TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 296, 15 December 1898, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Exhibition' crowded nightly. The Governor is at Wanganui. 'Frisco mail due next Wednesday. Country yisitors beginning' to arrive. Spain has ceded-Guam to Ameiica. Brett's Almanac for 1899 issued tojday. ';: '• ■ ■A double murder is reported from Sydney. ' ' ': ' \ . 'The Gondoliers' again afc the Opera. House to-night. : '~ ' ' '; A plot to kidnap Dreyfus has been: discovered in Paris. Thames-Te Aroha Railway is to be opened next Monday. '" Four German, traders have been cannibalised in Central Africa. ' "' ;*'•', The. inquest on the Royal Oak fire is proceeding at' Wellington. A shooting affair has taken place on the American ship 'Republic' at Sydney. ' A small tug-boat capsized in the Thames River, at Ivopu, on Tuesday nig-ht. Sir W. V. Harcourt has resigned the leadership of the English -Liberalparty. , Spaniards and Cubans fought at a, funeral in Havana with knives and pistols. . . . ' . ."".' Columbus' ashes have been-placed. jon board a cruiser bound from Cuba for Spain. ' - The, Hon. Mr Cadman is now on his ' way up here from Wellington to open the Thames-Te Aroha railway.,, Thtyfcame of the successful tenderer for the erection of the new police barracks has not yet, transpired. Arbitration and Conciliation and Early Closing Bills have passed tho Legislative Assembly of N.S. Wales. • The N.S. Wales Premier complains of outrage after outrage committed by the Upper House upon the broadest, constitutional principles. Yesterday the number of births registered this year in the Auckland district office reached IS9S, the number corresponding with the. year. The Auckland cutter 'Coralie' is to convey a diving party and gear to the wreck of the s.s 'Tasmania,' off Mahia, having been chartered by an Auck-land-Wellington syndicate.' Up to the present the number of births registei-ed in the Auckland district office for the year IS9B exceeds that at the corresponding date of last, year by over one hundred. The new steamer Mokoia left Sydney for Auckland last evening, and is due here next Sunday afternoon. Mr Hordern, junr.. and his half-rater yacht 'Bronzewing IV.' are on board. The cutter Coralie. lately trading to Coromandel, has been chartered to convey divers and gear to the wreck of the Tasmania, by a syndicate of Auckland and Wellington gentlemen. The annual picnic of St. Leo's Academy, Devonport, takes place at Home Bay, Motutapu, on Saturday next, the p.s. Britannia leaving for the 'island at 9.30 a.m. and 10.30 p.m., calingin at. North Shore on the way. It is proposed to erect a wharf at. Whaugaparapara, Great Barn".e,r Is-; land, for the purpose of landing a quantity of machinery for the Barrier Reefs Gold Mining Company, and also for shipping ore from the mine. Last evening at the Drill. Hall teams from the Victoria Rifles aud New Zealand Native Rifles No. 1 were engaged training for the military j tournament in connection with the Exhibition, under the instruction of non-commissioned officers. The third heat in St. George's Row-, iug Club's trial fours was rowed last evening, when Atkinson's crew won after a very close race, beating Thomson's and Gordon's crews. The winning men were Atkinson (stroke), Winks (3), Richards (2), Mueller, (bow), and Carter (coxswain). At the meeting of the Builders' Association yesterday the subject of the building boom was discussed. The general opinion was that a decline in building would not occur after the close of the Exhibition. As rents go it is found cheaper to borrow and to build than to pay high rents. Last evening the sixth race of the West End Bowing Club's trial fours was held in ' the harbour. Wright's. crew Avon by half-a-length from Slyfield's the winning crew being A. Wright, J. Carrigan, W. Stephenson Watkins, and'W. Boss (cox). The final race for the gold pendants will be rowed oft* to-morrow morning. At an Irish police court, where a cyclist was charged with running down a woman, the victim was extremely voluble concerning an alleged serious injury to her arm. 'Were you treated for it?' inquired the somewhat dubious chairman. 'Devil a dhrap was he afther oft'erin' me!' was the prompt reply which convulsed the court. A volunteer rifle company is in course of formation at Danraville, under the Captaincy of Mr F. j. Dargaville. Another rifle company is being formed at Aratapu, Northern Wairoa, and "it has been decided to tender the services of that corps to the Government without any claim to capitation, members providing their own uniform and ammunition. Sir Henry Barkly who had been in bad health for some time, succumbed to cardiac failure at his residence. London, recently. He was one of the old school of Colouial Governors, and did extremely well in the West Indies, but of his sojourn in Victoria the less said the better (says our London correspondent). Sir Henry reached the ripe old age of S3, enjoying a pension of £1000 per annum for twenty-two years. , Wonderful is the ingenuity of the Music Hall manager, in order to bring • about realism or do something to be talked about. Recently a large sum of money was paid for the bugle with which Trumpet-Major Joy is said to : have sounded the fateful, charge at the battle of Balaclava. The manager . of the London Alhambra on the anniversary of the charge of the Light . Brigade secured the loan of the bu^le, ■ and once, again the call was sounded' '_'_ on the identical instrument. ■ The greatest show of Bicycles ever \ seen under, one roof now upstairs afc Cliiu-ton's. (Ad.) '. Eat Masefield's celebrated plum pud* J dings. From grocers everywhere.—Ad.