TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 250, 19 October 1894, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Keep to the Right J

Synod near ifcß close. Last days of Parliament. Outdoor sports to-morrow. The Czar will not go to Corfu. "' Board of Education met to-day. Cycling season opens to-morrow, Crickeb season opens to-morrow. Miss Doyle's lasb concert to _.ighb, ' * Caulfield Cup will bo run to-morrow. America is sending warships to China, Launch of a steamer ab Devonporb to* * .day. ■' ■."•i '" ' ;':■"■'"■■•." M: Yachts getting ready s for the summer season. ■ ""-:■ .. • 'fr.. "■ X The death of the Ameer of Afghanistan is reported. Pakuranga Hunt Club races at lllerslie" i to-morrow. , ' ■ France .leads the world in lighthouse; illumination. Twelve thousand people are employed" in/ the London theatres. * The word parliament, first appears in tha, laws of England in 1272. : J : , The first matches of the cricket season will be commenced to-morrow. Paper is beginning to ..crowd oub rabbet as the material for bicycle tires. - Nearly all the gum arabic of commerce, k comes from'the Desert) of Sahara. *' The weabher in the Waikato continues fine and favourable for farming operations. There are nearly 400 pupils in the Seventh.! ■:; Standard in' the Auckland District schools.. „ Inipertanb recommendations made by t the Volunteer Conference published today."' ' "" ' No worm or insect is ever found upon the eucalyptus tree or in the earth penetrated by its roots., . '• \ ' ""^ Ship caulking is now done by an automatic machine, which makes 1,0,000 strokes ■ . per minute. The Board of Education has rescinded the resolution making a charge on teachers' residences. ■■,'.. ■■ •■ .'v..1, ..-> A starting-machine will bo used for the .'/■•''>'.; ;;■'! firsb time in New Zealand to-morrow at tho ' v. Ellerslie races. :::::■■-■ .r".- ■'.■■.'".'■' ' . • ■> A Swiss;silk ribbon weaver regards him-*; ,j self as fortunate if ho averages 48 cents a ■'.<! day the year round.. ■ ,'_...g The elephant is bhe chief beast of burden in Siam and, Afghanistan, An elephant ':.. load is estimated iao bwo tons. - § In some Hindoo temples in South India the collection is taken up by an elephant '• thab goes round with a basket. , The'standing army of the United Sbates, is no larger than when the population was only one-half its presenb number. , In Persia, the women of. fashion ornament their faces by painbing upon them figures of bugs and small animals. < The City Council authorities notify thab legal proceedings will be taken withoub further notice for all rates in arrear. England and Wales have a public bouse for every 202 persons, while the United States has one for every 450 persons. London has the besb water supply of any " city in the, world. Every day 420,000,000 gallons can be pumped into the pipes. Paper has been made in China from time immemorial. Outside of China it was.firsb made ab Samarcand, in Turkestan, A.D. « 750. A reporb fjhows. thab tl?ere» are 2,173 .persons .ia.the'"'.'.world* Known to have sis: fingers on one hand and "431 with eeven fingers. The results of the recent American expedition to the Polar regions prove thab norbh of seventy-five degrees the ice over the whole surface averages 6,000 feet in thickness. Cupper, Cowper and Cooper are descendants of mon who made tho wooden cups from which our English forefathers drank their beer. ■ • Volunteer Conference recommends the . Defence Department to'stop'the subsidy hitherto paid to the Now Zealand Rifle Association meeting. A business property on Lambcon Quay,. Wellington, opposite the head of Greystreob, has been sold for £5,800, being at. the rate of £163 per fbob. The present year is. notable as being the semi-centennial of the establishment of .tho -first practical telegraph line with which commercial telegraphy began. Sir Walter Raleigh was the first white man to use mahogany lumber. In the year 1 1595, while at Trindad, he repaired one of his ships with a mahogany plank. ' The case of Major Walmsley'a claim for military services has been held over for';_^»f further consideration by Parliam«at*«-4sH#'*"--the Major has been dead several years 1 MrH. R. Brunskill, of Taotaoroa, Waikato, has been distributing healthy young, , trout from the Waimakariri fish hatchery in tbe streams of the Taotaoroa district. In Japan a man can "live like a gentle-: man " ona little over £100 a year. With this ' sum he can employ two servants, pay bhe rent of a house and have plenty of food. The higheab spob inhabited by human • <_ '",[ beings on this globe is the Buddhißb cloister of Hanle, Thibet, where twentyone monks live ab an altitude of 16,000 feeb. Ferrets, weasels, stoats, cats and mongooses are declared protected as the natural _ enemy of rabbits, and anyone killing or capturing them is liable to a penalty of • from £5 to £20. India has 27,000,000 acres in rice, 18,000,0000 in wheab, 75,000,000. iv obher food grains, 1,600,000 in cane, 251,000 in tea, 10,000.000 in cotton, 1,000,000 im indigo, and 300,000 in tobacco. That's the kind of weather profit for me, mentally observed the merchant, calmly charging a customer with a new straw had a sovereign for a ten-shilling umbrella one rainy morning a day or two ago. Counsel for defendanb: True, your, < honour, my client did call the plaintiff a donkey, bub ab tho presenb. high market rate of those valuable animals is this nob rather a compliment than otherwise. Mr Holland stated ab t_6 Harbour Board meeting yesterday thab the reduction in gas meant a difference of £52 per year to the City Council. It was stated by Mr Brigham that the Harbour Board would . benefit to the extent of £18 per annum. The "Etude," a leading American journal, says of Mr W. H. Webbe's " Musical Jottings" thab "ib equals in sbyle and standard anything we can .produce in this country "and that" it 1 reflects the views of an educated musician." At a Wesleyan Home Missionary meeting at Hamilton on Tuesday evening 'last, a reverend gentleman said :—" Tho day ia soon coming when the Maoris; if they want theGoepol preached to them, will have to pay for it like the Europeans. These people spend hundreds of pounds on tanais over their dead, bub bhey wM not give ar ' many shillings to assisb the cause cf God in • their midst and ori their behalf."