TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 158, 6 July 1899, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

- ! War clouds. '"Star" mail .summary. - Outward mail on Monday. ~-\ British warships at Delagoa Bay. ' - | Fighting; imminent in the Transvaal. Great uneasiness in Johannesburg [ and Pretoria. - I Arbitration is asked for in regard j to the Transvaal troubles. _ j H.M. ships Tauranga and Ringdove i have left hero for the South. • j Mr J. Huteheson, of Wellington, has -; resigned his seat in Parliament. " ; Australian cricketers are now play'jing an English eleven at Tniro. i R.M.s. Moana is now on her way 1 across to Auckland from Sydney. j "For the Term of His Natural Life" i i again at the Opera House to-night. - I Large withdrawals have been made . i from the savings banks in the Trans- ■' jvaal. i | Mr Crowther says he believes th 3 - Premier has always been a financial !". success. | Trial trip of the new auxiliary screw :; schooner Brothers in the harbour this . 'afternoon. J Mr W. Crowther, M.H.R., made a ,; speech on the Address-in-Reply yesjterday afternoon. L j A great meeting of merchants and | i others has been held in Johannesburg I ! to consider the crisis. — ' j William James Sutcliffe, providore, ll'of Auckland, filed a petition to-day to 1; be adjudged a bankrupt, . i Excursion steamer Waikare, bound I for the South Seas, is due here from ' j Sydney to-morrow afternoon. i The Orizaba's colonial mails from I Melbourne, May 31, were delivered in j London on July 3, one day early. Captain Russell's amendment to the Address-in-Reply has been lost by 30 ..to 29 in the House of Representatives. A petition asking for the annexation of the New Hebrides to France has I been discussed in the New Caledonia j Assembly. j The Australians in their match j against Notts declared their first inI ings closed with seven wickets down, i for 234 runs. It is computed that there are£Bo,ooo,ooo in gold and jewels at the | bottom of the sea on the route be- ! tween England and India. j Mr J. J. O'Brien has been re-elected ! President of the New Zealand Natives' | Association, Auckland Branch, and Mr E. Ford has been elected secretary for i the ensuing year. ! To-morrow evening Mr P. Marshall, i M.A., will give a lecture on "Mountainj eering in the Southern Alps," illus- ! trated' with limelight views, in the I V.M.C.A. lecture-hall. | The Great Barrier Pigeongram I Agency was very successful at the I Thames Poultry and Pigeon Show, taking four firsts, three specials, three seconds and one third in prizes for homing pigeons. A novel system of advertising has been inaugurated by a Scotch distiller. He bought a cargo of parrots, taught them to say "Drink Blank's whisky," and then presented them in gilt cages to the hotelkeepers of Liverpool. The annual report of the Pacific Islands immigration to' Queensland last year shows that 1149 males and 29 females arrived, and 642 males and 51 females returned to the islands. There were 202 deaths out of the kanaka population of 8485. A Maori boy named Rang1! Tau Taua met with a nasty accident at Matata, Bay of Plenty, last week. He was feeding a chaff-cutting machine, and pushed his hand. in too far. One finger was,cut off, and two others were very badly crushed. The Anglican Diocesan Synod at' Wellington has closed. Dr. Fyffe gave the. following notice of motion for next Synod, "That it be a question for Synod to debate as to whether reporters of the daily press be allowed to attend their meetings or not." The residents of Oniahu (Thames) are petitioning the.Hon. A. J. Cadman, Minister for Railways, for a station at Wharepoa, on the Thames-Paeroa line, as the station now known as Omahu is situated too far away from the bulk of the settlers in that district to be of use. The Thames County Council has decided to forward the petition to the Minister, with a strong recommendation that the request- be complied with. One day, M. De Lesseps relates, an old gentleman from a French provincial town climbed up to the 'third storey of his lodgings in the Rue Richelieu, Paris, and said: "I.have come, monsieur, to subscribe to your railroad across the Island of Sweden." "But, my good friend," said Lesseps, "it is not a railroad, it is a canal; it is not an island, it is an isthmus; it is not Sweden, it is Sue/." "That's nothing:o mfc," replied the visitor, "so long as it worries the English." At a meeting of the Mt, Roskill School Committee held on Tuesday evening, Mr W. J. Greenwood presiding, it was resolved: "That in the interests of education it was very desirable that the school syllabus be considerably curtailed; that different subjects ranked according to their respective importance; and that the teachers, not an inspector, conduct the examination and classifying of the pupils." The secretary was directed to send copies of this resolution to the City Committee and the Minister of Education. Regarding the best sailing route to San Francisco a report from America, says:—The overdue ship Andreta, oa which 15 per cent, reinsurance was paid, has arrived after a passage of 98 days from Newcastle, N.S.W. This vessel Avas clearing for sea at Newcastle when the ship Pyrenees was entering at the Customs; the former ship came the southern route round by Pitcairn Island, while the latter took that north of New Zealand, making the passage in 73 days. This tends to confirm what old ship-masters assert, that the passage through the islands is the quickest route, though the captain following this line may get less sleep.