TABLE TALK

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 213, 8 September 1899, Page 1

TABLE TALK

Kruger wavering. ." I Boers will get one last chance. : A Military conference in London. •>,! Great, anxiety in Cape Colony. British ultimatum to the Boers is expected.

New British Commander arrived at the Cape.

It is anticipated that Dreyfus will be acquitted.

Signs of spring. Fruit trees are beginning- to blossom.

A French consignment of artillery is expected at Pretoria.

Severe earthquakes have occurred at Tokanuu, Lake Taupo, lately. The Public Works Statement is expected to be made known next Tuesday.

Some of the Canterbury volunteers are offering their services for the Transvaal.

The New South Wales Government have been defeated on a hostile motion by 75 to 41.

Lord Brassey says reckoning up the nights he has spent at sea, they aggregate eleven' years.

The overdue ship Lismore has arrived safely at Sydney from Liverpool after a very long passage. London papers, reviewing the tot* Of the Australian cricketers, pre' nounce it an unqualified success.

It is estimated that the water o« the whole ocean contains in solution over 2,000,000 tons of pure silver.

It is estimated that more gold antf silver have been sunk in the sea thai* are now in circulation on the earth.

The question of the North Island! Main Trunk Railway was again re* i'erred to in Parliament last night. Amended regulations under the Education Act, 1877, as to the class books for public schools, are gazetted.

An English mail, which left London on August 4, will arrive here from Sydney by the s.s. Waihora next Monday.

The Tuades and Labour Council want the City Council to provide a space for the holding of open-air meetings.

The new Knox Presbyterian Church in Pao-nell was opened last evening, when a special dedicatory service was held.

Would you like to be a Georgia Magnet? Then read the profusely illustrated article in this week's "Graphic."

The resignation of Lieut. Art'-iir Wellesley, 4th Battalion Lincoln Rt<riment, as extra aide-de-camp to tig Governor is gazetted.

The Transvaal Government says British agitators are attempting destruction of the Republic, and capture of the Transvaal mines.

Gold to the value of about £5900 was brought up to Auckland to-day by the p.s. Wakatere from the Thames for the Bank of New Zealand.

Efforts to secure the late Rev. W. Colenso's unique library for Napier have failed, his son having sold it .to Angus and Robertson. Melbourne. /

"Minerva's Jubilee" was repeated last evening at St. Barnabas' Hall, Mfc. Eden. There was a good attendance, and the piece was well performed.

A special meeting of the Joint Committee of the Auckland City Council was held this afternoon to further discuss the electric tramway scheme.

Statistics of life insurance people show that in the last twenty-five years the average of man's life has increased 5 per cent, or two whole years, from 4-1.9 to 43.9.

The New Zealand Shipping Company's Waikato, now long overdue, is insured for £45,000, and her cargo is estimated to be worth between £50,000 and £00.000.

The first race for the America Cup will be sailed on October 3. The course will be kept <}lear by Act of Congress, which provides that gunboats shall see fair play.

Caffarelli thought so much of his voice that once when challenged to fight a. duel he refused on the ground that he had. no right to expose to any risk the life of so great a singer.

He: "Did you know that Jimkins had been living a double life for the past six months?" She: "No! The horrid wretch." He: "Yes; he gave up single life when he got married." The ashes of coal from the mines of the Transvaal Coal Trust and other companies in' South Africa have been analysed recently and found to contain over nine pennyweights of gold to the ton.

In the current issue of the "Graphic" appears the first chapters of a new romance by Mary Angela Dickens. The "Graphic" has secured the sole rights here for the publication of this tale.

A curiosity has been sent to Dr. Linney, Hastings, from Tomoana (Hawke's Bay), in the shape of a double lamb, having two bodies, eight legs; two heads, four ears, four eyes, one mouth, and two tongues.

Eussian photographers have a strange way of punishing those who, having received their photos, do not pay their bills. They hang the pictures of the delinquents upside down at the entrance of their studios.

It is estimated that the death rate of the world is sixty-seven per minute, and the birth rate seventy a minute, yet this seemingly light percentage of gain suffices to give a net increase of population of 1,200,000 souls annually.

The Wellington City Council has promised a grant of land to the New Zealand Philanthropic Society for the erection of a girls' institute (on similar lines to the boys' institute) on condition that the regulations for the management be amended to the satisfaction of the Council.

On a grazing farm at Cunna-mulla, New South Wales, the other day artesian water was struck, the flow of which was estimated at four million gallons a day, sufficient to wafer about ■100,000 acre's of country, which has hitherto been barren of water, though plentifully supplied with grass. She: "Do you, remember how you said, when you were courting me, that if I would marry you I would have nothing to do all my days but sit about and look pretty? And how different it is now!" He: "Well, it isn't my fault if you can't look pretty I any more."

Dog farming is carried on extensively in China. There are thousands of large breeding establishments scattered over the northern districts of Manchuria and Mongolia, and no dog skins in the world can compare with I those that come from these parts as 1 regards either size, quality, or length | of hair. . _