TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 240, 11 October 1898, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Labour troubles in Paris. Serious fire in Ponsonby. To-morrow will be 'Labour Day.' Steamer Mararoa left for the South.. Auckland Exhibition buildings finished.

Bank holiday to-morrow (Labour Day). Excellent, change of programme a.t the Payne Family. Two more nights of the Payne Family of Bellringers. The Duke of-Orleans is to be. arrested if he lands.in France.

The Powers will not allow Turkey to retain any troops in Crete.

Meeting- of citizens re memorial to Sir George Grey this evening.. Kitchener regards the situation at Fashoda as extremely serious.

Lord Salisbury, insists on Major Ma'rchand's withdrawal from Fashoda.

. France has been notified that all the Khalifa's territories have passed to Great Britain.

The Goldfields Committee met again at Wellington to-day to discuss the Mining Bill. There are at present 140 men and 53 women in the Costley Old People's Refuge at Epsom.

The German Kaiser has abandoned his proposed visit to Egypt, but will go through Palestine: The steamer Te' Koa, bound from London to Auckland, has been on fire, and cargo is damaged.

Osman D|igna and the Khalifa, are said to be concealed in thef orest at Kordofau, in the Soudan.

The Master and Apprentice Bill was considered in committee in the House of Representatives last night.

The incoming San Francisco mail steamer Alameda, which left Frisco last Thursday night, is expected to arrive here on the 25th inst.

At the meeting of the Auckland Charitable Aid Board'yesterday afternoon five tenders were opened for the erection of a small brick chapel at the Costley Home for the old people. The tenders ranged from. £268 to £320 for slate roof, and from £249 to £295 for iron roof. It was agreed to defer the acceptance of the tenders till next meeting.

The yacht Empress (formerly the Miranda) arrived at Sydney last week from Adelaide. She is in charge oi Captain Mountfield, who reports a very boisterous voyage. During the passage the Empress ran into a"n immense school of -whales when off Green Cape, and the little vessel remained in company of quite 100 of these monsters until abreast of Montague Island. .Another curious sight was the presence during all the time of thousands of sea birds.

One of the Norwegian shipping gazettes, in discussing the disastrous wreck of the Burgogne, where so many lives were lost, refers to the little lifeboat,.StormKing, upon which Captain Jorgenson, now in the intercolonial trade on the Australian cOa^t, made his daring voyage from England to Australia, occupying 11 months. At a meeting of shipowners to discuss..the lifeboat question, it was ."decided tha ( t a decked boat was required, so that in the event of a ship suddenly sinking the boats would, as a matter of course, float. The 'Gazette' referred to urges that Captain Jorgenson's boat is now. the admitted ideal.

A few days ago a much respected Maori chief named Netana Patuawa, of the Ngapuhi tribe, died at Dargaville, Kaipara, aged 65. He formerly lived at the Bay of Islands, where he used to run a schooner, the Osprey, with the late Hemi Tautari. For several years past he lived at Maropiu, Northern Wairoa. The funeral took place at Taita (Kaihu Valley) and was largely attended by Maoris and Europeans. A native brass band played appropriate music, and firing parties of Maoris and Europeans fired salutes at the close of the funeral service, which was conducted by the Rev. W.. Paa, assisted by the Rev. Mr Beck. After the funeral the visitors were entertained at a feast by the Maoris.