TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 155, 3 July 1896, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Cold and rainy. Thunderstorm lasb nighfc. 5.6..F10ra from the South to-day. Shipping calamity in the Bed Sea. Newton Pigeon Show opened to-day. A fatal explosion is reported from Mate. The aobboreßS of '• Uncle Tom'a Cabin r is dedd. •• . , • , '&: , Mr Jules G. Wilson baa died suddenly &fc Te Poke. S.s. Ovalan for the Sontb Sea lelandt laot evening. • ' • : Tha weights for the New Zealand Cop are published. London has 40 restanrante in which'only vegetable food issarved. : Hugh Mcliraith haa reiigned from tho Commission of the Peace. . . i

The cost) of training the Oxford Uniyereity Eight was over £650. Mra Brown - Pobber, the well-known aefcreas, is a devotee of cycling. ' - It is stated that the next Native Parliament will, be held in Masterton. . ■■■

' " Tha Land of the Moa and Kangaroo ** ab the City Hall on Monday night. There are four and a-balf times as many sovereigns in use as balf-sovereigns. The London G. P. o.' pays £1,250,000 a year for the carriage of English mails. The Cape Government wants all its troops in its own borders in caaa of war. Mr F. B. Allen, M. A., has been appointed director of the Thames School of Mines. The Premier will re-introduce the Bill for the restriction of Asiatic immigrant*.

The Tyser steamer Star of V ietoria i» expected here on Tuesday pexo from London. The "Gazette" notifies the appointment of John Andrew Enacon as Inspector of Stock.

Aa Auckland girl named Blanche Sykea haa been mysteriously drowned at) Tauranga. The second reading of the Mortgage Bill was carried in the House of Representatives yesterday. Miss Alice L. Bridgman haa passed her final examination as a nurse ob tha Auckland Hospital. Mrs Feasbraw—'How on earth did yon get yourself so dirty ?" Johnnie-*" I waa in swinamin'." Ponsonby v. Grafton, and City v. Suburbs football matches at Potter's Paddock to-morrow. ..--•■ ,L. Not a single infectious disease is known in Greenland. All .he people there pro-bably-die of cold. ' The Female Law Practitioners Bill haa passed ita second reading in the House of Representatives. The prohibition of the sale of liquor to Maori women is being strictly enforced in the country districts. MrJan.es Lawson, District) Engineer on the Napier-Taranaki line,has been drowned from a railway bridge, L There are id Greece at'tbe, present tima . 1,500 cyclists, eight clubs, seven cycle schools and eight) cycle stores. The second reading of the Deceased Huaband'a Brother Marriage Bill has passed the .House of Repreaentatives. The " Labour Journal "states that work ' for unskilled "^Labour is more plentiful in Auckland khan' for several years past. Id the month of May last 2,406 persona were employed as artisans, labourers,,etc;, in connection with co-operative works. Mother—-"Goodness, Tpmmia, won't you ever learn jto ,be.* good boy.,. Tommia^ (with confidence)-—" Yes'm, when I'm growed up." '-"..''-.' :>_".'•'*. A special meeting .of the City Council , and suburban borpug^p(?uncila will be held ■on Wednesday evening next* to'consider juvenile immorality. A great elephanb catcher is authority for the statement that but 24 white elephants have been caught since the commencement) of the Christian era.

The Harbour Board is getting plans and estimated cost of a floating stage for cargo work in connection with the ferry service on Auckland Harbour.

Friend—l'm told that most prescriptions coab little or nothing to make up! DruggUb —Yes, but we charge for deciphering tha penmanship and- translating the Latin. The firat newspaper printed by movable block type was the Gazette, of Nuremburg, Germany, which was published tirefe in 1457. No copy of this paper ia known to exist?.

During May rain fell in Auckland on IS day*, the total fall in inches being 3.63; in Wellington on 14 days, 3.12; in Christchurch on 5 days, 0.38 ; and in Dunedin on 12 days, 1.61. .

Cobble—l don't think the landlord of the Ocean Bar House liked what I said to him boforo I went in bathing. Stone—W had was that? Cobble—l asked him if there were any other sharks around. A pro re nata meeting of the Auckland Presbytery will bo held in St. Andrew's Church, on Tuesday evening aexb, to consider and finally dispose of the call to tha Rev. J. Milne from St: Andrew's congregation.

How They Settled.— 1 What's this I hear about bho plumber and tho paperhtnger in the next block J Have they been trading houses?' 'Nob exactly. They did a lob of work for each other, and each had to taka the other's house for hie pay.' At a meeting of the Wellington Exhibition Committee, the Chairman stated tbak fcho ipaco applied for had exceeded thata available in the plan of the building.., Tha Executive, therefore, will. Consider -fcha question of extending the building if practicable. Dr. and Mrs Harsant, of Onebnnga, hare just completed ..the s!xtfe|ih'yeir bi their married life. Thej? cfttrie to New'Zeitland in 1853. Dr. Harsanb was. before the war, Government Resident Magistrate and doctor to the Maoris at Te Awamutu, and subsequently at Raglan, where ha resided for twenty-one years, then retiring on m pension.

Here is an item from an American paper: — "Stamp collectors are c source of considerable revenue to many conabries. NewZealand recently issued a letter-card with scenic designs, and so great was the demand from collectors that the supply was aooo exhausted. The authorities then changed the colour of the card, and the demand for the different colour was almoat as great at ib had been for the original series. la seven months nearly 400,000 cards wcra bought by hobbyists, bringing the colony a clear profit of considerably over tea thousand dollars."

Steps are being taken to form a company in London, with a capital of £1,000,000, to exploit the " Ake-ake" bicycle, or, rather, bicycle gear, invented by an Ashborton man. By this gear the foot, when pedal* ling, works straight np and down, instead of describing a circle, and enormous leverage power is obtained by the wire rope usod in place of the chain. It is said that steep hills can be ridden with ease with tha " Ake-ake " gear. A somewhat similar invention has, we understand, been patented by Mr Trevithick, of Auckland.