TABLE TALK

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 295, 13 December 1899, Page 1

TABLE TALK

Another fight at Ladysmith. Successful sortie last Friday. Dissensions amongst "the Boer leaders. Auckland Board of Education met to-day. Baron Penzance, a noted English.' judge, is dead. - A Suez mail arrived in Auckland viai Australia to-day. The Queensland contingent has arrived at the Gape. A number of German officers ares assisting- the Boers. Many Free Staters are deserting General Cronje's forces. Lord Eanfur.y has returned to Dunedin from Melbourne. Denmark wants to sell Uncle Sam her West ludian. possessions. The Boers say they captured 672 British soldiers at Stormberg. The colonial troops were under fire! for five hours at Arundel last week. Earl Wernyss is raising a volunteer reserve of half-a-inillion men in England. Tyser steamer Star of Australia arrived here from London via Sydney] this morning. Particulars of the recent hot fighting in Natal are to hand .by cable from Hobart to-day. "Modder," the name of the river where a 'battle took place lately with the Boers, means "muddy." The British had four killed and ■ seventeen wounded in surprising the Beer camp at Lombardskop. The horses of the Scots Greys, now ; ' at Capetown, have been dyed Ivharkee colour —a novel precaution. / The New Zealand contingent prevented the Boers from seizing a hill near Arundel, and killed three of the enemy. New Zealand Mounted Infantry have been fighting side by side with British Dragoons at Arundel, in. Northern Cape Colony. The British Lyddite shells put twelve Boer, guns out of action on Saturday in the vicinity of the Orange Free State border. ' / ' The British artillery is said to have $ worked splendidly at Stormberg. Had ;,; it, not been for the guns the disaster J|to the British would have been farjf •worse.. , =jjh General Gatacre's force in the fight- $§£ ing near Stormberg carried an almost J| impregnable position only to find it w a trap, being commanded by the Boer '£ fire on all sides. . . <£ This was an alarming notice lately*; published in Oxford Cathedral: —%' "Evensong will be said at 8 p.m., and v tbe sermon preached from Monday to -I' Friday, inclusive." . ' ~ - Grocers' assistants, according to the'|. •Arbitration: Court in Christchurch, |_. are not persons engaged in an industry .within the meaning of the Act, and cannot participate in its benefits. ,>■ •■■; Th c ■:. - firemen attending the fire' -■_ -brigades'; demonstration at- Slew. Ply- {:; mouth in Christnfas week will be eon- ;; veyed over the Government-railways v first-class at the rate of one penny per mile. '■-.;. •_;, -.-.- _-■ ' t -, —■■ > » G,eo__r_y . Sullivan, "of Queensland, '- -passed the third examination at Sand- % hurst- with honours, and has been! ''-■■-. commissioned to the Oxfordshire Regiment, .which has been ordered to South] '■' Africa.-. . . ~' ■ n Many of the Boer names -of places ,-' end in "dorp," which is neither more .-_•- nor less; than "thorp," the Yorkshire T. name for a. hamlet; German "dorf." . "Statl" is like the German "Stadt,".. "a city.". "Stroom," sometimes'■ printed "strom," is "stream." "Berg" f means "mountain," but "kopje," or - "little head," is also used for. smaller : . eminences. An English town crier was senfi round to cry this: —"Whereas several1 -, idle persons have lately made a- prac- .:_.• tice of riding on an ass belonging to | ■Mr ' -Now, lest any accident! ~L should happen, he .takes this method-"J. of informing; the public that he is de«J| termmed to shoot, the -said ass, andjl, cautions any person who may be rid-|| irig it at the same time to take..; ca.re||''. of himself,-, lest, by/ some unfortunates mistake he should shoot the wrong, ;| one."'' :-.■••■. |§ . The return the other day of the firs_|| of the Dundee whaling fleet is likelyj| .'(says an English exchange) to gives' quite a fillip to what of recent, years jf has been regarded as-a fast decaying W industr. The. Diana came into portm at Dundee lately from, the Arctic with Js no fewer than ten whales on board-—i| "a full ship" indeed-^-to say nothing^ of walrus, seals, polar blears and nar-,_|i whals. There has not been a . catch like this for manj'' years, and, taking|| the current price of whalebone andSt oil, the proceeds of the voyage shouldrj*, realise between .£ 11,000 and £ 12,000. f| iThe followingmotice in English ap*|| :|fe'are.d o|i aif art -exliißitioh in ToKio^-Japan:4-^Visitors are requested at tha^ entrance -; to show tickets for inspee-S tion. ..Tickets are charged ten cens«% and two ceils, for 'the special and coin- : mon respectively. I\o visitor who is mad or intoxicated is allowed to enter in; if any person found in shall be jjclaimed to retire. No visitor is allow-| ed to cany in with himself any parcel* | umbrella, stick, and the like kind, ex- & eept his purse, and is strictly forbid-£ den to take within himself dog, or the f same kind of beasts.; {Visitor is re-§ quested to take good care of himself.| from thievely." ;-,; ', .fl.