TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 33, 7 February 1894, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Ash Wednesday. Another oppressive day. Lent commences to-day. " Graphic " issued to-day. Yesterday was Pancake Day. Scotland is to develop its gold. Fillis's lions and panthers are in town. The Hon. J. G. Ward Ib now in Welllngt ton. - There is now an anti-tobacco crusade in France. The Blind Students are doing well in thfc tr _Li____.tiO Wellington is overstocked with Auckland tomatoes. . . Emperor William is going to visit Constantinople. Fine pocket) of pure silver struck at Broken Hill. Forgers have been having a merry time of it in Holland. • The Auckland Presbytery held a short meeting yesterday. The Bank of Victoria seems in a very satisfactory condition. More trouble between the French and English in West Africa. Mosb of the schools in the Waikato resumed work on Monday. Another large audience at the Opera Houae yesterday evening. The Longburn Freezing Company will kill about 500 sheep a day. \ The latest recipe for removing paint is to i sit down on it before it is dry. Serious accident in Freeman's Bay last '. night. A woman severely burnt. Tramps are practically unknown in New . Zealand, says an American paper. Rev. J. McNeil is coming from London to the colonies on an evangelising tour. In the sculling race between Harding and Bubear, the former won by 20 lengths. The circus animals which came by the s.s. Pukaki from Gisborne were landed to-day. Tales of cruelty on the part of the Germans in West Africa come by the cable. "Death to the Bourgeois Society " were Vaillant's words on his way to the guillotine. A number of English battleships are aboub to visit Australia on a lengthened tour. Jabez S. Balfour, the'arcb-swindler, promises some sensational disclosures ab his trial. Liabilities of Phipps. Turnbull and Co., of Melbourne, are £16,800, and their assets only £3,000. The Torranora has picked up the North Island end of the broken cable, and will splice it to-day. Russia does not like the notion of France putting a duty on wheat, Russia iB a greab grower of the article. Mr Thwaites is going to apply for the position of headmaster of Devonport School, vacated by Mr Benge. Buckland and Son's annual sheep fair was held at Remuera yesterday. The sale was the largest ever held there.

The prizes gained by the Christchurch School of Art students were distributed yesterday evening in the City of the Plains. It is rumoured thab Inspector Broham goes to Wellington shortly before Parliament sits to take charge of the police force 'here. The champion yacht Viking and portraits of her owners, the brothers L. and H. Bloomfield, appear in the " Graphic" issued to-day. The Acclimatisation Society intend to liberate some Australian Honeyeaters ab Waiwera. The birds are useful in destroying insects. •'Girls of a Feather," a capital story by Amelia E. Barr, commences on the sixth, page of the Star to-night. Everybody should read it. A commercial treaty between German and Russia has been signed. Emperor William's speech in connection with the above sounds curious. A jury at Blenheim have returned a verdict of death from natural causes in the case of William Jones who was found dead in his whare on Monday evening. Excavations in Palestine go to show that the hot air blast furnace, which has been credited to be che invention of Nelson in ;*. 182S, was used 1,400 years before Christ. Sir Charlos Russel speaks oub boldly in his criticism of the action of the House of Lords with regard to the Employers' Liability Bill and the Parish Councils Bill. The season in which native game may be shot will in future be from the 23rd of March to the 23rd of July, and for imported game from the Ist of May to the last of July. A Wellington paper says that bhe Labour Bureau agents at the various centres are beseb wibh applicants for work, owing tc the number of Australian unemployed in the colony. Great loss has been occasioned to the country near Nelson by the storm which broke over the district^ on Friday last. Ab Motueka the hop gardens were damaged to the extent of £1,000. Mr Geo. Smith, Bandmaster of the Thames Naval Artillery Band, was presented yesterday evening with a photographic shield containing photos of all the members of the Band, The Auckland Provincial Agricultural Association meet on Friday in the Government Insurance Buildings to consider the action cf the Government in closing the Motuihi Quarantine Station. Many of the men belonging to the syndicate which is to take over the Onehunga Iron Works were formerly engaged there. The members of bbc syndicate are expected to arrive in about six weeks. i A fire on board tbe British India Company's steamer Korunda was discovered while tho vessel was at sea, and after a struggle of twenty-four hours on the part of the men, was extinguished. H.M.S. Lizard sighted a small schooner some distance off Westport during the recent gale. The boat seemed in a very perilous condition ab that time, and nothing has been heard of hor since. Another Communisb colony is to be started in East Africa. Everything will be managed by voluntary groups of selfgoverning men, who will own all they can raise, but have no exclusive righb to the land. -■ Mr John Drummond, late Chief Inspector of Stock in the Wairarapa, was presented yesterday with a testimonial and a purse of 100 sovereigns by tbe settlers of Wairarapa. Mr Drummond is now to be engaged in Hawke's Bay. A spieler who visited tbe Wairoa races in company with a few others of his fraternity would insist on erecting a gaming table, although told by the police to desist, and the result was that a hammer was procured and the structure reduced to firewood. The Premier is reported to have said ab the Danevirke Burns banquet that he believed the people of this colony would support the Governmenb in seeing that New Zealand's national poeb was better provided for in his lifetime than Scotland'? had been. Who is our national poet ? Superior White Robes and all other Summer Dress Fabrics at special sale prices. —Smith and Caughey.—(Advt.) Opposite Savings Bank, Queen-streeb (Branch Establishment from Karangahape Road): J. and W. Williams.—Clothing, Mercery, etc., at Newton prices.—(Advb.J, * +