TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIX, Issue 303, 23 December 1898, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Christmas at hand. Country visitors arriving. { , Outward Frisco mail to-morrow. ILM.S. Mariposa arrived from Sydney. America lias disbanded 50,000 volunteers. A French priest hril been murdered in China. Lord Kitchener has gone back to the Soudan. A phenomenal hailstone is reported _ from Canterbury. Influx of holiday-makers /or the: Auckland Exhibition. The American visible' supply of : wheat is. 52,956,000 bushels. Conciliation Board award in the r bootmakers' case was given to-day. Another Island massacre is re- . ported from the Santa Cruz Group. Dramatic recitations and eoraie singing take place in the Exhibition..' Hall this evening. Weihaiwei is to he created a British \ naval depot if expert reports are of a favourable nature. A considerable number of Maoris arrived in town to-day for the JN'ortk Shore Native Regatta. The tuberculin test .s pronounced highly dangerous r.;id ruinous to cattle by a Sydney expert. Mr C.'A. Semadem has been selected for the position of headmaster of the' Pukekohe AYest Public School. The decisions in the musical and elocutionary competitions at the Exhibition are to be given to-night. A large number of Northern pas-' sengers arrived here from Whangaroa and Russell by the steamer Clansman . this morning. There are about 150 applications from Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand for the professorships in . Victoria College, Wellington. Some very warm remarks were, made at the Queen's Statue meeting yesterday afternoon on the subject of the Military Tournament funds. The Queen's Statue Committee intend interviewing Lieut.-Colonel ■ Banks, -with the object of obtaining' the Military Tournament funds for. the Statue. .: The Auckland Mounted Eifle "Volunteers will go into camp, probably in the Domain, on January 21st for eight days. Captain Coleman will be the, drill instructor. -. . The Whangarei Exhibition wis. opened yesterday by'the Mayor (Mr J. M. Killen). The attendance at the, opening was small. The wharepurii and collection of mats and utensils are said to be good, and there is a fair display of mineral specimens. The steamer Mokoia collided with*' the Glasgow Wharf at Napier yesterday whilst mooring. Several of the steamer's plates were dented, andsome of the piles of the wharf damaged. It is stated that the engineermistook the captain's telegraph signal. , . ' Crowds of visitors are now arriving' daily by train and steamer for the' holiday season in Auckland, and many; of the hotels are so crowded thiat new-: .comers have' had to be refused ad--mission? The; .Railway Department expect this season to be a record one. in regard' to the number of passengers carried.