TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 35, 11 February 1891, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Ash Wednesday. Lent begins to-day. Mararoa in from Sydney. Soudanese are again aggressive. Serious labour troubles at Home. Epirama Timutu Kupu new M.H.R. Hospital Commission sits to-morrow. Auckland naval cutter races to-night. Sir Win. Fitzherbert was buried yesterday. Auckland Harbour Board accounts published. Watchmakers' and jewellers' picnic tomorrow. London shipowners are now discharging their own vessels. Madame Burton sang into the phonograph this morning. New South Wales athletes returned to Sydney last evening. Professor Anderson Stuart has sailed from London for Australia. The German Government is abandoning the proposed Koch Institute. " The Second Gough " leaves to-morrow for Wanganui and the South. Mr T. McEwiu provides luncheon at tho Whitford Park races to-morrow. Herr Schmitb advertises that he has. resumed duties at the Choral Hall. Waiotapu natives are said to be levying black-mail on tourists from Rotorua. In the Wellington v. Canterbury bowling match the former won by eight points. Good wool remains firm in the London market. For inferior merinos prices are in buyers' favour. The Victorian Government have decided to exhibit at the Royal Agricultural Show in England in June. Denis McDevitt, surfaceman, employed on the Gisborne lioad, has been killed neai Opotiki by a horse kicking him. The next quarterly communication of the Masonic Grand Lodge of New Zealand will be held at Invercargill next month. News from Suakin says that the rebels are advancing upon Tokan. It is intended to erect fortifications to secure the town. A regatta to be held at tho Thames on St. Patrick's Day promises to be a great success. Subscriptions are coming in freely. The phonograph can be heard plainly in every part of the Opera House, and occasionally its tones might be distinguished in Queen-street. Mr Smith, temperance lecturer, left Thames for Auckland to-day, having, closed an exceedingly successful season' there last night. Owing to tho burning of the cloak-room, at the Speucer-street Railway Station, Melbourne, passengers have sent in claims, amounting to £4,000. One of the ferry steamers is advertised to run to St. Helier's Bay to-morrowHThurs-day), leaving the ferry tee atlO.oO a.m., and again in the afternoon at 2.30, returning from the Bay at 4 and 6.15 p.m. The following are the new members olf the Thames Harbour Board :—McGowan, McAndrew, Gillespie, Wilson, Wood, McDonnell, Deeble and Edwards. The Piako County Council have yet to appoint one member. The labour excitement at Cardiff has not abated, and troops are despatched to pr|se?v© order. The Shipping Federation is determined to supply men, and a block-' ado oi tTie"'coastal' traffic is threatened in consequence. Yesterday an old man named George Lloyd was sent up from Awhitu by tho local authorities, tor admission to tha Costley Home. He was met upon arrival at Onehunga by Sergeant Greene, who had the man attended to and forwarded to the Refuge. ""'•' "■'- '■' . Wrestling, in five styles, between Duncan Ross and George Robinson, for £25 a side, at Christchurch last night resulted in a draw. Robinson won American side hold Cumberland ; Ross won catch-as-catcb-can, snd the Grjeco-Roman. The collar and elbow was drawn. The Rockhampton (Q.)shearerehaveheld a meeting at which resolutions were passed deprecating the refusal of pastoralists to agree to grant an open Conference. It was asserted that the introduction of free shearers is calculated to provoke a serious breach of the peace. Over a thousand men are idle. In the conference between boot manufacturers and their employees, to be held at Wellington next week, to establish a uniform scale of payment for work throughout the colony, manufacturers in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Wellington will each appoint three delegates, and Bootmakers' Operatives' Union in each of these centres a similar number. The Wellington Employers' Association have issued a circular to similar associations in the colony, endeavouring to arrange a conference to discuss all subjects affecting the interests of employers, and submitting a draft scheme drawn up by Mr J. R. Blair, president of the local association, for the establishment of six labour boards in the colony to decide disputes arising between capital and labour. The Presbyterian General Assembly opened at St. Andrew's Church, Christchurch,' lastnight. The Rev. C. S. Ogg was formally installed as Moderator, and delivered an address mainly in advocacy of promoting home mi-sionsjn epareolypopttlated districts, and more concentrated and practical training for student evangelists. He approved of the suggestion that ther* should be a service "book for the Presbyterian Church, which ministers might use at their option. At a meeting of the Miners' Association at Brunnerton yesterday the lease of Jones, of Mokau, to,, tha Association was submitted, and favourably received, and a committee was appointed to draw out a prospectus, and urge certain amendments in the draft of the lease. These alterations refer principally to the surface rights. There seams to be an idea that with a full annual output of 50,000 tons at Is royalty per ton, equal to £2,500 yearly, the company should have the right of pasturage, and be better protected in timber rights.