TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 161, 10 July 1899, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

Mail day. Cold breezes. 'Frisco mail gone. B.M.s. Moana left for America. Anglo-Boer troubles unsettled. : Cold weather throughout th© country. Steamer Westralia arrived from Sydney. "I4fe for Life" at the Opera House to-night. Thirty thousand soldiers are readj to go to South Africa. Military conscription is approach,' ing in Great Britain. The Cape Premier is satisfied with the Boer concessions. Australian cricketers have scored another victory over England. Government steamer Tutanekai ie now expected back here from Samoa. . Eleven Australians have been killed in a diamond accident.in South Africa* Mr Wm. Leys left to-day for America and England by the X.M.S. Moana. Eight timber laden vessels were bar-bound aif Kaipara Heads yester* I day. The township of Stratford, Taranaki, will shortly be lighted by electricity. North Store Football Club is still leading in the championship football matches. • Mr and Mrs H. O. Nolan returned to Auckland by the K.M.s. Moana from Sydney yesterday. Transvaal First Eaad has accepted, the concessions to Uitlanders agreed to by the Volksraad. Thirty-six saloon and 20 steerage passengers arrived here from Sydney by the Westralia this morning. A poetic appeal to the martial instincts of Afrikanders has been pub- | lished in a South Africa paper. The Maggie-Moore Roberts Draj matic Company arrived here from the South by the s.s. Elingamite yester- | day. I Ths Orangemen of Auckland held I their annual commemoration service yesterday, and celebrated the memory] of King William at the Choral Hall. The returns which the Agricultural Department has received show that the estimates of the yield of the grrain crops in the colony have been largely exceeded. Westport coal exports for the week ending July Sth were 7,754 tons 15cwt, shipped as follows:—Westport Coal Company, 6870 tons 17cwt; Cardiff! Company, 683 tons 18cwt. The vital statistics for the Thames district during the mpjath: «f June were as follows:—Thames \Borough, 11 births, 7 deaths; Thames County, 12 births, 1 death; total, 23' births, 8 deaths. . " • Greymouth coal exporte : #*' *ha week ending Saturday were:^Bi&ckball Company, 1500 tons 9<s*H^ coal;' Brtmner Company, 1749 toir Bcwt coal, 18 tons Bcwt bricks, 33f''ttt&.'8ewt coke. Hicks; "So you were at last riislftt. Does . li£ serj»> j»;;afoo<I ■dirinier?' l 4 Wicks: "Well, JXli »y this much fop H^c&eley— he served the dinner rather better that he dicl the diners." Amongst tJfiose appointed on the Provisional Committee of the Liberal and Labour Federation of New Zea,land appeared the name of Mrs [Me?Connell. That.lady when nominated declined to act. Perkins (facetiously): "That is a picture of my wife's first husband." Smith: "Heavens! what a brainlesslooking ass. But I didn't know your wife was married before she met you." Perkins (dryly): "She wasn't. That is a picture of myself at the age of 20." _. • . i The Commission of Police has issued an order to the police throughout the colony to report on all cases where pensioners squander their pensions, qjj I drink, and they are not to wait till th.c pensioners are convicted of drunken- ! ness before reporting. The intention is to appoint receivers of pensions in all such cases. The window curtains in a house itf Sheehan-street, Ponsonby, occupied by Mr Alfred Belsham, bricklayer, caught fire on Saturday night, but were noticed by a passer-by, Mr J. i Stone, and soon extinguished by'himjself and a Mr Wright. The damage iwas trifling and the fire was put out | without any alarm being given to tha Fire Brigade Station. :

The Onehunga Gun Club opened" their season for inanimate pigedit shooting on Saturday, and two sweeps were shot off. There was a large attendance of members and visitors* Both sweeps were won by Mr A. C. Whitney, who scored 34 in the first sweep and 25 in the second. The varU ous clubs are now arranging for a championship shooting meeting. g| The P. arid" 0. R-.M.s. Parramuttai on her way from Singapore to Hong Kong recently, came into a heavy; squall of wind, with lightn'ifigV tntinder and torrents of rain. About 11 a.m. a meteorite fell into the sea not 300 yards clear of the ship, and exploded with a loud report. There was a blinding flash of lightning at • the same moment of blue colour, followed by a deafening thunder peal. ' ; ' Some curious notices appear oc* casionally in the English papers. Here is one from the "Shipphigj Gazette and Lloyd's List," of May 26:! "Destruction of a Pirate Fleet. Sail Francisco, May 21. News has been received here that H.M.s. Torch, on her way from Sydney to Samoa, destroyed a fleet of pirate sloops. (Signed); Reuter." The Torch was at Samba,' it is true, but as for the fleet of "pirate sloops," where are they?