TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 74, 28 March 1894, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Overcast and. drizzling. "Graphic" published to-day. Premier arrived in town last night. Tasmania left for Sydney lasb night. Sir Robert Stont in town this morning. " Sinbad " again at the Opera House ye 8* terday. Bush fires are raging in the Wairarapa district. Dr. Macgregor was among the passengers by the Maiaroa. H.M.s. Curaeoa expected from Ficfcon on Friday morning. Colonel Fraser's residence was burned down last night. A child three years old burned to death near Whangaroa. Lively meeting at Onehunga Borough Council yesterday. A totalisator dividend of £103 19s at Ellerslie yesterday. The Auckland Sestet) Club give their first concerb on Friday first. Mararoa arrived last night and left for Sydney this afternoon. New session of the Auckland University College begins on Monday. . The form of government in Onehunga la now Baid to be a despotism. ; Miss Bessie Doyle's third concert is ad* verfcised for to-morrow evening. , The Easter Encampment is exhaustively treated in this week's "Graphic.'' The Auckland bowlers returned from Napier by the Mararoa last night. ; A tourist without money is a tramp. A tramp who has money ia a tourist. , Mr. Gee gives hia second Wednesday night popular concert this evening. i Rev. J. McNeil's mission was continued. • last evening in the V.M.C. A.'s Rooms. Kerr's confectionary works at Dunedin were burned down yesterday afternoon.. The heathen Chinee "got fits" at the hands of the Labour Conference yesterday. Sudden death of the chief officer of the Mararoa on the trip from the SOHbh to Auckland. The half-term of St. Andrew's College Day-school for boys and girls opens to-mor-row (Thursday). The manager of the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company arrived in town from the South yesterday. 90,290 women and 129,792 men voted as the general,election. How many voted at the licensing election ? Mr F. E. Leith lectured to five persons in the Foresters' Hall yesterday evening on " The Annointed One.", An Australian cyclist has won the international race at Nice, and was also fires among the prize winners; Colonel Fox has asked the Premier to release him from bis engagement with the New Zealand Government. Russia is reinforcing her troops on the Afghan frontier. Ah, well, let her, we are getting tired of these scares. Mr Benge was presented with a purse of sovereigns at Devonport last night and had many kind things said of htm. The Gum Committee appointed at the recent public meeting meet to-day to arrange a meeting with the Premier. The members of the Franklin Road Sunday-school and their friends held theif annual soiree and meeting yesterday. , During the two days of \th«|j Ellerslie faces &10,749Veht ftlirongti th'fiiotalisatoi against £8,&16 at las^yeayßmeeting;. "^ Though reduction was "in Wet* ling ton, it is understood that the Commit* tee will only close three or four houses. The lady Mayor of Onehunga and Cr. Jackson had a lively passaere-of-arms at the Onehunga Borough Council last evening. Last evening the Onehuqga Borough Council accepted the tender of Thomas Bray for carting scoria ash in the borough. There is a suggestion on foot that the next show of the Agricultural Association Bhould be held during the Christmas holidays. Mrs Hetley gained an award at the Fine Arts Department of the Chicago Exhibition for her paintings of Australian flora in water colours. A married lady remarks that Bhe does not Bee how bachelors remember past dates, having no children to approximate chronology by. One of the Onehunga Borough lors persists in addressing Her Worship Mrs Yates as "Mr Mayor" at the Council's meetings. Pitt-street Weeleyan Sunday - school soiree and public meeting this evening. Special, mueic by the scholars assisted by the orchestra. United S bates navy contractors are refunding the money paid to them for ships on account of the armour plates in the same having proved defective. An inn at Grantham, in England, is said to be subject to a rent charge of 40s a year, originally left by a Mr Solomon for an annual sermon against drunkenness. A sum of £3 Os 2d was collected in aid of the funds of our local Sailors' Home by the passengers on the Mararoa at the close of a concert held on board the steamer last) night. Things are not exactly right. A careful political economist closely "calculates thab women in America might annually save £3,000,000 in ribbons which fchfc men anight spend in cigars. , Benjamin Franklin once forwarded to "Samuel Johnson, Great Britain," who, not to be outcjpne, directed his reply tan " benjamin Jfranklic, the World," which was duly received. The Eacurial, the great Spanish castle* has fourteen thousand doors. It is said to be an admirable house in which to live, as its numerous passages render it possible to dodge the income-tax collector. " A man said to me the other night," remarked a well-known clergyman, "' I wouldn't have missed your sermon for £10,' and yet when the plate was paßsed round that man put in a penny." Harbour Board system of book-keeping was attacked by Mr Napier and others ab the meeting of the Board yesterday. It was resolved to appoint a special Commit* mittee to go into the whole matter. Melbourne, which consisted of thirteen huts, and was known as Beargrass at the time of Queen Victoria's accession, is now classed as the seventh city of the British Empire, coming in after London, Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, and Calcutta. Astronomers tell us in their own simple* intelligible way thab the gradual lengthening of the days is due to the " obliquity of the elliptic of the terrestial horizon." This ought to set at rest the foolish idea that the days are longer because the sun rises earlier and sets later. At the meeting of the Onehunga Borough Council held last evening, a numerously signed protest was received from property* owners, objecting to the tram-rails being' laid on the eaßb side of Queen-streob, aa proposed. The matter was referred to the Streets Committee.' At Quito, the only city in the world on the line of the equator, the sun sets and rises at six o'clock the year round. Your clock may break down, your watch stop, but the sun never makes a mistake here. When it disappears for the night ib is six o'clock, and you can set yoor watch b*