TABLE TALK.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 202, 26 August 1899, Page 1

TABLE TALK.

'Frisco mail next week. Thick weather on the coast. Criminal sittings begin on Monday. Hostile feeling growing in South Africa. S.s. Ovalau due from the Eastern Pacific. Cable communication restored with Foochow. Change of programme at vue City Hall to-night. More remarkable evidence in the | Dreyfus case. j Auckland reps, met Upper Thames lat football to-day. | Taranaki footballers were to play, I Otago this afternoon. j *_*_. M. S. Moana is due here from j San Francisco next Tuesday. Mr H. W. Geoghegen, viticuiturist, is : about to settle down in Wairere. I Germans in Johannesburg are volunteering for service against the Brit-' jish. St. George's Quadrille Assembly i social takes place next Monday evening. Cable communication has been opened with Amoy, via the Foochow-Amoy land line. Judgment was given this morning, in the case against Eichardson, teetotal lecturer. One of the Filipinos tribes has acknowledged American sovereignty in the "Philippines. The Somerset team scored 376 in, their first innings against the Australian cricketers. The Municipal Franchise Reform Extension Bill has been passed through all its stages. General Mercier admits having withheld an important telegram nt the trial of Dreyfus in 1894. A. 0. Meredith, who disappeared unaccountably last week, has turned up safely, near Masterton. The Auckland barque Royal Tar has arrived at Wellington from Newcastle after a very stormy passage. The "Georgia" Magnet makes her first appearance on Tuesday evening next in Abbott's Opera House. Mr Barton, ex-leader of the N.S.W.. Opposition, considers federation could not suffer by any change of ministry. The Local Government Voting "Reform Bill passed its second reading in the House of Representatives last, night. The steamer Tolosa, about which some anxiety was felt, arrived here this morning. She had an uneventful passage. An expedition for the relief of the Filipinos has been discovered in China, and four American consuls have been ordered home. Two horses, the propertjr of a waggoner, were, the Dunedin "Star" says, frozen to death at Ranfurly during the recent cold snap. ■ The Boers believe Chamberlain was involved in the Jamieson Raid, and is now seeking a pretext for the annexation of the Transvaal. Madam Xabori has received a letter threatening . the assassination of heirself, her husband (counsel for Drey* in,), and her children. The feeling is growing in Natal and the Cape that ampler reforms in the Transvaal than those sought by Sir Alfred Milner are essential. Owing to the damage sustained by the Sterling she has been replaced by the Ethel, and the Wairoa takes up the Helensville-Whakapirau trade. The Edison KinematograpK Company give a splendid scenic entertainment in the Wesley Hall on Monday evening in aid of the Prohibition League Fund. A. Johnston, who was working t_ lathe in Anderson's foundry, Christchurch, had his hand badly mangled yesterday, and three fingers amputated at the hospital. During the recent severe easterlygale a small island off Bream Head, "Whangarei, known as Guano Island, was completely swept by the mountainous waves as they rolled in shore. The auxiliary screw schooner Brothers, which arrived here this morn« ing from the North, made the passage from Mongonui to Whangaparaoa1 (about 180 miles) in the fast time of 21 hours, under sail alone. At the Perth (W.A.) regatta, two New Zealand boys competed, and they managed to win the double sculls, and one of them won the single sculls after rowing three heats. Their names are Sydney and Fred Jago, of Napier. Thomas Harrington, ex-Baptist' clergyman, convicted at Invercargill last week of stealing a book in an auction-room, and remanded for the probation officer's report, was let off yesterday on payment of 24/ costs. Mr J. J. Holland, M.H.R., wants the Government to reserve for climatical purposes, and for a future source of water supply for Auckland, the high' wooded country about the head waters of the Mangatawhiri and Mangatangl streams, beyond the Wairoa South district. On Monday evening next a meeting of the. Auckland Institute will be held when two papers will be read, One is by Mr J. M. Maclaren', of the School of Mines, Coromandel, on the "Geology of Castle Rock, Coromandel," and the other is a paper by Professor Segar on "The Coining Star Showers." On Thursday evening Mr Wm. Richardson addressed a meeting of the Eden electors in the Avondale Hall or* the question of: the coming local option poll. It was decided to form a branch of the Eden Temperance League in Avondale, and a number of electors were enrolled us members. An Electoral Reform 'League has been formed in Parnell, with the avowed object of "promoting a healthy public opinion in politics, and more especially to assist in returning to Parliament at the coming elections a' representative who will oppose the present trend of legislation. . Recently a paragraph went the rounds of the press about a monster j totara tree on the Akaroa Peninsula, { measuring six feet in diameter, and believed to be the largest in the colony. But the Poverty Bay "Herald" says that its district can beat that record, for there is a totara tree growing in the Motu district which measures 29ft 7in in girth, 9ft 7in in diameter, and has a barrel 36ft long. These figures are vouched for by, a well-known settler, who says there is. an abundance of milling timber in the Motu district.