idea about what I wanna do with it.
Code: [Select]
<?php
include('dbinfo.inc');
session_start();
$connect= mysql_connect($host,$dbuser,$password) or die("connect to database fails");
mysql_select_db($dbname, $connect);
//This will set the number of messages we want to display on each page
$rows_per_page = 5;
function show_msg()
{
echo "<tr align='center'>
<td>$row[message]</td>
</tr>
<tr><td><strong>Sent By: $_SESSION[username] ON Date: $row[date]</strong></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>";
}
//This will set the necessay variables required to set the page layout
function page_vars()
{
$sql = "select * from msgs";
$result = mysql_query($sql, $connect);
$numrows = mysql_num_rows($result);
$total_pages = ceil($numrows/$rows_per_page);
//Check whether page is given or not
if(isset($_GET["page"]))
{
$page = $_GET["page"];
}
else
{
$page = 1;
}
if($page < 1):
{
$page = 1;
}
elseif($page > $total_pages):
{
$page = $total_pages;
}
endif;
}
if($_SESSION[loggedin] == TRUE && $_SESSION[actype] == lecturer)
{
echo "<form action='postmsg.php' method='POST'>";
echo "<table width='80%' border='1'><tr align='center'><td><strong>To send a new message type it in the below box and press SUBMIT</strong>
</td></tr>";
echo "<tr align='center'>
<td><textarea name='msgarea' cols='40' row='5'></textarea></td>
</tr>
<tr align='center'>
<td><input type='submit' value='Send Message' /></td>
</tr>
</table>";
$limit .= 'LIMIT '.($page - 1)*$rows_per_page.', '.$rows_per_page;
echo $limit;
$sql = "select * from 'msgs' $limit";
$result = mysql_query($sql);
echo "<table width='80%' border='1'>";
$row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
while($row)
{
show_msg();
}
}
else
{
page_vars();
$limit .= 'LIMIT '.($page - 1)*$rows_per_page.', '.$rows_per_page;
$sql = "select * from msgs $limit";
$result = mysql_query($sql,$connect);
echo "<table width='80%' border='1'>";
while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result))
{
show_msg();
}
echo "<tr align='center'>
<td>
<a href='$_SERVER[php_self]?page=1'>First Page</a>
<a href='$_SERVER[php_self]?page=($page - 1)'>$page</a>
<a href='$_SERVER[php_self]?page=$page'>$page</a>
<a href='$_SERVER[php_self]?page=($page + 1)'>$page</a>
<a href='$_SERVER[php_self]?page=($total_pages)'>>>>Last Page</a>
</td>
</tr>";
echo "</table>";
}
?>
now when i echo $limit it always shows "-5, 5" , that's not what i want from this script.
Instead I want limit to store "0, 1" with the same concept not direct because it will change according to what $_GET[page] holds.

Hope I will get the solution here....