TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 237, 6 October 1891, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

"Lα Mascotte." 'Frisco mail due Friday. Presbytery meets to-night. Tabernacle soiree this evening. Pitt-street Wesleyan 6oiree this evening, Mr Gladstone spends the winter in Italy.' Kaikoura arrived ab Wellington from Home. Cricket • Championship matches starfc October 17th. Mr O'Brien says that Parnellism is aa dead as Caesar. I Dredge No. 121 leaves again in a day pt I two for Melbourne. l ! The Earl of Portsmouth and Lord Choylesmore are dead. A truant officer has been appointed ia Southland afc a salary of £250 per annum. j A whale was captured at the Blug: Harbour yesterday. Ib is thirty-five feed long. The weather in the Lake District ia violent wibh heavy rains, and the rivers are in floods. j Messrs Nicholson, labour candidate, and 1 Campbell, free trader, were returned for Illawarra, New South Wales. i The Ameer of Afghanistan will nob offer any resistance to the exploration of the Pamir plateau by the Russians. ' The Postmaster-General has authorised ! volunteer officers to frank unsealed notices of dates when drills are to be held. i Theß.M.s. Alameda left Sydney yesterday for Auckland. She takes £200,000 worth of specie for the United States. A branch of the New Zealand Journalists* Institute has been formed in Dunedin, Mr Mark Cohen being appointed chairman. At the Eangiora produce market) recently, owing to a glut, potatoes sold at from 5s to 6s per ton in lots of from ten to thirty bags. Some very fine specimens of antimony ! from the Bay of Islands district have been received ab the Thames School of Mines for assaying purposes. At a meeting of the Tamaki Wesfc Licensing Commissioners held on the 26th September, 1891, Mr William H. Gavin was appointed Chairman. By a fire ab Carterton, Wellington, tha property known as Chaw's sawmill, owned by T. Price, was burnt down. The planfj was valued at £300. % The Parliamentary and Athenaeum libraries have been placed at the disposal of the members of the Wellington Diocesan Synod during the time it is in sesaion. From Taranaki there was exported more butter to the London market during tha quarter ending June 30th than from the whole of the other districts of New Zealand. House property is more valuable in Masfcerfcon ab the present time than ib baa been for ten years. Several persons are said to intend building for speculative purposes. Captains Chenoweth and J. Hodgson leffi for Whangaroa last evening by the s.s. Clansman to take the two new pearling ketches Hose and Iris across to Thursday island. Thousands of acres ef bush are being felled in the Manawatu district. Ib is said there is quite a rush for any leasehold property the freehold of which can eventually be obtained. Yesterday was observed in Sydney as » close holiday in honour of the eight hours 1 demonstration. Many thousands of representatives of various trades took part ia the procession. The exceptionally fine weather which has prevailed in the Otago Lake district] changed to a terrific gale Sunday and yesterday. Snow fell ab Arrowtown to a depth of one foot. As rain started to fall, a severe flood in the Clutha is expected. A deputation waited on Mr Ward to-day, and urged that a £250 vote for Lake Ta Anau Road be expended by day labour ia order to improve the road for the coming tourist season. He promised to wire to Mr Seddon to accede to the request. The Maniototo (Otago) Farmers' Club have unanimously resolved to respectfully suggests to the Government the advisability of appointing Mr Vincent Pyke to the Upper House on account of his well-known liberal views on the land question, and his great services to the colony. The two gunboats Almirante Lynch and Almirante Condell, which did such damage in the recent Chilian war by sinking the steel-armoured cruiser Blanco Encalada on April 28th last, are sister vessels to the Boomerang and Karakatta, the two gunboats of the auxiliary squadron just arrived in Australian waters. The German " Kolnische Volkszeitung " says bhat those who pass a field of oats thia year near Cologne will, perhaps, notice thafc most of the ears have a curious mark upon them, exactly like a B, more or less distinctly imprinted. The peasants declare that the letter stands for " blood," and that whenever it appears in the oata a waff is certain to occur in the same year. John Smith Harris, an eccentric character, who for some years past has been widely known as " the whiffler," died at Wellington yesterday of galloping consumption. He formerly held a considerable position there as manager for the London firm of Greatorex and Sons, and was an able accountant. It is said he would eventually have come into a fortune of £60,000, which will now fall to his children. -" .{■' There were aboub 100 spectators ab the Zealandia Athletic Club last evening, when several fistic encountera were decided. In the light weight division Nowland beat Bolliver in five rounds, and McNaughton threw up the sponge to D. Mellis in tha sixth round. The two middle weights G. Evans and J. Mellis fought: cix lively rounds before the labter had enough. The Club have arranged a good programme for Friday evening nexfe, when three finals will be decided, the bantam, lighfc, and middle weights. In the Wellington Divorce Courb, in the case of Sarah Arnold and Edward Arnold the decree nisi was made absolute. Freda Hirochberg applied to the Wellington Divorce Courb yesterday fora dissolution! of her marriaee with George Hirochberg,on the grounds of adultery and desertion. There was no appearance of the respondent. It was explained that the respondent had been served with notice in San Francisco. The petitioner showed that she was married by the Registrar in Wellington, in 1881, ■> the respondent being in Messrs Krull and Co.'s employment. In 1887 he wrote from Hastings that he was going to the Hob Springs for the benefit of his health. Sha afterwards found out that he had nob gone to the Hot Springs, but had absconded to San Francisco. Witness believed that her husband had gone away with a young woman. The case was adjourned for further evidence.